Unhelpful Thinking and How to Retrain your Brain
The way you think directly influences the way you feel. Negative feelings often come from unhelpful thoughts that seem to happen without your awareness. This pattern of thinking is called “unhelpful thinking.” When it becomes the default thinking style, it can cause significant emotional distress. Many people who struggle with eating disorders grapple with unhelpful thinking, which is why it is crucial to understand what it is and how to change it.
By: Alexandra Carter
What is Unhelpful Thinking?
Identified initially as cognitive distortions, ‘unhelpful thinking’ describes biases and distortion in human thinking that can impact emotional well-being. Below are some categories of unhelpful thinking styles. Although they are each different, all can overlap.
All-or-nothing thinking is characterized by extreme or polarized thinking. Recognizing things as good or bad, right or wrong, success or failure with no in-between. “If I’ve eaten one cookie, I might as well have them all.”
Overgeneralization or drawing broad conclusions often means seeing a pattern from a stand-alone thought, feeling, or experience. “Everything in life would be perfect if my body looked how I want it to.”
Mental filter is a thinking style that suggests ‘tunnel vision’ or a focus on one aspect of a situation, usually negative. Instead of the whole picture, people will only see a situation's downside or negative elements. “All I could think about at brunch with friends was how my body looked.”
Jumping to conclusions. This thinking style means making conclusions without considering the whole situation. There are three ways to do this, mind reading or assuming you know another person’s thoughts, emotional reasoning or basing facts off of your emotions, and predictive thinking or assuming you know what the future holds. “They must think I am lazy because I am eating this.”
Personalization, or placing all blame on yourself regardless of circumstance or situation. “My eating disorder is all my fault.”
Labeling. This one is characterized by global statements based on specific situations. These ‘labels’ do not consider the whole picture or fair assessment. “I’m weak because I can’t stop eating this.”
Catastrophizing. This thinking style occurs when things are blown out of proportion. “Nobody will love me if my body looks this way.”
Shoulding and musting, or putting unreasonable demands on yourself or others. This often results in guilt and frustration. “I must never eat carbohydrates.”
Disqualifying the positive. This happens when you minimize or discount positive achievements and experiences. “Any improvements are too little too late.”
Unhelpful thinking and Eating Disorder Recovery
As you can see from the examples above, these unhelpful thinking styles are intertwined with eating disorders. Struggling with an eating disorder enhances and promotes this self-critical, negative thinking. The emotional distress this causes, paired with the physical damage of an eating disorder, is incredibly concerning.
So, when you or someone you love is pursuing recovery, mindset is essential as you reframe how you relate to food and your body. It is important to remember that thoughts are not facts. Thoughts are conclusions we draw from our emotions, and these conclusions are not always accurate.
Rewire Unhelpful Thinking in Your Brain
It is important to reframe unhelpful thinking in the eating disorder recovery process. You must learn to understand and acknowledge your thoughts while reshaping them from a neutral compassionate place.
This is not an easy process and often takes time and patience. But above all, get support. Navigating any aspect of your recovery and mental health is best done with expert guidance and support.
Once you have the necessary support, here are four steps to shift unhelpful thinking.
Become aware. Instead of judging your thoughts, get curious. Notice when these unhelpful thinking styles come into play and ask yourself why.
Separate yourself. Acknowledge that those unhelpful thoughts are not facts. Write them down to see them as separate from yourself.
Challenge the thoughts. What else is potentially or probably true? What are you making these thoughts mean?
Reframe. Get clear on what is true from a neutral perspective and reframe the thought from there.
Unhelpful thinking is deeply entwined with most mental health issues, including eating disorders. These cognitive distortions cause massive emotional distress when they become the default thought pattern. Understanding and changing the way you think is essential to recovery. It is not simple, but it is possible with the support of an expert care team.
At BALANCE eating disorder treatment center™, our compassionate, highly skilled team of clinicians is trained in diagnosing and treating the spectrum of eating disorders, including anorexia, bulimia, binge eating disorder, compulsive overeating, and other disordered eating and body image issues. Additionally, BALANCE offers free virtual support groups open to individuals seeking help and family and loved ones. The group provides a supportive forum within which members can explore issues, including ambivalence about engaging in treatment, recovery, resources, and treatment options, and knowing when and how to take the next steps toward making change. RSVP for our next group on Saturday, October 8th, at 11:00 am EST here.
BALANCE also now offers exclusive insurance trials in its virtual track. With our insurance trials, eligible participants get access to treatment right away, comprehensive payment options, and our team’s support in navigating your coverage. Your insurance could cover up to 80% of your allowed amount up front, reducing the cost of your treatment, and allowing you to pay the remaining balance through a payment plan, after an initial deposit. Reach out here to see if you qualify.
This post was written by Intuitive Eating | HAES Content Creator, Alexandra Carter (she/her).
Alexandra Carter is a professional actor, turned certified Intuitive Eating Counselor and Health and Wellbeing Coach, turned Content Creator. After moving to NYC for her undergraduate degree in Musical Theater, Alexandra spent 10 years working all over the world as an actor/singer/dancer. Through her own healing journey, Alexandra found her way to the anti-diet space and went on to gain coaching and counseling certifications, in addition to starting her own coaching business. It was there she fell in love with content creation as a way of sharing ideas, genuinely connecting with people, and affecting powerful change. Alexandra is thrilled to be on the team at BALANCE, combining all her skills and passions to foster authentic healing.
References
“Unhelpful Thinking Styles.” Psychology Tools, 27 Aug. 2022, https://www.psychologytools.com/resource/unhelpful-thinking-styles/.
Unhelpful thinking styles. CCI. (n.d.). Retrieved September 13, 2022, from https://www.cci.health.wa.gov.au/Resources/For-Clinicians/Unhelpful-Thinking-Styles