Mental Filtering: 3 Mental Filtering Examples

Mental filtering is a cognitive distortion where people’s thinking patterns skew toward the negative, often in a way that lessens that person’s selfhood. Mental filtering, one of the most common cognitive distortions, sees people embrace negative thinking to deny the positive aspects of interactions, events, and relationships. Over time, self-defeating thoughts can lead to panic disorders, anxiety, and poor emotional reasoning.

Mental filtering fits into the broader category of cognitive distortions known as “assuming the worst,” which also includes overgeneralizations and disqualifying the positive. Overgeneralizing ignores the gray areas, disqualifying the positive negates positive moments, and mental filtering dwells on negative things without considering positive things.

The below express some common examples of focusing on negative details:

1. 1. Black-and-white thinking: Henry and DeShawn go on a summer vacation. They see the sights, eat great food, and relax on the beach. Everything runs smoothly, and then on the way home, they learn the airline has delayed their flight for a few hours. Henry gets upset and focuses only on this issue, ignoring the other positive parts of the vacation. This reframes the trip as a negative event and causes black-and-white thinking, upsetting DeShawn.
2. 2. Discounting the positive: Marco studies hard for a physics exam and feels good going into the test. He gets it back and receives an A minus. Instead of being proud of the work put into studying for a more challenging class, Marco focuses on the few questions he got wrong.
3. 3. Labeling: At work, Sam presents her quarterly report to her team. Sam’s higher-ups largely praise the presentation but mention one small way to improve it. Sam focuses only on this feedback, leading to distorted thoughts and labeling the presentation a failure. These thought patterns persist for some days that follow.

There are several ways to identify and reframe negative thoughts. Cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) is a way to achieve cognitive restructuring. Through this kind of psychotherapy, mental health professionals help patients understand how to qualify events through a more objective lens. Exercises may include labeling statements as opinions or facts to better respond to others’ reactions and words.

You can also write down your thoughts via journaling or an emotion log. Writing feelings down can help you gauge the reality of the situation, and returning to an emotion log can allow you to view problems with fresher, more objective eyes.

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