|
Magnification or Minimization |
|
You blow things way out of proportion
(magnification) or shrink them in your mind's eye (minimization.) |
Cognitive Distortions
|
In Magnification or
Minimization we blow things out of proportion. The proverbial making mountains
out of molehills. We tend to Magnify the good qualities and achievements of others and Minimize or discount our own. We tend to Magnify our own supposed
failings and Minimize other people's shortcomings. |
|
Unrealistic or twisted thoughts |
Realistic, untwisted responses |
|
Magnification: "I
blew it! I ate the candy bar and I blew it!" |
"That was only one candy
bar. One candy bar never made anyone fat." |
|
Magnification: "I binged at lunch.
I went back for seconds. I binged." |
"Going back for seconds
is not a binge. Healthy people go back for seconds too." |
|
Magnification: "I hate
exercise!" |
"I enjoy taking walks and
gardening." |
|
Minimization: "Recovery is so
easy for Gloria." |
Gloria has worked hard to get
where she is. "I'll get there eventually too." |
|
Minimization: "I only
lost half a pound last week." |
"Half or a pound in a
week is good progress. I was making healthy food choices." |
Magnification
is sometimes called Awfulizing or Catastrophizing. When we make mountains out of
molehills we can feed the fires of anxiety and stress to an amazing degree.
Exaggerating the importance of our mistakes and undervaluing our strong points
and achievements is a common form of distorted thinking for perfectionists.
Magnifying
our problems and minimizing our successes is an unnecessarily pessimistic way of
thinking and leads quickly into depression. We can instead practice seeing the
positive side of things. For instance, you may have binged several times last
month, but you may have also had several days where you noticed that you were
aware of your hunger signals. You may have made several healthy food choices.
Those sorts of accomplishments are a valuable part of recovery and are
cumulative. The month was not wasted unless you choose not to bring the positive
aspects of your recovery into focus.
It can help to rate the magnitude of things on a scale from 1 to 10. Just how
awful was eating a candy bar or going back for seconds at lunch? A two or three
perhaps? It can also be quite worthwhile to sit down occasionally and make a
list of your accomplishments, assets for recovery, and strong points. This can
be done in the form of a gratitude list if desired. Keep the list handy for
those times when you've been beating up on yourself or are having troubles
seeing your own best qualities.
|
Dave's Journey to Fitness