All-or-Nothing Thinking: A Cognitive Distortion That Leads to Depression

Therapy in a Nutshell

Therapy in a Nutshell -Emma McAdam

Mental Health, Education, Health & Fitness:mental Health, Self-improvement, Health & Fitness

4.8 • 658 Ratings

🗓️ 11 September 2020

⏱️ 16 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

All-or-nothing thinking is a cognitive distortion that can make you depressed because it convinces you that if you’ve messed up, it’s pointless to keep trying. Many people struggle with these types of thoughts, but you don't have to struggle with them forever. Learn how you can overcome this type of thinking and view yourself and your life in a more positive way. Thanks BetterHelp for sponsoring the video. BetterHelp: Professional, affordable online counseling starting at around $65 a week: https://www.betterhelp.com/therapyinanutshell Learn more in one of my in-depth mental health courses: https://courses.therapyinanutshell.com/?utm_source=podcast&utm_medium=09112020 Support my mission on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/therapyinanutshell Sign up for my newsletter: https://www.therapyinanutshell.com?utm_medium=YTDescription&utm_source=YouTube Check out my favorite self-help books: https://kit.co/TherapyinaNutshell/best-self-help-books Therapy in a Nutshell, LLC, and the information provided by Emma McAdam are solely intended for informational and entertainment purposes and are not a substitute for advice, diagnosis, or treatment regarding medical or mental health conditions. Although Emma McAdam is a licensed marriage and family therapist, the views expressed on this site or any related content should not be taken for medical or psychiatric advice. Always consult your physician before making any decisions related to your physical or mental health. In therapy I use a combination of Acceptance and Commitment Therapy, Systems Theory, positive psychology, and a bio-psycho-social approach to treating mental illness and other challenges we all face in life. The ideas from my videos are frequently adapted from multiple sources. Many of them come from Acceptance and Commitment Therapy, especially the work of Steven Hayes, Jason Luoma, and Russ Harris. The sections on stress and the mind-body connection derive from the work of Stephen Porges (the Polyvagal theory), Peter Levine (Somatic Experiencing) Francine Shapiro (EMDR), and Bessel Van Der Kolk. I also rely heavily on the work of the Arbinger institute for my overall understanding of our ability to choose our life's direction. And deeper than all of that, the Gospel of Jesus Christ orients my personal worldview and sense of security, peace, hope, and love https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/comeuntochrist/believe If you are in crisis, please contact the National Suicide Prevention Hotline at https://suicidepreventionlifeline.org/ or 1-800-273-TALK (8255) or your local emergency services. Copyright Therapy in a Nutshell, LLC Music licensed from www.Bensound.com or Artlist.io Images from Freepik.com (premium license), Pixabay, or Wikimedia commons

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hello everyone and welcome to therapy in a nutshell. I'm Emma McAdam, a licensed marriage and family therapist.
0:07.2	And this is the podcast where I condense mental health skills into bite-sized nuggets of help.
0:13.5	This video is sponsored by Better Help, where you can get professional, affordable, online counseling for around $65 a week.
0:21.6	So check out the link in the description for 10% off your first month.
0:25.6	Hello everyone.
0:35.6	Emma McAdam here. We're going to talk about all or nothing thinking.
0:40.3	Once I had a job interview at a company I really wanted to work at. I was pretty fresh out of school and this company had a very good reputation for being one of the best programs.
1:00.0	So I got an interview and it was just a few days after coming out of the field at this adventure therapy program.
1:07.0	And I went to the interview and it was like it was one of those interviews where they have like five people in the room.
1:13.6	And because the people doing the interviews were therapists, they asked some questions that were like designed to throw me off a little bit.
1:21.6	And I'll be honest with you, I actually cried in the interview. Now if you know me well, you'll know that I actually cry pretty frequently,
1:31.3	especially when I care a lot about something.
1:34.3	And I am no longer that bothered by it,
1:37.3	but I went out of that interview thinking that I had completely bombed it.
1:43.3	Now, when you make a mistake, it's easy to think that the whole
1:47.0	interview was awful, or that the interview was a complete waste of time, or even that you're a
1:52.0	complete failure. But this type of thinking might be making you depressed, because it's a
1:58.0	cognitive distortion. So today we're going to talk about all or nothing thinking.
2:03.2	Despite the popular belief that depression is simply a biological condition, it's actually a lot
2:09.4	more complicated than that, which is awesome because it means that there's a whole lot of options for you,
2:15.7	things you can learn, skills you can develop,
2:17.9	that can make a huge difference. Depression is treatable. So today we're going to explore
	...

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