Cognitive Distortion #3: Mental Filter
Now that I think about it, the first three cognitive distortions are like evil triplets, because #3 is like a polarized lens we use to see things in an extreme and exaggerated way.
A negative mental filter will filter out the good aspects of any situation, making us focus exclusively on the bad.1 This obviously is not the real picture of things, but when using this lens, we think it is.
It’s like living in the Upside Down2 version of the world, with none of the good stuff but an exaggerated version of the bad.
The problem with mental filters
The lenses we use with a negative mental filter are not just polarized. They are cracked and cloudy, like an old pair of goggles dug out of a musty corner of your basement. It’s hard to overestimate the impact these lenses have on the way we view and interact with the world.
We end up severely impaired in several basic, cognitive and social functions:
We have a clouded view of life.
People with depression are notoriously bad at reacting appropriately to their current environment. Our negative mental filter causes us to dwell on difficulties and problems, even if these are relatively minor. Moreover, it blinds us to any positive developments that might make the situation easier. Depression lowers our cognitive flexibility,3 the ability to reappraise and adjust perceptions of situations as they change.
And when we are depressed, we often view the future in the same, gritty shade of gray as the present. Our mucked-up goggles filter out all rays of hope and make any clouds on the horizon appear extra dark and forbidding. This skewed expectation toward the negative is referred to as a negative expectancy bias.4
We have a clouded view of others.
Both of the characteristics described above, poor cognitive flexibility and greater negative expectancy bias, also cloud our perception of relationships. A negative mental filter will intensify our worries of social rejection but also dim our happiness if we are accepted.5 We dismiss such pleasure by saying something like, “Oh, you’re just being nice to me because you feel sorry for me.” Thus our satisfaction in the social interaction – and likely the other person’s as well – withers away instead of blossoming into a fruitful friendship.
Depression also clouds our view and satisfaction in intimate relationships. Married couples with a depressed partner express affection less often and use less constructive methods to resolve conflict compared to non-depressed couples.6 For example, when couples engage in problem-solving tasks, depressed partners are more critical and hostile, less cooperative, and more likely to explain their spouse’s choices in a negative way.
We have a clouded view of ourselves.
My own depression felt like a rainstorm of turbulent emotions, slanting downward and slashing away at my peace of mind. Many of these feelings – I’d say a good majority of them – were not about the world or other people at all. Most of my depressive feelings were directed inward.
As English poet Richey Edwards wrote,
People say to the mentally ill, ‘You know so many people think the world of you.’ But when they don’t like themselves they don’t notice anything. They don’t care about what people think of them. When you hate yourself, whatever people say it doesn’t make sense. ‘Why do they like me? Why do they care about me?’ Because you don’t care about yourself at all.”7
My negative mental filter made me loathe my private self, which I viewed with hostility, suspicion, and fear. I often considered my self to be my enemy, to be subdued and conquered.
Poor self-esteem is strongly associated with the most dangerous of depressive symptoms: suicidal thoughts and behaviors.8 The depressed are prone to draw the erroneous and extreme conclusion that if self cannot be conquered, it should not be allowed to live.
A clouded view of reality leads to Pessimism
In a nutshell, a negative mental filter leads to a pessimistic attitude toward all aspects of life.9
The pessimist wears his or her musty old goggles all the time and therefore observes only the dark side of things. Thinking of all the potential dangers and pitfalls makes the pessimist fearful of the future. Consequently, the pessimist tends to remain passive in the face of life’s challenges because she or she believes that his or her efforts are bound to be futile, anyway.
Pessimism differs from optimism in three important ways:
- Both pessimists and optimists exhibit Selective Attention Bias, meaning both tend to be selective in the information they pay attention to and how that information gets integrated into their worldview. Optimists pay more attention to information that affirms their sunny outlook on life,10 whereas pessimists do not.11 Pessimists, as you might guess, pay more attention to the clouds in the sky than the sunshine.
- Our belief (or lack thereof) that we can influence events, circumstances, and relationships – this is also termed locus of control. Specifically, optimists believe that they are masters of their own destinies. Optimists fully trust that they can successfully deal with life’s challenges. On the other hand, pessimists take the fatalistic view that most of what happens to them is due to uncontrollable, external forces or simply by chance. Therefore they do not believe they are masters of their own destinies, rather they are just along for the ride – and not particularly expecting smooth sailing.
- How we interpret important events in our lives – this is also termed attributional style. Specifically, optimists believe that they are responsible for the good things that happen, but the bad things are just bad luck. Pessimists turn this thinking on its head. Anything good that happens is just dumb luck, but bad outcomes are described this way: “This happened to me because I am a loser and always fail in everything I do.” Notice the three important aspects here: 1) taking personal responsibility for the event, 2) believing that this is a stable, unchanging outcome due to personal incompetence, and 3) believing that it will continue to happen ad infinitum.
No wonder pessimism feels so depressing.
Do you have a negative mental filter?
The outcome of a negative mental filter is similar to the first two distortions: a mulish propensity to focus on the negative side of life. Thoughts that accompany this distortion may include:
- “I hate everything about this job.”
- “I hate everything about my family.”
- “I hate everything about myself [hair, face, body, etc.].”
- “There is nothing good in my life.”
What is the solution for a negative mental filter?
The main way of fighting this distortion is the same as the first two distortions: we must realize that we have missed the big picture of reality. Dwelling on the negative details does not invalidate the positive aspects that were there all along.
But we can also go one step further: we can start intentionally looking for the positive.
Do you believe that you hate absolutely everything about your job? Try writing down at least one thing you like about your job for every bad thing you dislike. Do the same for your relationships, your body, and your life. And if you really want to bend your brain, try writing down two or three positives for every one negative.
Searching for the Positive: Optimistic Realism
The whole concept of optimism seems to really get under the pessimist’s skin. I should add that I know this from first-hand experience.
If I’m being completely honest, I’d say that optimistic thinking sometimes even seems a little idiotic to me. I mean, if you are going to err in one direction or the other, wouldn’t you rather be prepared for the worst rather than blindly and stupidly believing in some Pollyanna-esque best?
But we pessimists pay a high cost for our pessimism. As illustrated above, we tend to have issues with poor self-esteem or self-worth – maybe because we believe nothing we do will ever make a difference, except to quite possibly make things worse. Sometimes it’s hard for us to get motivated to accomplish certain tasks – we hang back in fear of everything that will (of course) go wrong.
Pessimism also takes a toll on physical health. In a recent study of over 70,000 women, those who were least optimistic were 30% more likely to die from all major causes (including heart disease, stroke, cancer, respiratory disease, and infection) than those who were most optimistic.12
In these types of epidemiological studies, the case is often made that it is not the optimism per se that protects health; rather the optimism correlated to something else, like less socioeconomic hardship and/or better health and lifestyle choices.
And these study authors did note a few differences in the more optimistic women: they tended to be more educated and more physically active. They also reported lower rates of high blood pressure, high cholesterol, type 2 diabetes, and substantially lower rates of depression.
However, most other sociodemographic factors, health behaviors (e.g. smoking, drinking, diet) and health conditions (e.g. age and Body Mass Index) were similar across all ranges of optimism. Even after controlling for all these factors, optimism was still found to significantly reduce the chance all-cause mortality.
Perhaps an important distinction would be helpful here. We are not actually talking about a blind, Pollyanna-esque faith that everything is bound to work out in the end. No, a better term for that would be idealism.
The type of optimism that is truly healthy and beneficial is that which prepares us for all eventualities (including the worst), yet hopes for the best. This is called optimistic realism.
Russian-born author Vera Nazarian describes the difference this way:
An optimist is neither naive, nor blind to the facts, nor in denial of grim reality. An optimist believes in the optimal usage of all options available, no matter how limited. As such, an optimist always sees the big picture. How else to keep track of all that’s out there? An optimist is simply a proactive realist.
An idealist focuses only on the best aspects of all things (sometimes in detriment to reality); an optimist strives to find an effective solution. A pessimist sees limited or no choices in dark times; an optimist makeschoices.
When bobbing for apples, an idealist endlessly reaches for the best apple, a pessimist settles for the first one within reach, while an optimist drains the barrel, fishes out all the apples and makes pie.”13
Conclusion & Action Steps
- Review your thought journal and look for signs of a negative mental filter.
- Replace each negatively-biased thought with an optimistically realistic one.
- Read the next part of this 101 series. Or you can read the previous part. Or you can start from the beginning.
1 Burns, D. D. (2009). Feeling good: the new mood therapy. New York: Harper Publishing. pp.33-34.
2 Stranger Things (Netflix series)
3 Murphy, F. C., Michael, A., & Sahakian, B. J. (2012). Emotion modulates cognitive flexibility in patients with major depression. Psychological medicine, 42(7), 1373-1382.
4 Feeser, M., Schlagenhauf, F., Sterzer, P., Park, S., Stoy, M., Gutwinski, S., … & Ströhle, A. (2013). Context insensitivity during positive and negative emotional expectancy in depression assessed with functional magnetic resonance imaging. Psychiatry Research: Neuroimaging, 212(1), 28-35.
5 Caouette, J. D., & Guyer, A. E. (2016). Cognitive distortions mediate depression and affective response to social acceptance and rejection. Journal of Affective Disorders, 190, 792–799.
6 Heene, E., Buysse, A., & Van Oost, P. (2007). An interpersonal perspective on depression: The role of marital adjustment, conflict communication, attributions, and attachment within a clinical sample. Family Process, 46(4), 499-514.
7 https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/5447774.Richey_Edwards
8 Bhar, S., Ghahramanlou‐Holloway, M., Brown, G., & Beck, A. T. (2008). Self‐Esteem and Suicide Ideation in Psychiatric Outpatients. Suicide and Life-Threatening Behavior, 38(5), 511-516.
9 Hecht, D. (2013). The Neural Basis of Optimism and Pessimism. Experimental Neurobiology, 22(3), 173–199.
10 Sharot, T., Korn, C. W., & Dolan, R. J. (2011). How unrealistic optimism is maintained in the face of reality. Nature Neuroscience, 14(11), 1475.
11 Korn, C. W., Sharot, T., Walter, H., Heekeren, H. R., & Dolan, R. J. (2014). Depression is related to an absence of optimistically biased belief updating about future life events. Psychological Medicine, 44(3), 579-592.
12 Kim, E. S., Hagan, K. A., Grodstein, F., DeMeo, D. L., De Vivo, I., & Kubzansky, L. D. (2017). Optimism and cause-specific mortality: a prospective cohort study. American journal of epidemiology, 185(1), 21-29.
13 Nazarian, V. (2010). The Perpetual Calendar of Inspiration. Spirit publishing.
Dr. Pamela Coburn-Litvak has published research articles on exercise and stress in Neuroscience and Neurobiology of Learning and Behavior. Her latest book, Leaving the Shadowland of Stress, Anxiety, and Depression, was published in 2020.
After receiving a Ph.D. in Neurobiology and Behavior from the State University of New York at Stony Brook, she served as both Assistant Professor of Physiology & Pharmacology and Special Assistant to the Vice President for Research Affairs at Loma Linda University in Loma Linda, California. She then joined the Biology department at Andrews University and developed courses in human physiology as well as the neurobiology of mental illness. She also founded Rock @ Science LLC, a company that specializes in health and science education and web development. She co-developed the brain and body physiology segment of the Stress: Beyond Coping seminar with its creator, Dr. William “Skip” MacCarty, DMin.
Dr. Coburn-Litvak currently lives in California with her husband. Their two daughters are mostly grown and attending school elsewhere.
When she’s not studying or teaching about stress, she enjoys stress-relieving activities like puttering around the garden, taking nature walks with her family, knitting, cooking, and reading.
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