Survivors Workplace wellbeing Change your unhelpful thoughts and feelings Unhelpful thought patterns

You see things as opposites (black and white, all or nothing), and cannot perceive the gray or middle ground. You think things are either wonderful or awful, good or bad, perfect or a failure.

Example: On your first week back, you have difficulty with one of your job tasks. You conclude that you’re incapable of ever doing your job again.

You take a single negative event and, interpret all other events in a negative way relating to that single negative event. You tend to overlook other positive or neutral characteristics of the situation which disprove your subsequent negative interpretation of the events.

Example: You take a single negative event and, interpret all other events in a negative way relating to that single negative event. You tend to overlook other positive or neutral characteristics of the situation which disprove your subsequent negative interpretation of the events.

You generalize a single negative event to a variety of other situations, even though you have no proof for it.

Example: You start your day with something that does not go well and interpret all the other events as negative. You think, “Oh, today is a bad day” instead of paying attention to those events that are going well that day.

This is the binocular trick. You perceive things bigger or smaller than they truly are. For example, you over- or underestimate the importance of whatever you are looking at including work tasks, skills, abilities and accomplishments.

Example: Someone gives you a compliment about a task you did. You minimize the task by saying “It was nothing,” when in fact the task required specific knowledge, time and effort to accomplish.

Mind reading: You assume that you know the reasons for the actions of others and their thoughts without checking.

Fortune telling: You assume that you know how things will turn out or what other people will do in the future.

Example: You assume you know the reason work colleagues did not call when you were off on sick leave. When you go back to work on a graduated basis, you assume your co-workers think you’re lazy.
“I will not be successful when I go back to work.”
“Everyone at work will feel sorry for me because I had cancer.”

You think that something is only good enough if it is perfect. And because you can’t make it perfect, you’re never satisfied and can never take pride in anything.

Example: You expect to go back to work and do everything perfectly even though that is not humanly possible.

You know how the world should be, and it isn’t like that. You know what you should be like, and you aren’t. The outcome is that you are constantly disappointed and angry with yourself and with everyone around you.

Example: You work as a dental hygienist and feel you should be totally recovered and able to work at 150% before you should be able to see any patients.

You talk to yourself in a harsh way, calling yourself names like “useless,” “incompetent,” “loser” or “lazy.” You talk to yourself in ways you would never talk to anyone else.

Example: You tell yourself that you’re a “loser,” “total failure,” “stupid” because you are unable to immediately resume full work demands when you return to work.

You assume personal responsibility for something for which you are not responsible.

Your supervisor is in a bad mood. You assume that it is your fault and do not investigate into the other possible reasons and do not check with your supervisor about it.