Testing Your Thoughts: Fortune Telling

An important part of mental health treatment often is examining our “cognitive distortions.” A cognitive distortion is an unhealthy pattern of thinking that is not based in reality and that can contribute to anxiety and depression. “Fortune telling” is a common cognitive distortion. Fortune telling is a style of thinking where we predict the outcome of a situation that hasn’t happened yet. We assume it’s a negative outcome even though we don’t really have any evidence for that, but we cling to that like it’s the truth.

Example:
Let’s say your boss asks you to come to their office unexpectedly. If you immediately assume that you must be getting fired even though there’s no evidence to support that, you are fortune telling.

Our thoughts impact our emotions and behaviors. So when we assume that negative things are going to happen, we tend to feel dread or anxiety or even hopelessness. Then we start trying to get away from those uncomfortable emotions so we might avoid or ignore our boss’s message, or we might fixate on whatever we could have possibly done wrong to get in trouble. Those kinds of behaviors usually aren’t helpful and they may even make the situation worse, and then we get stuck in a cycle of thinking.

The first step to disrupting a pattern is to notice that it’s happening. Once we start noticing that we’re engaging in fortune telling, we can catch ourselves and test our thoughts. We can collect evidence for and against our thoughts. We can ask ourselves what’s the worst case scenario, what’s the best case scenario and what’s the most likely outcome. Over time and with practice, we start to become a little suspicious of those automatic assumptions.

Learn more about other common cognitive distortions (10 Common Types of Cognitive Distortions | Skyland Trail) and effective CBT and DBT skills to reshape them.

Written by Laina Beaudreau