Mistakes in Thinking: Emotional Reasoning

Hi, I’m Dr. Calbeck, welcome to my virtual office. Today, I’m talking about mistakes in thinking, which is an important part of cognitive behavioral psychotherapy. So the mistake in thinking that I’m focusing on right now is called emotional reasoning. Emotional reasoning is the mistake that you have when you think that because you feel a certain way, the situation must be that thing. So, for example, sometimes people are nervous when they fly and a person with a significant anxiety about flying will start to feel very anxious the moment they step on the airplane, or even before they get to the airport. So they start to have the heart race. They feel short of breath. They may break out into a cold sweat and the closer they get to the plane taking off, the more they feel this way. And so because they are having this strong emotional reaction, they convince themself that the situation must, in fact, be quite dangerous. And that is the paramount example of emotional reasoning.

When you feel a particular way, you evaluate the situation as having those components to it in reality, when in fact you are using logic that is unhelpful. So when you find yourself appraising a situation based on your emotional reaction to the situation, it might be helpful to take a step back and ask yourself, are you basing your appraisal of the situation on the feeling that you’re having or on the facts. In cognitive behavioral psychotherapy people often have to work very hard to distinguish between those two things, especially if they’ve been making this mistake for a long time.

So I challenge you to start to recognize when you are making a mistake and thinking and basing your appraisal of the situation on the way your body is feeling. Thank you for joining me today. I hope you enjoyed this moment of cognitive behavioral psychotherapy.

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