Irrational Thinking Styles – Tunnel Vision

Irrational Thinking Styles: Tunnel Vision

Focusing on only one part of a situation and ignoring everything else. People all have their own individual tunnels. For example, anxious people are often supersensitive to anything that suggests danger, and ignore all the safety signals (which far outnumber the danger signals). People with anger problems tend to notice anything that suggests unfairness or criticism. The trouble here is that pulling isolated things out of context and dwelling on them tends to make them seem much larger and much more important than they really are.

Example

“At the interview they commented on my lack of experience in one area. I’ll never get a job now.”

Instead try

” At the interview they commented on my lack of experience in one area, I did have experience in other areas and I think I did OK overall and although I may not get that job I can still keep applying for others.”

Black and White Thinking

Catastrophizing

Emotional Thinking

The Fairness Fallacy

Mind Reading

Overgeneralizing

Personalizing

Shoulds

Tunnel Vision