Thinking Traps

Jason Mraz said it best,
If this life is one act / why do we lay all these traps? / We put ’em right in our path / when we just wanna be free.

A thinking trap is a thought-shortcut where the mind fills in uncertainty with guesses or meaning without sufficient evidence—or sometimes despite contrary evidence!

It might sound technical at first, but a lot of people actually use thinking traps more often than one might think!

Common thinking traps include…

• Mind reading: Assuming you can know what others are thinking, usually negatively, and without evidence — e.g., “My friend hasn’t replied to my text, it means they hate me.”
• All-or-Nothing Thinking: Thinking about situations in absolutes or polar opposites — e.g., “If my dissertation isn’t better than everyone else’s, then it’s as good as a failure!”
• Catastrophizing: Imagining worst case scenarios and believing that they are the most likely outcome — e.g., You apply to a new job or postgraduate degree and think only about how “terribly” you did in the interview (even if you also said good things) and that you have absolutely zero chance of being accepted.

There are many more thinking traps, but what’s important to know is that they are usually the mind’s effort to keep us safe—the mind believes that if we pre-empt danger or negative outcomes, then we cannot be surprised or ambushed by them, which would likely hurt more.

But as you can see, the mind’s safety shortcuts aren’t always grounded in evidence—which is why CBT-informed counseling often involves weighing evidence or gathering new evidence by testing reality through skills and experiments based on the collaborative formulation.

Further reading:

• Bennett-Levy, J., Butler, G., Fennell, M., Hackmann, A., Mueller, M., & Westbrook, D. (Eds.). (2004). Oxford Guide to Behavioural Experiments in Cognitive Therapy. Oxford University Press.
• Westbrook, D., Kennerley, H., & Kirk, J. (2011). An Introduction to Cognitive Behaviour Therapy: Skills and Applications (2nd ed.). SAGE Publications.