Thoughtical Illusions - Thoughtical Illusions Definition

Written by Adam Khan

The last thoughtical illusion is that dysphoria itself warps your perception. Research shows that when someone is in a bad mood, he's more likely to believe negative statements about himself, he remembers more times he was punished for failure and remembers fewer times of being rewarded for succeeding, and when you flash two pictures at the same time (one to each eye with a divider between the eyes), he'll see the negative picture but not the positive picture more often when he's feeling bad than when he feels good.

In other words, feelings affect your perception in a way that reinforces the already existing mood.

And each emotion warps your perception in its own way. When you feel angry, you tend to see the world in terms of enemies and allies, and you're more sensitive to trespasses - or what could be remotely construed as trespasses.

When you're experiencing anxiety or worry, you tend to see the world in terms of threat and danger. You're more likely to notice potential dangers; more likely to see what might go wrong, and more likely to interpret what you see as dangerous, even when it isn't.

In depression, you're attuned to loss. You see what you had once and is now gone. You're more likely to doubt your abilities and your chances of success. You feel helpless, and you notice all the things about the world that seem against you, and you don't notice your own strengths or the circumstances that might work in your favor.

An emotion affects what you see and exaggerates what you see in the direction of the emotion. When you're angry, for instance, you're likely to take an innocent remark someone made and read into it an insult or a threat. When you're anxious, you see what might go wrong and consider it quite possible even when the chances of it going wrong are extremely remote. When you feel depressed, you remember all the things in your life you've lost, and you remember them easily, and you forget all you've gained.

When you feel bad, things aren't as bad as they seem. It's just a thoughtical illusion.

When you know how your brain makes mistakes, you can watch out for it. You can't fix it, but you can learn to work around it. Like someone who is blind in one eye, you can learn to compensate for it. I urge you to go through a mental checklist - especially when you feel dysphoric:

• Have I jumped to a conclusion too quickly?

• Have I placed too much confidence in a mere theory?

• Am I thinking it's one-extreme-or-the-other?

• Have I overgeneralized?

• How is my dysphoria coloring my perception?

ANY TIME YOU ask those questions when you're feeling bad, you're probably going to find two or three thoughtical illusions messing up your thinking. Suddenly becoming aware of them can return you to sanity and evaporate the bad feeling. And your improved mood won't be any illusion!

Here's another chapter on how to change your thoughts in a way that makes a difference:
Positive Thinking: The Next Generation

An extremely important thing to keep in mind is that judging people will harm you. Learn here how to prevent yourself from making this all-too-human mistake:
Here Comes the Judge

The art of controlling the meanings you're making is an important skill to master. It will literally determine the quality of your life. Read more about it in:
Master the Art of Making Meaning

Here's a profound and life-changing way to gain the respect and the trust of others:
As Good As Gold

What if you already knew you ought to change and in what way? And what if that insight has made no difference so far? Here's how to make your insights make a difference:
From Hope to Change

next: Interpretations