Feelings Are Not Facts series “Filtering”

Filtering is the third topic in our Feelings Aren’t Facts series. This series of blog posts will highlight ten common cognitive distortions, or ways that your automatic thoughts can cause problems.

Filtering, or using a mental filter, is when we look at a situation and choose to focus in on only the negative details and dwell on them exclusively until that is all we can see. The process of filtering changes the way that we interpret events. If we only focus on the negative aspects of something and disregard any positives, we feel more negatively about the situation overall.

This is similar to wearing sunglasses. If we wear sunglasses, everything looks a little darker. The white desk looks darker. The paper looks darker. The already dark things look even darker. When we first put on the sunglasses, we can easily tell that everything has changed color, but after wearing them for a while, our brains adjust and the darker shade becomes our new visual reality. Sometimes we even forget we are wearing the sunglasses. Filtering works in the same way. When we only see and focus on the negatives, the situation feels more negative. Eventually, we can forget that the positives even exist in those situations because our thinking and our brains have adjusted to the filter.

Filtering can have a significant impact on our emotions and behaviors. If we only see negatives, we are more apt to feel sad, depressed, hopeless, and worried. We are more likely to avoid situations, stop doing things we used to enjoy, or have more negatively-focused conversations with others.

It is important to regularly check to see if we are wearing our “sunglasses” and make sure that we are seeing the world in its natural colors.