The thesis of cognitive behavior therapy is something like
”depression is caused by distorted thought patterns”
Some categories of distorted thought patterns are:
- All or nothing thinking “I got a question wrong on the test so I’m a failure”
- discounting the positive / mental filter
- should statements
- jumping to conclusions / mind reading
- labeling seeing failings as character deficits rather than bad actions
- overgeneralization
- emotional reasoning (assuming that your emotions are accurate) (e.g., “I feel bad, so I must be bad.“)