Test: What’s your worry weak spot?

Overgeneralisers often hyper focus on isolated events and use them as evidence to confirm pattern or fear. But rather than soothing anxiety, overgeneralisation just feeds it, so every day life can feel more disruptive and drama filled. An overgeneralising thinking habit can sneak up on you, often taking root when you’re emotionally or physically vulnerable.

Overgeneralisers often view the world through a negative lens, joining the dots between unrelated events to find patterns that confirm a sense that things never go right for them or that people let them down. Even on a seemingly trivial level, overgeneralisation can impact mood and undermine resilience so that life seems like a series of hurdles to be jumped over.

It also can be undermining to relationships if one passing remark can make you question how much you have in common with someone or whether you like them. The end result is that you can end up feeling isolated and different from everyone else. As an antidote to jumping to conclusions or assuming something is true, ask yourself ‘what’s the evidence?’ then challenge yourself to come up with at least three reasons that it might not be the case.

Do it often enough and you could find that you naturally start to see events from a more rounded perspective.