{"id":103,"date":"2020-04-22T01:01:00","date_gmt":"2020-04-22T01:01:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/testingpeers.com\/?p=103"},"modified":"2020-08-26T18:58:19","modified_gmt":"2020-08-26T18:58:19","slug":"testers-cognitive-distortion","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/testingpeers.com\/?p=103","title":{"rendered":"Cognitive Distortions"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Since this is mental health awareness week, I thought I’d share a little from my own experience around mental health and in particular cognitive distortions. I must start with a disclaimer – I am not a mental health professional, I don’t have a qualification in psychology, psychiatry or anything related.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So, why do I want to talk about cognitive distortions and what are they?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Cognitive distortions are an exaggerated and\/or irrational negative bias in your thinking it ranges from subtle to delusional misinterpretation<\/strong>. They’re also often called negative thought patterns.<\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

I’m a tester and thus I have a hypothesis, I think testers suffer from depression\/anxiety and cognitive distortions more than most<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I want to check my hypothesis (unscientifically) to see if it holds any credence so if you have 3 mins I’d love it if you fill in this short 5 question anonymous survey<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

My hypothesis comes from the view that testing\/delivery culture helps to reinforce some of these cognitive distortions and perhaps that people with these distortions are attracted to testing? We train ourselves as testers to get better at spotting risks and issues, to analyse software and think about what and how they might work or fail. Then we ideally test those hypotheses if we have time. Also, how often have we heard someone say “a tester broke it”, “testing found some bugs so we’re delayed”, “are you sure you are using it right”? Often testers seem to get challenged a lot or portrayed negatively. We don’t celebrate our testers by saying  “our testers found this bug and saved us annoying 1000’s of customers, great job tester!<\/em>“<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I don’t think it’s all bad, because as testers we tend to also have good analytical skills so we have the potential tools to be able to help ourselves by spotting cognitive distortions and analysing them in ourselves and others.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Looking at cognitive distortions helped me around depression, anxiety and stress-related issues and perhaps knowing more can help you too. I learnt I had some bad patterns that were keeping me trapped in a negative loop, I’d recover as the stimulus was removed but then I’d eventually fall back to the same patterns as the stimulus was reintroduced. Once I became aware of my negative thought patterns and how my patterns influenced my feeling, I learnt how to challenge them and think differently the majority <\/strong>of the time and my mental well being improved and stabilised!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The other reason for sharing is mental health is as important, you matter, it matters. <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Did you know…<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One adult in six had a Common Mental Disorder: one in five women and one in eight men.<\/strong><\/p>Mental Health and Wellbeing in England in 2014<\/a><\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

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Read that again, yes 1 in 6 had a common mental disorder when surveyed in 2014. If you have mental health disorder you are definitely not alone!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I mentioned cognitive distortions were a problem for me, I should quantify what my issues were. Throughout my 20’s I had several mental health issues, at different times I was diagnosed by health professionals with General Anxiety Disorder, Borderline Personality Disorder, Clinical Depression, Social Anxiety Disorders. I tried to take my own life twice, was hospitalised and I self-harmed regularly. If you feel like this please PLEASE seek help, call a friend, family member or find a local charity like the Samaritans<\/a><\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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I think it’s safe to say that I and the professional both knew that I had mental health issues but they couldn’t quite work out what the cause was and how to help me recover or I wasn’t ready to recover and so I kept relapsing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It took losing my dad, and a month later being diagnosed with Thyroid Cancer when I was 30 before the tide to really turned for me. At the time, I had been a Test Team Leader at AXA for just a few months. I found the right help at the right time from Macmillan cancer support<\/a> and worked through my cognitive distortions in Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT). Having a therapist helped me and may help you, it got me started, pointed me at materials and helped me challenge myself, my therapist asked me questions to make me think but most of the work you have to do yourself.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So do you have exaggerated and\/or irrational negative bias in your thinking pattern, do you have damaging cognitive distortions? To look into this you need 3 things.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

  1. Awareness of the different automatic cognitive distortions<\/li>
  2. Record your automatic negative thoughts<\/li>
  3. Analyse your thoughts<\/li><\/ol>\n\n\n\n

    1. Awareness of the different automatic cognitive distortions<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

    Polarised Thinking<\/h4>\n\n\n\n
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    All or nothing thinking, unable to see shades of grey. It’s “all fantastic” or “all awful”. You’re either perfect or a total failure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n