Black-and-White Thinking

All-or-nothing extremes

Black-and-white, all-or-nothing, polarized thinking is a pattern of extremes. Either something is good or it is bad, with no middle ground. No gray areas.

Yet rarely is anything so clear-cut. There are feelings between happy and sad, love and hate. People and situations are complex.

It can be confusing to live constantly pulled between the extremes - imagine whiplash. Single new pieces of evidence erase a worldview. If you are no longer perfect, you're a failure.

I find rarely is anything 100%. And (at least sometimes) I've found that going back to numbers can break me out of this pattern.

"Okay, so this isn't all good. But maybe it's not all bad. Is it 40% good? 60%?"

It's a shift into more rational thinking. It's a shift that needs more prefrontal cortex engagement. I have to slow down and consider.

Where does black and white thinking show up in your life?