Stress Affects Our Ability to Think Straight

Stress changes the way we think. When our threat system switches on, our minds can distort reality in ways that feel convincing but aren’t always accurate. This series explores some of the most common unhelpful thinking styles, patterns that can quietly shape our decisions, emotions, and relationships when we’re under pressure.

Over the coming months, I’ll be looking at several key thinking styles, including:

• Emotional Reasoning - treating feelings as facts

• Jumping to Conclusions - assuming we know what something means without evidence

• Labelling - reducing ourselves or others to a single negative word

• Mental Filtering - noticing only the parts that confirm our fears

• Catastrophising - imagining the worst-case scenario as inevitable

• All-or-Nothing Thinking - seeing things as entirely good or entirely bad

• Should Statements - putting rigid rules on ourselves or others

• Personalisation - assuming things are our fault when they aren’t

Each post includes a cartoon illustration and a reflection on how these thinking habits influence our everyday decisions. Left unchecked, they can distort the landscape and lead us off course. But when we learn to recognise and adjust them, the terrain becomes far less treacherous. As the series grows, the list above becomes a guide to navigating that ground, one thinking style at a time.