Sometimes we come to believe that our perceptions and conclusions are the way things really are. We have been rejected, others dislike us, and so forth.

These kinds of distorted thinking patterns can also include automatic negative perceptions about other people or groups, not only perceptions about oneself.
In other words, we believe our internal world is a true representation of reality. We are true believers. Sometimes these perceptions do conform to reality, but when perceptions are consistently distorted, this style of thinking has been associated with social and emotional problems.

The good news is that the patterns of thinking that are in development appear to be ripe for intervention. These interventions involve promoting something called decentration- or not identifying your unhelpful thoughts as reality- or not assuming that your automatic take on things is necessarily the truth. The goal is to shift from being a ‘true believer’ of your thoughts to an ‘observer’ of them.