Cycle 9 - Video 2 - Smarter Than BPD Quiz

The Cognitive Distortion of Mind Reading and Borderline Personality Disorder

• Mind reading is the belief that we know what someone is thinking, feeling, and intending to do based on their facial expressions, words, tone, and body language.
• Those with borderline personality disorder (BPD) tend to use mind reading as a protective factor to prevent themselves from being hurt or rejected.
• Research has found that those with severe BPD symptoms are less accurate at detecting neutral faces and tend to perceive them as negative.
• Those with severe BPD symptoms are more attuned to faces that indicate interpersonal rejection, fear, sadness, disgust, and anger.
• This means that those with BPD are good at identifying negative emotions in others' faces but tend to misread neutral emotions as negative, which fills their bucket of negativity more than is actually present.
• Mind reading can cause individuals with BPD to imply negative intent in a relationship, leading to misunderstandings and failed relationships.
• Negative emotions do not always indicate a harmful intent, which is a hard concept for those with BPD to learn and accept.
• Mind reading is a cognitive distortion that causes intense triggers or emotional buttons that reinforce BPD beliefs, behaviors, and patterns.
• To combat mind reading, individuals should stop, listen, observe, think, and calmly reason how to respond.
• Slowing down is key to making better choices and accurately perceiving those around you and recognizing your own skills and ability to manage and control relationships.
• It is important to think through the possible outcomes, both positive and negative, and encourage the best outcome to happen.
• Skill-building is necessary to replace maladaptive patterns with adaptive and helpful patterns, which takes time and practice.