The Returned Report

Read the account below and spot the thinking pattern at work. Pick the cognitive distortion the speaker is showing, and the exact phrase where it surfaces. This is a puzzle about a thought pattern, not a diagnosis or advice — the person and the situation are invented.

The rules

1. You’ll read a short first-person account of an everyday moment. It’s invented — a puzzle, not a real person.
2. Exactly one cognitive distortion is at work in it. Name it from the menu.
3. Then pick the exact phrase from the account that gives the distortion away.
4. One submission. You can’t change your answer.