![\"Rigid](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/1ca815d887f49daf295d848aa0a24dd22133fb7c.jpeg\")
<\/p>\nCognitive inflexibility is usually not a global way of thinking, rather it tends to be specific to certain domains such as strict internal rules around fitness or health only, explains Archinal-Hudson.<\/p>\n
Still, Pepper says, the impact of rigid thinking can be far-reaching \u2013 making social interactions challenging, limiting problem-solving ability, increasing difficulty with change and disrupting daily functioning.<\/p>\n
\u201cInflexible, negative thinking and limiting beliefs can stop people from being happy and cause stress, anxiety and depression,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n
\u2018In my head, it was live or die\u2019<\/p>\n
When Varsha Yajman turned 16, her mother took her on a three-day cruise to celebrate. Rather than relish the experience, Varsha spent her time rigidly obsessing over the calories in the food and exercising compulsively. She remembers crying over ice-cream.<\/p>\n
\u201cInstead of being grateful for the cruise, I was just miserable,\u201d says Varsha, who is now 23 and working in climate justice in Sydney.<\/p>\n
She hadn\u2019t been diagnosed at the time, but Varsha was struggling with an eating disorder, and living by a set of rigid, self-imposed rules that controlled almost every part of her day.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Rigid thinking often develops alongside a strict set of rules, which can lead to disordered eating.Credit: iStock<\/p>\n
\u201cIn my head, it was like, \u2018live or die\u2019. If I wasn\u2019t careful with food and disciplined about moving my body, I thought I\u2019d be letting myself down.\u201d<\/p>\n
Varsha\u2019s rigid thought patterns around food became linked to her academic performance.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn year 12, I was desperate to get a good ATAR and get into university. I reached a point where I was like \u2018if I lose X number of marks, I can\u2019t eat this much\u2019. Everything became a calculation \u2013 if this happened, then I have to do that,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n
Loading<\/p>\n
But she could never satisfy the rules she\u2019d created.<\/p>\n
\u201cRegardless of the number or the scale or the marks I got, I would rationalise it as either \u2018what you\u2019re doing is working and you should keep going\u2019, or \u2018what you\u2019re doing isn\u2019t working and you need to try harder\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n
Traits of a rigid thinker<\/p>\n
Archinal-Hudson says rigid thinkers are more prone to cognitive distortions, also called thinking errors or cognitive biases.<\/p>\n
\u201cThese are automatic patterns of thought that can distort how we see ourselves and the world around us so you don\u2019t consider the situation holistically,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n
She lists common examples as mind reading (assuming you know what someone else is thinking), catastrophising (jumping to the worst possible outcome), mental filtering (filtering in things that confirm your assumptions and filtering out those that don\u2019t), and black-and-white thinking (seeing things as all good or all bad, success or failure).<\/p>\n
\u2018My brain is trying to make sense of something\u2019<\/p>\n
Melbourne-based Katrina Shaw, 31, says rigid thought patterns began affecting her following the death of her mum when she was a teenager.<\/p>\n
\u201cFrom that trauma, I think my brain has learned that control means safety, control means predictability, so I have developed very fixed, high expectations of what control or certainty is,\u201d Shaw says.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt feels like my brain is trying to make sense of something when it\u2019s unpredictable.<\/p>\n
\u201cI can sometimes feel my anxiety increasing, my mind is racing, I can\u2019t really switch it off \u2013 it\u2019s almost like a protective instinct.\u201d<\/p>\n
Shaw believes her inflexibility and need for perfection has held her back career-wise.<\/p>\n
\u201cA lot of my rigid thinking is around achievement \u2013 I\u2019m self-employed, and like things to look and feel perfect, and have a very fixed perception of what that should be. If I don\u2019t achieve it, I feel like I\u2019ve failed, so often won\u2019t try new things to avoid that.\u201d<\/p>\n
It also caused her significant distress when trying to start a family.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe had recurrent miscarriages and ended up turning to IVF,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was trying to do everything I could to control the situation. I was doing everything social media tells me to do, everything books tell me to do and being very rigid on what I can and can\u2019t do.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen I miscarried, I blamed myself, and would ruminate on what I must have done that caused it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Control takes a toll<\/p>\n
Being rigidly committed to your way of thinking can cause tension in relationships as well as burnout from trying to control everything, Pepper says.<\/p>\n
Loading<\/p>\n
\u201cFriends and family might feel like they are walking on eggshells, and while it might feel like a sense of control short term, over time it creates loneliness and exhaustion,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n
Varsha believes her rigid commitment to her rules robbed her of her personality.<\/p>\n
\u201cMentally and physically, it just drained me,\u201d she says. \u201cI was a teenager and hormonal, but the person all the stress of food and perfectionism had made me was not a very nice person.\u201d<\/p>\n
![\"Varsha](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/8223a6a8fb6f687c8fbc04358f5bbc4905f98c0f.jpeg\")
<\/p>\n
Varsha says she has developed coping mechanisms to keep rigid thinking at bay.Credit: Sam Mooy<\/p>\n
Ways to bend unyielding thoughts<\/p>\n
The good news is, rigid thinking isn\u2019t set in stone.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt shouldn\u2019t be seen as something that can\u2019t change,\u201d Archinal-Hudson says. \u201cIt can definitely improve through therapeutic support.\u201d<\/p>\n
Cognitive behaviour therapy, acceptance and commitment therapy, and schema therapy, along with emotional regulation tools to self-soothe and re-regulate when distressed can help people develop new, adaptive beliefs.<\/p>\n
Pepper says hypnotherapy may also help.<\/p>\n
\u201cHypnosis can be helpful to get the mind to feel safer and more flexible,\u201d she says. \u201cIn trance, the nervous system calms and the brain becomes more open to suggestions and new ways of responding.\u201d<\/p>\n
Shaw says seeing a psychologist helped her notice the unhelpful thoughts driving her anxiety \u2013 and taught her how to reframe and challenge them.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t think I would have become as aware of it without their help,\u201d she says. \u201cFive years ago, if my husband had challenged me when I was having a black-and-white thought process, I probably would have got really frustrated at him.<\/p>\n
\u201cNow I don\u2019t mind people challenging it because I have the awareness and I know it\u2019s just my brain trying to keep me safe. I can have a bit more compassion towards other people\u2019s reactions as well as my own.\u201d<\/p>\n
Varsha has also been able to become more conscious of her unhelpful, rigid thinking patterns through therapy.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt helped me see how much damage I had done mentally from being so success driven,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s still something I have to be aware of \u2013 whenever there are stressors or changes in my life, I tend to struggle.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut when I do hit those low points, I\u2019m starting to see how far I\u2019ve come and can now lean into other coping tools \u2013 like my friends, family, people who love me. Journaling helps a lot too.\u201d<\/p>\n