Self-blaming is when you take all the responsibility for something that went wrong, even when other factors were involved. Learning to recognise realistic causes can help you respond with more balance and self-compassion.
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Dr Harriet Mellotte
Clinical Psychologist & CBT Therapist, BABCP
“Offload is a fantastic resource for both clients and therapists. The world of CBT has been lacking an app which enables the sharing of CBT worksheets and homework tasks between clients and therapists, but Offload completely does this, making the service we offer more professional and the benefits to clients greater.”
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Abramson, L. Y., Metalsky, G. I., & Alloy, L. B. (1989). Hopelessness depression: A theory-based subtype of depression. Psychological Review, 96(2), 358–372. — Classic model showing that a self-blaming attributional style (internal, stable, global attributions for negative events) predicts depressive symptoms. Beck, A. T., Rush, A. J., Shaw, B. F., & Emery, G. (1979). Cognitive Therapy of Depression. Guilford Press. — Foundational CBT work identifying self-blaming thoughts as a core cognitive distortion targeted in therapy. Saffari, M., Ebrahimi, H., & Ramezani, M. (2024). Relationship between cognitive distortions and depression in university students. Journal of Affective Disorders Reports. — Recent empirical study demonstrating that self-blaming distortions are strongly associated with increased depressive symptoms.
