Ahh catastrophizing..many of us do it. And some of us do it way too much.
For those who may not know, catastrophizing can be defined as: "to view or talk about (an event or situation) as worse than it actually is, or as if it were a catastrophe."
This can either be small and just bothersome, or completely debilitating. For example, maybe traffic is bad and you worry you'll be late for work and might get in trouble. Or, maybe since traffic is bad, now would be the absolute worst time for a giant natural disaster to strike and everyone would be stranded and helpless because traffic just isn't moving, and now you're sweating and shaking and can't stop thinking about everything going wrong. These are just a few examples, though. Anyone can experience catastrophizing in any way.
I've struggled with anxiety and catastrophizing for many years, and boy it's exhausting. I learned some neat tricks to combat it though, a and they've helped me much more than I ever expected!
Trick 1: when imagining a bad situation that is not actually happening, tell yourself that it's not true and give a positive reason to back it up.
Example: "im afraid my house is going to catch on fine and burn down while I'm asleep" -> "my house wont burn down in my sleep, because my smoke alarms are working and will wake me up, and the firefighters can get here in just a couple minutes"
This is really helpful for catching a spiraling thought pattern and interrupting it with logic and facts: something anxiety hates.
Trick 2: thinking of a positive flip-side to a catastrophic thought.
Example: "I'm afraid my garden will die and ill have no fresh food to eat" -> "I might grow way more food from my garden than i expected, which I could either preserve or donate to local food banks for hungry families"
This is handy for putting your thoughts in perspective. There can be positive outcomes in our lives all the time, and usually we might not even notice because confirmation bias is nasty when we're stuck in a negative mindset. A lot of good things can and do happen too!
Anyways, I just wanted to share these helpful tools I learned in case they might help anyone else too. I've healed a lot from practicing this, and I encourage you to try too, even if your catastrophizing is super tiny and doesn't get in the way of your life. Thinking more positively is always a nice thing!
For those who may not know, catastrophizing can be defined as: "to view or talk about (an event or situation) as worse than it actually is, or as if it were a catastrophe."
This can either be small and just bothersome, or completely debilitating. For example, maybe traffic is bad and you worry you'll be late for work and might get in trouble. Or, maybe since traffic is bad, now would be the absolute worst time for a giant natural disaster to strike and everyone would be stranded and helpless because traffic just isn't moving, and now you're sweating and shaking and can't stop thinking about everything going wrong. These are just a few examples, though. Anyone can experience catastrophizing in any way.
I've struggled with anxiety and catastrophizing for many years, and boy it's exhausting. I learned some neat tricks to combat it though, a and they've helped me much more than I ever expected!
Trick 1: when imagining a bad situation that is not actually happening, tell yourself that it's not true and give a positive reason to back it up.
Example: "im afraid my house is going to catch on fine and burn down while I'm asleep" -> "my house wont burn down in my sleep, because my smoke alarms are working and will wake me up, and the firefighters can get here in just a couple minutes"
This is really helpful for catching a spiraling thought pattern and interrupting it with logic and facts: something anxiety hates.
Trick 2: thinking of a positive flip-side to a catastrophic thought.
Example: "I'm afraid my garden will die and ill have no fresh food to eat" -> "I might grow way more food from my garden than i expected, which I could either preserve or donate to local food banks for hungry families"
This is handy for putting your thoughts in perspective. There can be positive outcomes in our lives all the time, and usually we might not even notice because confirmation bias is nasty when we're stuck in a negative mindset. A lot of good things can and do happen too!
Anyways, I just wanted to share these helpful tools I learned in case they might help anyone else too. I've healed a lot from practicing this, and I encourage you to try too, even if your catastrophizing is super tiny and doesn't get in the way of your life. Thinking more positively is always a nice thing!