Catastrophizing is very often a large part of panic attacks and generalized anxiety. It takes the form of irrational thoughts that compound to have us believing that situations are far worse than they truly are. There are typically two forms of catastrophizing.
The first type is very much related to future projecting. In these instances, you’ll think about future events or occasions and anticipate everything that could potentially go wrong. Your mind will essentially create a reality around your thoughts.
“It’s all going to go wrong.”
“I’m going to fail.”
“They won’t like me.”
“I will be humiliated.”
Filling in the future blanks with negatives can set off your anxiety and lead to the overwhelming desire to excuse yourself from family events, business meetings, and even first dates.
The other type of catastrophizing involves taking a situation and creating it into a catastrophe when it need not be. As an example, if you have a date planned with your special someone and she cancels at the last minute, you may start to create a truly negative spin around the situation.
“She is breaking up with me.”
“I’m so boring. I must have bored her.”
“She doesn’t love me.”
“I’m going to be alone forever.”
This catastrophizing is often interjected into situations at work. You may make one small mistake, and immediately jump to the worst case scenario.
“I’m going to be humiliated.”
“I’m going to lose my job.”
“No one else is going to hire me.”
Falling victim to catastrophizing can severely limit your life, your ability to function at work, your relationships, and your ability to find happiness. It can also create a type of self-fulfilling prophecy of negativity, failure, and misery.
Instead of allowing your thoughts to run rampant, you should take some deep cleansing breaths, take a walk, or go get a glass of water. Consider the actual probability of this situation spinning out of control and into the catastrophe that you are imagining it to be. In reality how likely is it that you will not make a great impression at your job interview? How likely is it that your special someone is breaking things off? How likely is it that you will lose your job for a small mistake?
Odds are good that the catastrophic outcome you’re imagining are a lot less likely to happen than your anxiety-filled mind is allowing you to believe.
Very few events experience can actually alter the direction of your life.
The first step to take when you are dealing with catastrophizing is to identify it when it starts to crop up. The faster that you are able to identify it, the sooner you’ll be able to focus on ending it. This is when it can prove to be beneficial to jot down your thoughts, as you are having them. After a brief period of time you’ll be able to see an emerging pattern that you can start to work on.
Each time that you catch yourself catastrophizing a situation, you have the tools needed to stop this pattern of negative thinking.
Catastrophic thinking: I’ve made a mistake sending that email. It’s going out to the whole company. I’m a failure. I’m going to get fired.
Responsive thinking: No. I’m only human, mistakes happen. I can fix the mistake, apologize, and move on.
Catastrophic thinking: I’ve burned dinner. He’s going to think I’m a terrible wife, and we’re going to get into a big fight. He’s going to be so disappointed, and leave me.
Responsive thinking: Accidents happen. He’ll understand, and we’ll order in.
Ending a habit of catastrophizing can take a fair bit of conscious effort. It can also take some time, so don’t be so hard on yourself if you find yourself struggling time and time again.
These tips can help you to banish these irrational thoughts until they are truly a thing of the past.