CATASTROPHISING

Catastrophising is a feature of an anxious and highly stressed person. You've engaged in this kind of thought process or observed others doing it. It is a tendency to exaggerate the consequences of an action, thinking about it as a catastrophic event. When we engage in this kind of thinking we get a sense of threat that things will not only be bad, they will be really bad! 

Lets say you forgot to set your alarm and overslept. Now you will be late for work. If you are prone to catastrophising you might start thinking that this event is some kind of the end of the world - now that you overslept and are late to work, your employer will think you're irresponsible, you will be fired and will be unemployed for a very long time, because of that you'll become depressed and poverty-stricken.

Here we see that during this kind of thought process a highly active imagination is in use showing a negative scenario which results in belief that disaster is inevitable. It's hard to appraise the significance of a situation realistically, and triggers even more stress and higher levels of anxiety.
When we're catastrophising with 'should' style thinking about other people or life in general it often leads to anger.


How to stop yourself from falling into doom-laden thinking?

• Accept that catastrophising is a symptom of your anxiety and/or stress and nothing more.

• Remember that 99.9 percent of the time "What if's" and worst case scenarios never occur.

• Ask yourself:

1. On the scale of all the bad things that have happened to you in the past or could happen in the future, how bad could this event be?
2. If I had no choice but to deal with the very worst thing that could happen in this situation what would you actually do?
3. Learn to look at your thoughts, feelings and behaviours as outsider. What would you say to your friend if he/she was immersed in this kind of thinking? Can you apply this to yourself too?
4. Is there anything good about the situation?
5. In there any way to fix the situation?
6. What can I control in this situation and what I can't?

Don't let your imagination run riots with frightening scenarios, don't be your own enemy.