Catastrophizing

Lynn Martin gives this definition of catastrophizing:

You believe the worst-case scenario will happen.
e.g. Someone turns you down for a date. You are convinced you will lead a life of loneliness.

I can remember catastrophizing from when I was a small boy. I imagined my parents dying mostly, and would bring myself to tears on a regular basis. I don't know why I did it back then. I think maybe I wanted my life to be more dramatic than it was, and did these mental exercises to spice things up a bit.

But as an adult I've come to recognize catastrophizing as a symptom that I'm not doing well. Mostly these patterns of thought come easily to mind when I'm depressed.

I'm going to lose my job. My wife will leave me. Financial ruin is imminent. These are three classics that I've visited often.

Thankfully my wife has now left me, so one of those three won't be a problem any more.

When you're in the grip of catastrophic thoughts, you feel totally overwhelmed. Paralyzed by the fear of the inevitable doom that approaches.

For me something that helped a great deal with these thoughts was CBT.

But not general CBT, a specific variation which can be characterized with the phrase:

What's the worst that could happen?

The way to tackle these catastrophic scenarios is to let them run to their natural conclusions in your mind, and take a rational approach to what you would do if that eventuated.

So think about what could happen: I'm going to lose my job. Break it down a bit. Depending on why you think you might lose it, would your employer have to give you three warnings, and an opportunity to improve first? If not, what would you actually do then? Could you find another job straight away? If not (let it go really to the worst case!) could you stay with family for a month or two until you did find work? Would you recover eventually?

This kind of breakdown is really helpful. Once you know what you would do in the absolute worst case scenario, you'll generally find it's not so bad. You could deal with it and get back on your feet.

Having this knowledge is really powerful. It takes some of the emotional power out of the thoughts, and lets you deal with the reality of the situation away from the intensity of feeling that catastrophizing brings.

Fortunately I've been free of depression for over 2 years now, and touch wood will manage to stay free of depression and catastrophizing thoughts for years to come. If it does rear it's head again this is one tool I've found invaluable to help cope with it.