Are you Catastrophizing?

Absolutely terrific new article from Vox (one of my favorite non-subscription news sources which I support with donations). This is from their "Even Better" health reporting features:

https://www.vox.com/even-better/24055564/catastrophizing-stop-assuming-the-worst-negative-thoughts (Are you catastrophizing? Here’s how to stop assuming the worst.)

It's a quick read, with nine short actionable ways to stop your catastrophizing, your rumination, your RUTs (Dr Hanscom's acronym for Repetitive Unpleasant Thoughts), or however you think of the tendency of our fearful brains (the primitive amygdala) to obsess over negative outcomes, past or future.

Interestingly, most, if not all of the actions appeared in the excellent book I just finished by Ethan Kross, Chatter. I've mentioned it a number of times recently, recommending his web site as well as the book (which I finally got after a long hold at my library for the ebook - then I went ahead and bought it for my kindle).

 

I'm doing CBT at the moment and starting to recognise I do this a lot. Through the CBT I'm able to catch it and flip sometimes now but a lot of the time I don't even realise I'm doing it

 

Powerful little article!

Yes, the last five days I have been recovering from a rather unusual cold and, being a man, of course I catastrophized every little symptom that made it unusual.

I really like the one where you ask yourself: ‘What is the worst thing that could possibly happen?’ and following it up with the powerful question of, ‘Could I survive that?’.

 

I will give it a read. You had mentioned Chatter in a reply to one of my recent posts and I just ordered it as I think it is exactly the type of read I need. I'm well aware that my pain and struggles are almost entirely based on the discomfort I feel from my own anxiety and catastrophizing about the symptoms I have, rather than the symptoms themselves. Honestly, in moments of calm, when I observe the sensations that bother my so much, I recognize that in themselves, they're not all that bad... I'm sure this book will be immensely helpful.

 

I really, really like the follow up question. I often ask myself the former question, but following up with "Could I survive that?" brings home the fact that often we don't need to fear as much as we do. To add to that, asking "have I survived worse?" (with the answer likely being yes for many) could help us recognize our strength in overcoming difficult times.