Learning about Cognitive Distortions: Distortion No.1: Catastrophizing
Hi everyone! I hope you are doing well. Last week I announced the cognitive distortion series. You can read about it here.
Today we will be looking at the first cognitive distortion of the series, ‘catastrophizing’. Catastrophizing is when a person focuses on the worst possible outcome and treats it as likely, even when it is not. Some common examples:
- I am not feeling better after this treatment. I will never get better.
- I will for sure fail this test because I forgot to study chapter X.
- I could not keep up with my exercise regime, I will never become physically fit.
- I have not been able to keep in touch with my friend. I bet he is no longer my friend
- I forgot to put the right spacing in my essay. That's it, there goes my A in this course.
Other names for the distortion are magnifying, and negative fortune telling.
We get what catastrophizing is now and it's likely we all do it, some more than others. But how do we tackle this, how do we stop assuming the worst possible outcome?
We can do this by engaging in the following:
(Taken from Glen’s post on How to Worry Less and Not Panic)
- What are the odds: On a scale of 1-100%, how likely is this to happen? “Okay, if I had $1000 in my pocket now, would I bet that $1000 that this would happen?” If the answer is no, then it is likely that I am worrying too much about it.
- Your Personal Hit Rate: Think about how often you are right when you think of the worst-case scenarios. Don’t be selective and remember the times you were right, try to think of all the times. Chances are it's less than 2%. Then does it make sense to consider something as true when your past predicting success rate is just 2%?
To truly practice reframing your thoughts when it comes to this cognitive distortion. Let's experiment for a week together!
- Start a doc/take out a notebook.
- Write down your personal hit rate on top of the doc/page so you can remember your level of accuracy as you look at your daunting problems.
- Every time you are thinking of the worst outcome, write down what is on your mind.
- Then write down another opposing (positive thought) that you believe to be true. This can be hard but if you think enough, you will find it! It helps to look into facts to support your case
Due to the nature of these exercises, it is advisable that any interested listeners use their member accounts so they can freely share their experiences.
What we are attempting to do is to nudge our minds away from jumping to the worst possible conclusions and present some realistic alternatives that cause us less anguish.
📢Points of Action:
- Find out your personal hit rate, don’t just assume, look into your past and get an accurate percentage.
- Counter your catastrophic thoughts with counter-positive thoughts based on logic/facts/experience.
- After practicing this with at least one thought. Tell us about your experience with this exercise.
📝To help us get started. Let's all share about a time when we truly believed the worst possible outcome or a very bad outcome was likely but it did not happen.
Recommended Resources:
- Forum Post: How to Worry Less and Not Panic
- Book: How to Stop Worrying and Start Living (Chapter 1) (the book is long, the most relevant chapter to this post is Chapter 1).
@Hope
- Find out your personal hit rate, don’t just assume, look into your past and get an accurate percentage.
i guess 10 percent - Counter your catastrophic thoughts with counter-positive thoughts based on logic/facts/experience.
i would definitely fail this exam >>> i had many exams which were successful and one failure doesnt define me - After practicing this with at least one thought. Tell us about your experience with this exercise.
i guess its really important to look at things in a realistic perspective, i know its hard when the situation is bad, but thats where we need it the most
📝To help us get started. Let's all share about a time when we truly believed the worst possible outcome or a very bad outcome was likely but it did not happen.
i thought i would fail but i didnt.
@Hope
Points of Action:
Find out your personal hit rate, don’t just assume, look into your past and get an accurate percentage.
That one is tough, to gauge for me. I will have to think about that more.
Counter your catastrophic thoughts with counter-positive thoughts based on logic/facts/experience.
If you make a mistake, you will be disliked... If you make a mistake, it is a reminder you are human and normal.
After practicing this with at least one thought. Tell us about your experience with this exercise.
This exercise is helpful for me in grounding myself in reality. It shows the facts and reminds me that the worst possible outcome is not usually likely.
To help us get started. Let's all share about a time when we truly believed the worst possible outcome or a very bad outcome was likely but it did not happen.
Recently, I was a little worried that someone did not like me because of a potential misunderstanding. That turned out to not be the case, and all has been well!
@Hope
📝To help us get started. Let's all share about a time when we truly believed the worst possible outcome or a very bad outcome was likely but it did not happen.
I thought I would not be able to write my exam properly. But I ended up passing my exam.
@Hope
- Find out your personal hit rate, don’t just assume, look into your past and get an accurate percentage. 5 %
- Counter your catastrophic thoughts with counter-positive thoughts based on logic/facts/experience. Catastrophic thoughts include the following: I made a mistake. What am I going to do? ( Thinking negatively that since I have made a mistake, I am a bad person and I must suffer.) Counterpositive thoughts include: Nobody is right in this world. It's okay to make mistakes. Don't repeat them. Learn from your mistakes(Positive Self-talk). I can do this. The only thing that is stopping me is myself. I am capable of doing things.
- After practicing this with at least one thought. Tell us about your experience with this exercise. This exercise is very effective. I feel much better and confident. I was able to identify my irrational thinking patterns and rephrase them into more positive ones.
@Hope
Find out your personal hit rate, don’t just assume, look into your past and get an accurate percentage.
I think I’m going to take some time to reflect on my past predictions of worst-case scenarios. And I’m certainly curious to see what my actual hit rate is!
Counter your catastrophic thoughts with counter-positive thoughts based on logic/facts/experience.
That would be, “I’m going to fail my next exam because I didn’t study enough.” Then, I’ll counter that thought with positive affirmations based on my experiences like “I’ve done well on exams before even when I felt unprepared and I still have time to review the material.”
After practicing this with at least one thought. Tell us about your experience with this exercise.
This practice helped me recognize that my fears were often exaggerated. I realized that reframing my thoughts made a real difference in how I approached my upcoming exam.
To help us get started. Let's all share about a time when we truly believed the worst possible outcome or a very bad outcome was likely but it did not happen.
