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: (Actual tasks you will need to complete if you wish to avail the series certificate, only available for a limited time)
- 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. (This is not the task, it is for general discussion, a place for you to start off if you feel stuck)
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).
Post edited on Nov 21, 2024 to clarify required tasks.
@Hope
I guess the most recent and relatable experience was when I heard gun shots and thought there was great danger outside and could not go out. They were actually people celebrating the end of the problem. I realised that when we do not have all the facts and the full information about what is happening we can often come to some harmful conclusions. I guess it is is better to ask about what is going on from reliable sources rather than just assume it.
I think this excercise is important for us to not take our thoughts and notions so seriously as factually based all the time and to be more open to other alternatives and possibilities
@Hope
I do this so much I find it really hard to spot. It's just normal for me to think the worst. And not being able to spot it, makes it hard to counter.
I can come up with a lot of "I will never have/achieve ..." beliefs but perhaps the fundamental one is "I will never be good enough"
How true is this? Not very. There's a few things I'm not good at, but I'm good at lots of things.
I want to reframe what is good enough. In my mind it is perfect. But it's OK to make mistakes. So a mistake shouldn't mean not good enough.
So if, I take out all the times when I haven't been perfect, it's definitely less than 50% I'm not good enough. And probably less than 10%.
Making the occasional mistake is good enough.
I have another belief. I will never be able to stop catastrophising. Because I will never be able to spot that I'm doing it. So this exercise has been useful because I've spotted several ways I'm catastrophising. So now there's a few in the bag to counter the "I will never be able to spot them" thought.
I'm highly amused as I write this. It's quite amazing the contortioning I'm capable of.
One day I will love myself.
@Hope
Find out your personal hit rate, don’t just assume, look into your past and get an accurate percentage.
-10 percent I guess, it's hard to say, looking into my past and trying to recall, I see that most of the time, my fear based choice was wrong. But then I do remember a few times it actually happened, I'm actually going to say it's more like a 5 percent.
Counter your catastrophic thoughts with counter-positive thoughts based on logic/facts/experience.
-its may happen again, but probably not, things are different, like this and this. But it especially won't happen again because I will do this differently.
After practicing this with at least one thought. Tell us about your experience with this exercise.
I've found this exercise really helpful, and noticed quite a big difference in my thoughts and mental state.
@Hope
Find out your personal hit rate, don’t just assume, look into your past and get an accurate percentage.
-10 percent I guess, it's hard to say, looking into my past and trying to recall, I see that most of the time, my fear based choice was wrong. But then I do remember a few times it actually happened, I'm actually going to say it's more like a 5 percent.
Counter your catastrophic thoughts with counter-positive thoughts based on logic/facts/experience.
-its may happen again, but probably not, things are different, like this and this. But it especially won't happen again because I will do this differently.
After practicing this with at least one thought. Tell us about your experience with this exercise.
I've found this exercise really helpful, and noticed quite a big difference in my thoughts and mental state.
Thank you @Hope ✨🙏🏽✨
After thinking carefully about the many times I was “expecting the worst” I realized that no matter the amount of sweat or worry they did not happen… It was all in my mind and this exercise reminds me to be aware of my thoughts and changing them for a positive or a brighter one. After all, if I can think negatively I can think positively, right? ✨
@Hope
1. Find out your personal hit rate, don’t just assume, look into your past and get an accurate percentage. Done 👍✅
2. Counter your catastrophic thoughts with counter-positive thoughts based on logic/facts/experience.
Stressful Thought: Something bad is going to happen, I need to prepare for every possible worst-case scenario. If don't I won't be able to handle it because I won't be prepared.
Counter Thought: I've faced challenges before and found ways to cope. There's no evidence something bad will happen. Even if it does, I have the skills, wellness tools, and support to manage it. While planning is helpful, I can't predict everything, it is more realistic to focus on what I can control, the present moment and trust in myself that I am fully capable and self-aware enough to be able to adapt to unexpected situations when faced with them.
3. After practicing this with at least one thought. Tell us about your experience with this exercise.
It's interesting to think and experience how catastrophizing is and how it can affect a person. It's also interesting to realize just how easy it can be to fall under the catastrophizing cognitive distortion. And how no matter how small or how big the thought might be it could be so debilitating for a person.
@Hope
Counter your catastrophic thoughts with counter-positive thoughts based on logic/facts/experience.
Stressful Thought: Something bad is going to happen, I need to prepare for every possible worst-case scenario. If don't I won't be able to handle it because I won't be prepared.
Counter Thought: I've faced challenges before and found ways to cope. There's no evidence something bad will happen. Even if it does, I have the skills, wellness tools, and support to manage it. While planning is helpful, I can't predict everything, it is more realistic to focus on what I can control, the present moment and trust in myself that I am fully capable and self-aware enough to be able to adapt to unexpected situations when faced with them.
After practicing this with at least one thought. Tell us about your experience with this exercise.
It's interesting to think and experience how catastrophizing is and how it can affect a person. It's also interesting to realize just how easy it can be to fall under the catastrophizing cognitive distortion. And how no matter how small or how big the thought might be it could be so debilitating for a person.