July 4, 2023
FREE YOURSELF FROM CATASTROPHIZING
Catastrophizing is when a person believes the absolute worst will occur even when it is not at all accurate to reality but firmly believed. An example would be when a person believes they are always going to flunk their exams and never do. Even though this proves to be true over and over again,their catastrophizing never ends and they are always suffering high anxiety and even depression from their unjustified fears. Another example would be the employee who always gets good reviews but always unreasonably believes they are on the verge of being fired. A further example would be when a well liked person believes they will surely say or do something that good friends will no longer like them. It never happens but this does not stop them from catastrophizing that it soon will. Persons who catastrophize often have low self-esteem and fears about themselves and the course of their lives. As a result, they often have problems in some combination in such areas as generalized anxiety, social anxiety, depression, phobias,OCD, PTSD, sleeping disorders, and exaggerated pain and other physical concerns. The following are suggestions on what to do to free yourself from the psychological and often physical problem areas that result from catastrophizing: 1. Work on controlling the inner critic and be kind to yourself. 2.Be mindful of your positive traits and behaviors and work on realizing catastrophizing is a bad habit that has been limiting your ability to be happy in life. 3.Seek out supportive persons who recognize the goodness in you and help you be more realistic in your life reality. 4.Get plenty of sleep to reduce fatigue and what I call “stinking thinking”. 5.Do self-care physically and emotionally to enhance your self-esteem. Daily exercising and something as basic as deep breathing can be very helpful. 6.Take a realistic view of yourself and see the harm that catastrophizing has done to you personally and physically and replace these thoughts with positive realistic ones. 7.Keep in your mind you are using a magnifying glass to look for problems in yourself and psychologically making the proverbial “mountain out of a mole hill”. 8. Write out positive affirmations about yourself, read them regularly, commit them to memory, believe them, and live your life based on their reality. 9.If you feel spirituality could be helpful, seek out a priest or minister for support. 10. As you feel necessary, seek out a therapist who is an expert in Cognitive Behavior Therapy/CBT to help you restructure your thoughts in a way to minimize and eventually eliminate catastrophizing. 11.Talk to your family physician about possible medication to help with areas most likely relating to anxiety and depression… It often is found the combination of medication and therapy can be very helpful for persons who have problems with catastrophizing. Persons who catastrophize and use some of the strategies listed here to overcome it can be on the road to freeing themselves from it. Then there will predictably be a rise in self-esteem and reduction in fear,anxiety and other areas of mental health and physical health that can result from catastrophizing.