This Is A Catastrophe!

Often people tend to process external information in a wrong way, as if we had put on glasses through which we perceive the world around us. If those glasses have clean lenses, we will be able to see our surroundings realistically, as it is.

But if the glasses have dirty lenses, we will interpret reality in a distorted, unreal way. “Think wrong and be right”. I don’t know who would say that, but it strikes me as one of the most absurd and useless sayings I’ve ever heard.

People with anxiety disorders often use a pattern of thinking called “catastrophism” in psychology, which does nothing but cause, increase, and maintain anxiety symptoms.

Catastrophists always think that in a given situation the worst possible scenario will occur . Something terrible, a catastrophe, although they really have no rational reason to think so. On the other hand, moments or circumstances that are unpleasant are perceived as unbearable or unbearable.

As we know, thought directly influences feelings. That is, it depends on how you think, this is how you will feel. Obviously, if you are a person who tends to think catastrophically, who is always ruminating about the worst that can happen or you exaggerately evaluate the things that happen to you as horrible, your feelings will be of great anxiety, fear, worry, tension …

Let’s take an example.

Suppose you get fired from your job. The reality is that it is a painful and unpleasant fact, nobody likes to be fired from their job, this is logical. But … is it a catastrophe? Can’t bear it? Will you no longer be able to be happy?

A person who catastrophizes about situations would answer that of course it is a catastrophe, that his life has been ruined, that he will not find another job and that he is condemned to be unhappy all his life. There is nothing to do, you are lost.

This way of thinking is not functional at all and all it will do is sink you further. If you think you will never find another job, you will not go looking for it. If you think that you will no longer be able to be happy because you have been fired, you will become depressed and will not seek alternative solutions.

In the end you will reach the destination you feared. I am not saying that you do not go through a normal period of sadness, despair and grief since you have lost something that you considered valuable and emotions have to surface and perform their function. The problem is maintaining this state for a long time so that you hurt yourself.

How to change our catastrophic thinking?

To start, take a deep breath and analyze the situation. The reality is what it is: you have been fired, your partner has left you, your daughter drinks alcohol on weekends, your mother has passed away …

Then ask yourself if what is happening is truly as paralyzing or dramatic as you think or is it you who is oversizing the situation, defining reality in your own way. Be honest with yourself and you will realize that many things that you thought you would not bear, you really can with them.

We are actually stronger physically and emotionally than we think.

Think that there are things that are uncontrollable, that happen even if they are very unpleasant, because suffering and frustration are part of life and we must not give it more thought or feed our discomfort thinking that “this should not have been like that”.

If you insist that things should not have turned out the way they have, you will get two irritations for the price of one. Do not waste energy, invest it in looking for solutions and if there is no possible solution, you only have to accept and continue your path in the most adaptive way possible.

If you propose to practice every day, in each new difficult situation, relativizing and rationalizing your way of interpreting things, in seeing the world as it is and not as your head tells you it is, you will feel much better to act in a more productive and better way for you. Remember that thought, emotion and behavior are three cogs that influence each other.

It is your obligation and your duty to take care of your mind and free it from ghosts that only harm you, that do not help you solve anything because if you do not start to change yourself, no one will change for you.

“Think well and you will win”