Catastrophizing

Catastrophization is easily one of my top three thought distortions, and the one that Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) has helped me corral the most. According to Psychology Today: “Catastrophizing is a cognitive distortion that prompts people to jump to the worst possible conclusion after a minor setback.” A vivid example of this pattern of thought comes from a young woman I spoke with after one of my talks at a Georgia high school:

• If I get less than a 100% on a test, I won’t get into college.

• Since I won’t get into college, I won’t get a good job.

• Without a good job, I won’t be able to afford a home.

• Living on the street, I probably won’t be able to buy food.

• Because I can’t purchase food, I’ll starve to death.

This was not quite my experience in high school. I fully expected to be dead before twenty-five regardless of any test scores, but I could deeply relate to this stressed woman about thoughts that careened out of control. Just like driving, out of control thoughts are more likely to end in a crash.

I am astonished at how easy it is to slip into this type of thinking. It’s perversely natural that the human mind extrapolates a miniscule setback to an outcome as serious and permanent as death. Natural because the mind is evolutionarily pre-disposed to focus on and address the negative. Our ancestors wouldn’t be our ancestors if they didn’t imagine worst-case scenarios and work to prevent them. Perverse because modern living has outpaced how the mind absorbs stressful situations.

This is not to say that our lives are harder than that of our hunter-gatherer forebears; you have to give them credit for thriving in a time where one mistake could lead to being lunch for some predator. I mean to differentiate between the immediate stressors that our ancestors experienced and the chronic stressors that we now experience. Our ancestors were worried about fulfilling the basic needs of being human, aptly characterized by Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs. Due to the luck of birth, most humans in developed countries have those needs met, but the mind continues to search for things to be worried about:

• Test scores

• Money

• Perception

• Performance

Think about what gives you some of the most satisfying pleasure after a difficult day. A warm shower, hot tea, a soft blanket, a dog or cat on your lap, comfort food, deep sleep. Those experiences stick with you much, much longer than getting an “A” on a test, or your team getting a win. Fulfilled physiological needs are felt more deeply, and they’re what we rely on to recuperate when we’re low on energy and overly stressed.

Catastrophization is being at the top of Maslow’s Pyramid and jumping off without a parachute. It’s tying missing a test question to starving to death, or not getting a promotion to losing your home. This is the mind doing what the mind does. It’s not a trick because it is better to have a mind that is concerned about our survival than not. However, this is not something that we have to accept as gospel because jumping from “I experienced something bad,” to, “I’m going to die,” is not logical. So we can use logic to attack this thought distortion and replace it with something much more realistic. Here’s an example of one of my thought records:

Write the Negative Automatic Thought (NAT), categorize the thought, and then reduce the power of the thought by attacking it with logic. That is CBT in a nutshell. It took me several years of practice until I was able to do this on the fly in my own mind, but I still find value in writing out these thought records whenever I feel my mind reeling out of control.

This is why I wish CBT would be introduced as part of a high school, or even middle school curriculum. There is tremendous value in teaching our young people how to step away from their thoughts and evaluate them for any possible distortions. Those that, in yoga-speak: “do not serve you,” can be categorized, understood, and addressed in a healthy manner.