Catastrophising, do you do it?

[mjlondon88]

Hi Everyone,
I'm new here. I guess I've had suicidal thoughts since I was 15. I'm now in my mid thirties. I always catartrophise and plan out the worst outcomes in my head where I somehow end up loosing everything. I've been diagnosed with depression and take sertraline. I haven't attempted suicide yet. But I wish I was diagnosed with a fatal illness and no longer had to live.

 

[Snake of Eden]

Me too. I wish that i have fatal illness everyday. It is easier than taking our own lives

 

[FuneralCry]

Yes, I always do. Life is just so depressing and miserable. There is no escape from my thoughts. I am a very pessimistic person. I think about the worst possibilities because they can happen, this life holds unlimited potential for suffering. Life is scary to me.

 

[meetapple]

Yes. I catastrophize all the time. If I notice that I have a different characteristic from a person I will assume it is of vital importance and that I can't change myself because it was something acquired when I was very young.

 

[Bone]

yeah ive seen too much firsthand and in media, online, secondhand accounts from others, etc. (even just others' stories on this forum alone) to know that anything can and will happen, and unfortunately, there really doesn't seem to be any rhyme or reason to the universe. happy endings are for fairy tales. my best friend has been saying ive been catastrophizing lately, i'd never heard the word before he said it a few weeks ago, but it's the instant place my mind goes in every situation especially these days.

 

[everydayiloveyou]

My main problem is anxiety, and catastrophizing is my worst cognitive distortion. The worst part is that the thoughts make perfect sense until I tell my therapist about it. then I feel very dumb.

Like one catastrophe I always find myself falling into is that something will go wrong and I will somehow end up homeless. It doesn't make sense how something like that can happen without many steps and circumstances in between, but when I do poorly on an assignment for example, it just seems perfectly reasonable that failing the assignment --> failing the class --> drop out, cant ever get a job --> homelessness

How do you like sertraline? I started it a couple weeks ago and Im hoping itll help, I've also been suicidal since I was around the same age (it started for me when I was 13), I'm 22 now and wishing itll go away someday but I have less and less hope the older I get.

 

[tiredplant777]

Yep I have done this my entire life, thanks to trauma I guess. Very recently I just got so overwhelmed with it I have been trying to make myself think positively instead. I kinda of was like I don't have anything to lose, even if things are hard I don't need to think in a way that makes it worse. It actually has been helping my mental state day to day, I have been microdosing mushrooms so I think that helps too. This is the first time I have ever tried thinking positive, and like taking control of the thoughts. I felt reliant on the fear based thoughts because my whole life it felt like they were protecting me, but they were only making me suffer, but it was because my system/mind felt like there was no other option. I do think the micro dosing is making this mental shift a lot easier.

 

[mjlondon88]

My main problem is anxiety, and catastrophizing is my worst cognitive distortion. The worst part is that the thoughts make perfect sense until I tell my therapist about it. then I feel very dumb.

Like one catastrophe I always find myself falling into is that something will go wrong and I will somehow end up homeless. It doesn't make sense how something like that can happen without many steps and circumstances in between, but when I do poorly on an assignment for example, it just seems perfectly reasonable that failing the assignment --> failing the class --> drop out, cant ever get a job --> homelessness

How do you like sertraline? I started it a couple weeks ago and Im hoping itll help, I've also been suicidal since I was around the same age (it started for me when I was 13), I'm 22 now and wishing itll go away someday but I have less and less hope the older I get.

Sertraline helps after a while. It makes you stop caring about things. Once you start, it's very hard to quit though.

Yes. I catastrophize all the time. If I notice that I have a different characteristic from a person I will assume it is of vital importance and that I can't change myself because it was something acquired when I was very young.

Have you ever managed to stop catastrophizing? Is it even possible?

 

[OnlyTheWind]

I'm sorry that you have to deal with this. It seems like the only place we aren't found, is in the present. I'm always living in the past or hopeless about the future. What a joke.

 

[eryu]

I try not to but it is kind of hard since in retrospect I can see that all my past "catastrophizing" was pretty much spot on (maybe even understated). Everything I fear happening came to pass and worse.
If I do it less now, it is probably just because I'm burnt out. I would never say "it's ok, the worst has already happened". Things can always sink lower.

 

[OpheliasFlowers]

Yes I've done this since childhood (I'm 53 now so...a long time) and I think it's gotten worse as my anxiety disorder has intensified over the years. My catastrophizing is mostly over medical related issues and my plethora of physical problems but sometimes it'll be about other things too. I think for me this behavior started as a child because my father drank and we never knew what kind of mood he'd be in when he came home and how that would manifest itself, so I thought if I thought out ALL possible scenarios and situations I'd be better prepared to deal with whatever actually eventually happened (it didn't help much btw, only made me more anxious). Doesn't help that I also have always had a very vivid, active imagination. :-/ I've tried to overcome the tendency to catastrophize or at least control or minimize it but have never been successful . I always go to that worst case scenario (and truth be told, many MANY times that IS what ultimately happens which doesn't help to stop thinking that way...)

Sorry to everyone who also deals with this. It's hard.

 

[watchingthewheels]

All the time, and with good reason. I've heard therapists and such say that the likely outcome is usually not as bad as the scenario we build in our imaginations, and sometimes, that's true, but more often than not (for me), that's a high threshold, so the outcomes can indeed be catastrophic (literal life or death situations were common for me, growing up.) But those legit catastrophes for me in recent years were usually cases of me trying to care for others who won't get their life together, but with me taking the blame if anything went wrong (again, with literal life-or-death situations). So yeah, "catastrophizing" may be justified, there MAY be a legit catastrophe. The wisdom is knowing how to concsciously respond (vs. blindly reacting) when to act, and when to walk away. I finally wised up, and had to learn to let go, and recognize that others have moral agency and responsibility, too.


(In other words: to paraphrase DOCTOR STRANGELOVE, "How I've learned to stop worrying and accept the catastrophy others bring upon themselves.")

This Youtube post on codependency sums it up perfectly:

https://www.youtube.com/post/UgyB3UiopMRxuyq6iL14AaABCQ

Codependency is real. When we are codependent, we fail to understand we are NOT focusing on the self. Instead, we are focusing on the needs of others and doing all we can to fix, and control those who can only control themselves. Codependents often find themselves catering to the endless needs of overt as well as covert narcissists who refuse to take accountability for their actions, beliefs, intentions, and feelings. Codependents give, council, forgive, understand, caretaker and deplete themselves in trying to manage the lives of others. When we find ourselves drained, we often fight harder to get the other to admit the error of their ways. We think, that if we can get through to them, our lives will magically get better. In time, we find ourselves at the end of our rope. We have nothing left to give. We are done, yet, we are still confused. Our way of being finds us in yet another codependent caretaking role, denying how we feel about our new partner, idealizing the relationship rather than focusing on the self. We come to know our partners yet still fail to know the self. If you suffer with codependency, you may feel sad on the inside and think that fixing others and getting them to change will fix you. Dear One, that's the problem. Codependents by nature require someone to fix, and until the caretaker, rescuer and enabler in you has awakened from their subconscious dream state, you will continue to attract those who have yet learned to take full accountability for themselves and their life choices. Think Dear One — think

 

[OpheliasFlowers]

I try not to but it is kind of hard since in retrospect I can see that all my past "catastrophizing" was pretty much spot on (maybe even understated). Everything I fear happening came to pass and worse.
If I do it less now, it is probably just because I'm burnt out. I would never say "it's ok, the worst has already happened". Things can always sink lower.

This is it exactly, for me too. :( I'm sorry you have experienced this also.

 

[meetapple]

Sertraline helps after a while. It makes you stop caring about things. Once you start, it's very hard to quit though.

Have you ever managed to stop catastrophizing? Is it even possible?

My therapist gave me a packet of information on cognitive distortions. For catastrophizing you can try to consciously come up with other explanations for things besides the worst possible one.