204 - Friday Fix: An Effective Tool for Dealing with Catastrophic Thoughts

The Verywell Mind Podcast

Dotdash Media Inc.

Health & Fitness, Self-improvement, Mental Health, Education

5 • 703 Ratings

🗓️ 7 October 2022

⏱️ 11 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

We all imagine catastrophic things happening sometimes. Maybe whenever a loved one doesn’t reply to a text message, right you automatically think something terrible has happened to them. Or perhaps every time your boss asks you to meet, you assume that you’re about to get fired. Not only do catastrophic thoughts overestimate how bad things are going to be, they also underestimate our ability to cope if something bad does happen. You might tell yourself that you’d be completely destroyed if you got laid off or that you’d never recover if your love interest broke up with you. Catastrophic thoughts cause us to feel awful. And they can keep us from taking productive action if you let them. While you can’t stop them from happening, you can choose how you respond to them. It’s a common issue we address in the therapy office — skills for managing catastrophic thoughts. Here's my favorite strategy for dealing with them. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Welcome to the Very Well Mind podcast. We've interviewed over 100 authors, experts, entrepreneurs, athletes, musicians, and others to help you learn strategies to care for your mental health.
0:22.9	This episode is hosted by psychotherapist and bestselling author Amy Morin. Now let's get into the episode.
0:45.5	Okay. You're listening to the Friday fix.
0:52.3	Every Friday, I share a quick mental strength strategy that can help fix the thoughts, feelings, and actions that can pull you back in life.
0:57.5	Today I'm talking about catastrophic thoughts and an effective strategy for dealing with them.
1:00.5	All of us have catastrophic thoughts sometimes.
1:04.8	It might involve exaggerating how awful something was in the past.
1:09.1	Like maybe you said something in a meeting at work two days ago and you're still thinking about how stupid you sounded and you
1:11.2	imagine that everyone is laughing at you now. Or maybe you have a catastrophic thought about the future.
1:17.9	Like you predict that your stomach ache is a sign of internal bleeding and you're convinced
1:22.2	that you're about to die. But then you tell yourself if you go to the hospital to get help,
1:26.5	you'll rack up bill so high you'll end up homeless and destitute.
1:30.2	You might have catastrophic thoughts about your inability to cope with something, too.
1:34.9	Perhaps you've even said something like, oh, I'd die if something like that ever happened to me when you see a tragic event on the news.
1:42.2	Or maybe every time you imagine launching your own business,
1:45.0	you start thinking about all the things that could go wrong and how you'd be so anxious
1:49.5	that you wouldn't be able to function. We all have catastrophic thoughts sometimes. They're those
1:55.7	thoughts that are exaggeratedly negative and they cause us to feel really awful. And they can prevent us from taking
2:02.0	some kind of helpful action too. And that's because sometimes we don't take action because we're too
2:06.6	busy thinking about all the horrible what if scenarios. Like, oh, what if I mess up? What if I embarrass
2:13.6	myself? What if I lose all my money? So rather than spend your time preparing for something
2:19.2	or increasing your chances of success, you'll likely waste your time thinking about all those
	...

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