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Putting an end to catastrophic thinking

Growth is painful, change is painful, but nothing is as painful as staying stuck

As everyone knows and also most probably could have experienced that it is the universal fact that doing nothing is painful. Here doing nothing doesn’t mean meditation or relaxation and it portraits the negative thoughts which retard the person to perform anything progressive. This is what we say as catastrophic thinking. Let’s get to know what it means and how it affects the individuals feeling or thought. Also, we will see how to get relieved from it

Catastrophic Thinking.

The word “catastrophising” was first constructed by Ellis in the year 1962 to characterize the way where uncomfortable sufferers stay on the unfavourable outcomes. The person will be dominated by his/her negative thoughts and don’t know what is retarding them to do work. It can be illustrated as deep thinking about unreasonable or unfair results. You might think that it is natural to think and feel for the loses or failures. But the catastrophic thinking is kind of feeling that you are going to fail and your works are worthless even before registering a competition or taking the challenge. This way of thinking can intensify the mental stress and retard people from performing the tasks where it has to be performed. Psychologically this is known as catastrophic anxiety. To make you understand the concept of catastrophic thinking more specifically, let me give you different occurrences.

Occurrences of catastrophic thinking:

First of all, let’s see some general situations followed by serious problems.

Exam preparation :

This is an epitome of catastrophic thinking. I’m damn sure that most of you have experienced or witnessed this overthinking situation. Normally the students will procrastinate the preparation and keep on whining about the quantity of syllabus and limited time they have. But a student with catastrophic anxiety will be feared of getting fractured while they bath or climb stairs and unable to write exams and getting dismissed. Also, they think of felling unconscious after seeing the question paper. This thought of hardly possible or impossible stuff will make things worse.

Interview moments:

A person who got cleared the first three rounds of his/her interview would have the feeling that they must clear the last one or else those efforts will be in vain. Ironically, the person who has catastrophic thinking will be worrying that his/her loved ones may die on the interview day and their life will be a dead-end after that, this thought happens even before starting their preparation. This delays their time of action and put them into the deep sea.

Holiday duration:

People with that anxiety will plan flawlessly on how to spend their time in a useful manner at the very beginning of a holiday. Then they will think about what happens if they can’t do it at the right duration. Their thought will be like other colleagues will get succeeded in their life and they will be longing them for money. This fear of failure or self-doubt will make them sit idle and prevent from doing any work. At the end of the holiday, they would have done nothing.

Crucial threats:

Medical issues:

On medical treatment point of view, the catastrophic thoughts act as an obstacle in the healing of discomfort or pain. This is why we need to talk about the ways to get relief from it. Our thoughts influence both psychological and biological functions. Which makes it very important to be discussed.

Misinterpreting the Disease:

This is also seen as a common problem that people get worried about mild illnesses guessing it to be an incurable disease. For example, when people get a feel of pain, their first thought will be that they are infected with cancer. This is because the catastrophic thinking makes them anxious, stressful and bring such thoughts. This makes them have low self-esteem and vulnerable to mental illness.

Thought of death:

This might look so weird but most teenagers are vulnerable to this thought that they might die earlier or their loved ones may die. This makes them inefficient in the work they perform and results in depression. When they spend their time alone, this thought will be superior. Low self-image and low self-esteem will be the outcomes of these negative thoughts.

This might give you an insight into the meaning of catastrophic thinking as well as the danger of having it.

Putting a stop to catastrophic thinking:

Here I have given the measures of getting relief from catastrophic thinking.

1) pay attention to your thinking:

When you are conscious about your thoughts you can get control over it. To reduce your negative thoughts the good way is staying up calm and strengthening your inner peace. This can be achieved by meditation, which is highly helpful in concentrating over thoughts and controlling it. Paying attention to it will make us realise how deep we are affected by catastrophic thoughts.

2. Know the root cause:

This is the key to solve and resolve yourself from catastrophic thoughts. Finding the root and removing it from right there is a permanent cure to get relief from this disaster. Ask yourselves why do you extremely worry about the thing that never happened. You will be worrying that you may get dismissed from your college. But when you think of the root cause, it’ll be like you got less mark in the internals. When you find that it is common that a student gets a lower mark at times, it’ll be good for you.

3. Think practically:

When you have brought down your catastrophic thoughts to its root cause. Handling it gets easier and effective. This is the time you need to analyse your anxieties towards that root cause or the thought itself. But ensure yourself to stay calm because this might also lead you towards another anxious situation. Utilise the practical knowledge to handle these thoughts. Gain more information about the facts related to your thought. It may have very fewer cases to support the thought but do not get into the thought that you might be the one among them. Be practical and think logically rather being imaginative.

4. Defy your pessimistic thoughts:

Don’t feel bad upon yourself for having such thoughts and experiencing the anxiety. Because it makes your recovery difficult. As said before make your logical thinking effective and start questioning your thoughts. Catastrophic thinking is considerably a hardly possible one, so logically analysing it will help you to defy that thought. Question the thinking, ” is it possible in the real world ? “, ” what is the need for this now, why can’t I deal with it later”.

5) Seeking a therapist:

Understandably, some people have trouble with conquering this anxiety or unfavourable thoughts. So, those people can seek out the help of a therapist to overcome their problem. They will analyse you and suggest measures or exercises specifically according to your issue.

This catastrophic thinking makes many potential persons sluggish and ineffective. Relief from it will make great changes and improvements in every person.