In a previous section, you learned about the “negativity effect,” where one exaggerates negative experiences and minimises positive experiences. We learnt how it could unnecessarily lower one’s mood.
On this page, I will explain another common type of unhelpful thinking, which psychologists call “catastrophic thinking.” Recognising and changing such thinking is essential, as it may otherwise lead to anxiety and/or a low mood.
In daily life, one’s mind constantly tries to imagine the future.
Imagining what may happen in the future is vital for survival. It helps individuals make informed decisions in the present that will lead to a good future. For example, suppose one is considering going to a nature park for a long walk. Immediately, one’s mind will try to imagine various future scenarios. One might imagine that the soil in the park could be muddy, making one wear sturdy shoes. Or perhaps one might imagine that because the walk will be long, one will be thirstier and hungrier, and this may lead one to prepare extra water and sandwiches for the walk. In this way, imagining the future helps one make informed decisions in the present. It is a crucial part of one’s daily life.
When working correctly, one’s imagination should imagine a range of “futures”, from good to bad.
Unfortunately, this imagination system can sometimes go wrong and become unhelpful. Some people only imagine the worst possible outcomes, i.e., everything in the future will be a “disaster” or “catastrophe.” They do not think of any future scenarios that might be less bad. This is what catastrophic thinking is.
The example below will help you better understand catastrophic thinking.
When Susan arrived at work in the morning, her boss said, “I want to have an important meeting with you at the end of the day.” With only this information, Susanimagined various outcomes. For example, the meeting could be that her boss is offering a pay rise! Or maybe the boss wants to give her the bad news that she will lose her job. Or perhaps the boss just wants to discuss an important project and get ideas for it. There were several possibilities.
Let’s imagine that Susan did some “catastrophic thinking.” This made her only imagine the worst outcome, i.e., that she would lose her job. She did not imagine any other less negative reason her boss would want to meet her. She spent the whole day wracked with anxiety, worrying about it.
However, when she met her boss later, she learned that the boss wanted to offer her a promotion. In this example, catastrophic thinking unnecessarily ruined Susan’s whole day.
With catastrophic thinking, the person may add further layers of imaginary “worst outcome” scenarios. For example, with Susan, she may add further scenarios to her original scenario of losing her job, such as, “With the loss of my job, I would become extremely depressed, and because of this, my partner may leave me. I will not be able to afford the rent and end up being homeless, sleeping on the street”. With such a catastrophic imagination, Susan would undergo immense stress, which was unnecessary, as the outcome was not known before she met her boss.
As you have seen, catastrophic thinking can cause unnecessary distress. Later on this website, I will share other common unhelpful thinking patterns with you and ways you can change such thinking.