How to stop catastrophising: listen to the experts here| Perspectives Ep 2

can I gather any evidence from anybody else around whether this idea actually is true or not but the fact that it has happened to somebody can make that me as an individual really really panicked I'm going to give you two really practical skills that you can use in the moment uh to help manage those overwhelming feelings of anxiety and even even Panic hello and welcome to perspectives a series of panel discussions from PRI all about the big issues in mental health and addictions today I'm Colin quick and I'm the chief quality officer of prii and we're going to be talking today all about catastrophizing it's all about how do we understand and maintain our emotional well-being in a very challenging and difficult times now I'm joined with the panel today I've got Dr Donald Massie one of our consultant psychiatrists also joined by uh Debbie longell our therapy director and finally by Dr David mcllin a consultant psychiatrist and co-founder of Co curb so panel thanks for joining us today and I guess the first thing that we need to understand and I'm going to come to you Donald for this one is what's catastrophizing so catastrophizing is thinking the worst so there is a there is a challenge or potential Challenge and catastrophizing is thinking of the worst possible case scenario be it professionally or personally and I can certainly go further on to thinking about symptoms of that of helpful but people can feel overwhelmed by anxiety by dread by low mood because as far as they're concerned the worst will happen or we think something of of sod's law or Murphy's Law if if the worst can happen it will happen catastrophizing is the worst will definitely happen and there's potentially nothing I can do about it handing over to yourself David how if I'm catastrophizing how do I know I'm doing that yeah so I think all of us can relate to that experience of catastrophizing um which is why it's such a great kind of conversation to start with because you'll know if you're catastroph well you may not know if you're catastrophizing um but if you are catastrophizing you might be overestimating the likelihood of something bad happening overestimating the severity of that bad thing happening and then underestimating your ability to cope with it if it does happen so for example um when I I was a teenager I used to forget to do my homework at school and I would catastrophize because I would think oh my gosh I forgotten to do my homework um I am definitely going to fail my exams definitely and if I fail my exams I'm never going to get a job and my life is going to be ruined and if that happens I will not be able to cope with it so that was my very personal uh memory of catastrophizing as a as a teenager um but there's lots but it's it's different for everybody um and and often you asked me um how would you know that you're doing it often people don't realize that they're doing it but hopefully I guess throughout the course of this we'll raise awareness of what it what it looks like and how to catch it and you talked about how it look and I'd like to come to to Debbie what what are the sort of signs of catastrophizing what does that how would you outwardly manifest itself or how does it manifest itself psychologically I think they can build over time I think people don't necessarily always realize they've got to that stage but and I know that I've heard people say what is what does that word even mean some people people call it authorizing rather than catastrophizing um but I guess you will just see that you always see the negative side of things um you predict negative things are going to happen people might say to you you're always half empty rather than half full right way round isn't it um and you just have that black cloud over you and you just feel like life is really difficult and I can't seem to get any luck and I can't seem to to get anywhere and this is really really hard so it can really affect people's mood can lead to depression um so it's when you just notice that you're always predicting the negative thing that's going to happen and and do does it affect any particular group more than others or is it something that's that's common for everyone um there's some people I guess that are more more vulnerable I guess if if you've had difficult adverse life events bad things have happen to you um I think that kind of primes you to expect further bad things to happen to because of this kind of priming experience or um adverse life events there's actually a scale that we use because the H's raffy scale um which measures how many adverse life events you've had and so these these can prime you and condition you to develop certain patterns of thinking um uh but that's something that we can retrain and we can help you to learn new healthier uh Ways to Think so one of the one of the things that that often comes up Donald is around how or could we use some of these emotions to actually motivate ourselves can we use them almost for good in some ways can we absolutely so many of our core human emotions are are for our survival for our betterment um we often think about the flight with flight response which is about an impending danger in the modern world we're not often running from lines but there are there are other dangers that we may face or other risks or stresses um be it exams job interviews dates and so if one is on one in the Spectrum if one is overly anxious one's performance will definitely drop you you you won't be able to remember what you've revised um be for the job interview or for the exam but on the end of the spum if you if one doesn't care at all if there is no emotional reaction to a pending stressor you're not going to try so actually most of us will sit in in the middle and which we know objectively that as stress levels rise to a point motivation performance can arise as well um so that can be really useful in focusing attention in focusing energy for example I need your advice for that exam if I want to get if I want to get a decent grade and if I if I have no worry about it I'll sit at home and watch cat videos um but to worry about well actually not worry should we say but to feel a stress feel a pressure to achieve something that is how we achieve it's then a matter of whether that pressure that stress becomes overwhelming and if they do it's about dampening down the emotional and psychological response and which which will come to we come to techniques on how to do that but by and large stress is positive and I'm using stress in a general sense as opposed to one having a stress disorder an anxiety disorder and so I mean from that I I think that's really interesting in terms of we've talked catastrophizing almost in its in its isolation although we touched on a little bit earlier on about its relationship to to other issues and other concerns and be interesting to get your views David about what does that look how does catastrophizing is it a symptom of of other conditions is it something by itself is it part of a a wider um sort of pattern of symptoms and conditions and worries that people should have so how does it all fit into the whole mental health sphere um a lot of the time when we look at mental health problems we talk about the cognitive symptoms um and the cognitive symptoms is is way we think um so that's the the catastrophizing is a cognitive element but there's also the emotional element so how we feel so you might feel anxious you might feel sad you might feel low or um hopeless um but it's a feeling and there's also physical symptoms as well so um deby touched on this as well are that kind of that physical sensation of anxiety um maybe sweating um having a Tremor palpitations and feeling your stomach fluttering so where does catastrophization uh sit in the mental health sphere it's one of the cognitive symptoms but it sits alongside the emotional symptoms and also the physical symptoms and it leads me on to to that further question uh and and Debbie I'm going to come to you on this is if we all experience it and we all experience it at different times and I guess our our life circumstances might dictate some of that when does it become a problem what's the signs that it's a it's a it's becoming too much of a challenge I think um I think it's quite complex and down to people's personalities maybe and and their ability to hold information or stress or demands of life can be family can be work so I think that one person might be able to you know do all of this and not be overwhelmed and catastrophized and that's fine for them but the next person might look at them and think gosh I want to be like them but I couldn't do that because I would get overwhelmed so I think it's a very individual thing people have to know their own their own boundaries and their own limits um so I think that the the signs that you're even just listening to you talking about what you were just saying then I could feel my heart rate Rising a little bit and I was starting to feel overwhelmed about all the problems and I was like oh my gosh so that would be um a sign that you're that you're entering into that zone that your heart rate is going up you're feeling bit panicky about your thoughts and you can't grab them and you can't bring them down into individual thoughts when your mind starts racing and you just can't separate what what you want to think about as one by one so it's when you um when everything becomes too much collectively and then everything is is difficult everything crossing the road is difficult or making the dinner is difficult um and you then begin catastrophizing about everything um and you've lost your control it's a big word to use but you've lost your control of your day-to-day operations if you like so I think it can very easily come in and I think social media you know I can be on my Instagram and I look at one thing and then it tells me to it feeds more of that to me I don't want to see more car crashes or whatever I've just had to look at but actually I don't seem to be able to have the option and then it can make me feel quite overwhelmed so um I think there are many things for us to be aware of that we have to manage consciously that are that are offered to us really thank you so we need to kind of move this now I think to think about what what do people need to do about it what how can they do about it because it's a as we said it's something that people can experience at different times in different ways probably different severities as well it can probably be very minor but also sometimes I'm sure the example you gave all-encompassing as well when it becomes such a to a negative position so the bit for me to kind of understand is well so what do we have to put up with it or is there something that we can do around it is there treatments that are available Donald over to yourself first what what can people do so thank you dve for that for that very useful summary of thoughts the feelings and the physical symptoms in terms of What treatments people can can can receive it really depends on the severity of the problem and by severity I'm thinking of the impact um the level of distress the reduced level of General function which may be social functioning occupational functioning day-to-day management of selfcare and if this a problem if D I say an an an anxiety problem it's worth getting appropriate support which is first of all seeking potentially seing professional help a discussion with the GP about what options are available locally um be it's psychological therapies medication a for specialist Services I'm thinking about um catastrophization as a symptom of possible mental disorders and there's several which comes to mind which for example include um body dismorphia so um person X worries that they have a a skin blemish and if they go to work with a skin blemish um everyone's will think that they're terrible they they're going to have um problems at work they're going to lose their jobs they're going to be homeless so you can see the escalation escalation of thoughts there so that but the underlying issue then is the the the misperception of One's Own physical form so then treatment would be cater towards towards that which may well be a combination of medication which can be prescribed by a GP or a psychiatrist or and or psychological therapies even better in combination brilliant thank you and I'm going to go to Deb CU I really want to explore that that therapy piece now as well what sort of therapies are available for people what do they look like how would someone receive them how involve what's what what's that so I I think if we assume it's it's straightforward reason are you know any trauma Etc behind then cognitive behavior therapy is generally a really helpful structure to lean on in terms of what do I do when this happens so if you go back to your your your statement around thoughts are not facts they're ideas so these ideas that are in my head my my can't even say the word c no no I know I can't say I can't say it by authorizing thoughts that other word um are making me me think this therefore I'm feeling that so it's it one of the strategies would be well let's take a breath let's halt let's stop let's take a moment to sit back and and just challenge that a little bit because it's only an idea it's not a fact and can I gather any evidence from anybody else around whether this idea actually is true or not so is it true that every time I walk into the room everyone's going to look at me and think that I'm awful can I maybe check that idea out by by asking some questions or is it true that every time I go out it's going to rain can I maybe have a little diary where I I maybe know what the weather was like each day so it's making it into specific thoughts that you maybe want to start Gathering evidence and challenging and that might be an idea to offer you some suggestions maybe my idea is catastrophizing I got it next time um and um and therefore can I unpick that a bit BR thank you David one of the things that we talked about earlier on was around some of those longer term treatments we talked about CBT we talked about the option of augmenting that with with medication but I guess for for a number of our viewers the question is going to be about what can I do in the Here and Now what can I do if I'm feeling those those impending feelings of catastrophization and the worry and it's getting out of hand is there a couple of things that you would recommend that people could just do immediately yeah um there's there's two things that um I like to recommend so I'm going to give you two really practical skills that you can use in the moment uh to help manage those overwhelming feelings of anxiety and even even Panic so the first is a grounding exercise and it's called the five senses so when we're feeling really anxious or feeling really low often it's because we're anticipating something negative happening in the future or we're ruminating over something negative that's happened in the past and grounding is when we bring ourselves into the Here and Now away from those negative predictions that might happen in the future those anxious thoughts and those those negative things that may have happened in the past so it's about grinding ourselves in the here and now so often I'll start with asking patient to take a big deep breath sit squarely in your chair feet planted grounded on the floor and then I ask patients to um go through their five senses with me and I want them to pick something in the room that they can see with their eyes and explore that object with a real sense of curiosity as if you've never seen that object before how would you describe that to somebody what is it that you notice about the way that the light reflects off of it the color the the the the lines are they curved are they sharp what do you notice visually about this one object and really draw the the focus of your attention onto this object and your mind might wander and you might start thinking about uh things that are happening in the future or uh things that happened in the past again and that's okay because that's just what your mind does it's going to wander but when that happens just just notice that your mind is wandering and then bring it back to right here right now back to this very real object that's in front of you the one that you're exploring visually with the first of your senses your sense of sight next sense hearing so sense of sense of hearing and again it's about bringing bringing the focus of your attention um into the room right here night what can you hear and if you really really pay attention what are the sounds that are around you you might be surprised what you can hear might be the clock ticking or the sound of your own breath but really listen to what's happening the next sense the sense of touch so uh what can you feel in the room around you so for me right now I can feel the cold metal chair and I can feel the hard uh firm ground underneath my feet and again I'm I'm exploring this with a real sense of curiosity as if I was to describe it to somebody from a different planet that had never felt a cold metal chair before um and again it's bringing me into the here and now then the third so the fourth sense um the sense of uh smell uh and I'm going to combine smell and taste together but what do you notice about the smells or tastes in your mouth and if that's difficult um maybe you think about the the kind of the sensation of the air going through your nose or the moisture in your mouth what do you notice about that and then because I always like to finish in a positive um the final sense is a sense of gratitude so one thing that you feel grateful for right now and it be something really small um uh it doesn't have to be a big thing but the whole point of this exercise the five senses exercise is it's really easy to remember Got Five Fingers um but it brings you into the here and and now and it grounds you in this very very moment and it refocus it changes the focus of your attention from all of these other distractions which might be causing distress or anxiety or worries and it just gives you that kind of moment of peace and calmness and you can do it anywhere you don't need any tools or any um no medication no side effects it's just a really helpful thing which a lot of my patients and I use it as well because I get I get nervous when I'm doing public speaking I really like breathing exercises because I think it's a really practical way to manage anxiety or distress especially when we're um in that fight or flight mode when your heart's being really fast or you're hyperventilating maybe your hands are sweating and that's because your brain is telling your body that you are in danger and that you need to escape or fight or flight and the way that your brain tells your body is through this nerve called the cranial nerve it's a really interesting nerve because it goes all the way from the brain all the way to the body it's one of only 12 cranial nerves the veg nerve the Vegas nerve yes indeed and some people described the Vegas nerve a bit like the remote controller to the brain from the brain to the body because it it the brain communicates to the body but what people are increasingly understanding is that the body can speak back to the brain through this remote controller nerve and one of the ways that we can do that is by controlling our breathing by taking these really deep Long belly breaths now as part of this we we sourced some questions um from our viewers and I think it's be really helpful just to run through some of those just to put you a little bit on the spot um but I think they're really interesting in terms of of the content of the questions that we've had today um so Donald I'm going to come to you first with the with the first question here so this came from will and I think this is really interesting because I think this goes to and we've already referenced this around how social media operates how the internet operates how that that activity of um and our access to it so so this is the question the new cycle can be the cause of anxiety with what feels like it's endless negativity but I don't want to avoid it how can I consume a negative news story but not let it get me down so much or should I approach news in a completely different way oh that's a great question how can I approach a negative news story not be affected by it too much um key really key underlying point is um the news is built on negativity um I wish I could I could have money in my pockets to provide good a good news channel um but it may not necessarily develop much money because we know through data released by meta Facebook Twitter Etc that re these platforms generate Revenue by negative news by negativity because for lots and lots of different reasons um so how can I how can Will um consume negative media and not be affected by it one is to limit access not access to limit exposure in a given point of time so one may read one article about a particular tragedy and that can lead to serial searches on on uh content related to that particular tragedy or Rabbit Hole of what else is going wrong with the world and that and before you know it it can be throughout three hours of past so if again it's important to be connected to the world around us so if it's about being touched with current affairs maybe limit it to 10 15 minutes if possible in terms of not being affected by it they actually what so uh let me think of an example such as a a an a murder so a member of public has murdered a stranger and for the individual that can be terrifying because you think actually that could have happened to me or it could happen to a loved one and it's one in a million chance it would happen but the fact that it has happened to somebody can make that me as an individual really really panicked um so then it's about remembering that actually I I'm by large safe these things are a rare event and the News typically um talks about rare or serious events that need not necessarily affect you in the moment how do people get that balance because there is a balance to be had isn't there about how do we make sure that we're informed how do we make sure that we understand how do we make sure we don't close ourselves off from society but still digest safely and appropriately those sorts of information so Debbie your view how do you get the balance I think it's a really um important thing to think about and again you got to be in the driving seat of your own life and you got to be deciding what you're going to expose yourself to and what you're going to when you know you've had enough so again I I guess it comes down to again that self-management and knowing your self and when you've had enough and and watching an hour of something negative that's reasonably low level might be very different to watching five minutes something that's very triggering for you personally on the news so you got to be aware of your own relationship with the topic as well from your own life story um so um again it's managing it it's time limits you mentioned that earlier I have a time limit on my Instagram because I need to manage that um and um choosing I've had enough of this or I need to go and now go and do something different um I'm reflecting people do mood um you know mood Diaries where they reflect on the end of the day they might do three things they're grateful for and and how's my mood doing and if you notice that your mood is always really low at night time which then impacts on your sleep and then makes you think negatively afterwards that because of sleep deprivation or because you've been dreaming about some really complex stuff then let's make some changes and let's manage that ourselves so um it's down to self-management and awareness again I think um and and but you have to navigate it yourself and be aware of the impact things are having on you thank you David finally over to you your your views on how to get that balance right because the only the only new things I would I'd add to that conversation about how to get that balance with consuming media in a kind of sensible way or kind of news which can be um anxiety provoking is actually thinking about well one the frequency um that you're checking the news because I have had patients who are checking the news all the time multiple times per day and that's that can be problematic um and then the other things actually one of the crew member had had brought this up um where it's it's a timing it's a timing of when when you're checking the news and when you're checking media because um uh they were they were actually talking about checking the news late at night before you go to bed and actually that's maybe a time when you want to be relaxing getting resting getting ready to sleep um and not priming yourself to be worrying and having ruminating thoughts or nightmares um so yeah I guess the new things I'd add to that conversation about just about frequency of kind of consuming media and news and also the timing I guess there's also something in that about actually not becoming desensitized to those things because actually watching if you're watching something that is difficult and challenging then it is about how you manage that because what you don't want to do is watch it to a degree where you you just blank any emotion around it because that in itself I it could be very a very difficult situation to get yourself into your your um okay thank you next question and I'm going to come to Debbie for this one so Becky's asked um I've got a friend who struggles with thinking the worst all the time how can I help them it feels like saying it's not that bad doesn't help that much yeah I think um I've Got a Friend actually who catastrophizes and I have to check myself how I respond sometime it's a good question um again going back to the point earlier that that if that's what they're thinking that's what they're thinking so I think it's unhelpful to say don't think that um so it's curious around why they're thinking that um and how are they making sense of the situation they're finding themselves in um and offering Alternatives maybe would you prefer we did this or can we think about the situation in this way and I think if you see themes though if if then there's a regular theme coming up in a certain situation or with certain people then I think you probably need to step up your intervention your advice a little bit and say look I'm a bit concerned about you because I'm just noticing these patterns and have you thought about have you noticed that yourself and just explore that with them because I think as a good friend you would like to think somebody might offer you a nudge if they were concerned about you as well so I think it's being sensitive acknowledging that's where they are but also being brave enough to to frame it in a helpful challenging way if that feels the right thing to do I really like that approach that you suggested as well about being curious as well cuz Cur I think curiosity is a really good thing and we should all be curious of the world around us but it's a really nice non-judgmental approach to take to somebody um with curiosity and open-mindedness and to try and understand um from Beck from Becky's friend's perspective like why does she think this why does she believe this what's the evidence for for this and exploring that with her but then also inviting her to be curious and saying okay well I've explored your perception of the world are you willing to be curious and explore another perception of the world as well um and so yeah it brings just when you said curious it made me think that's a really nice way of approaching that problem yeah it's getting that move away isn't it from a a perception of judgment to curiosity and that's a a real balance to get right isn't it and having how you do that but a really important move to make as well so David your question uh this came in from Louise and she asked the developments of artificial intelligence are something I catastrophize about the speed of the technology moves so fast it worries me how can I worry less about something which is out of my control oh gosh this is a really interesting question Louise because um I as well as my clinical role I also co-founded a predictive technology company called curb and we use artificial intelligence but we use it for good because it's it's incredible you know it's it's um it's it's a gamechanging technology and I think anything that's new or different um anything that we talked about this earlier actually anything that's unknown can be quite frightening um because when there's uncertainty I think all of us can relate to uncertainty being something that's a little bit frightening because it could be good it could be bad we don't know and if you have a slightly um kind of negative pattern of thinking then you might lean towards thinking about the worst there's so many things going on in the news right now we we know we talked about climate change we talked about um Co um like kind of political news going on a lot there's a lot of things which are uh overwhelming um I think it's about being mindful with the way that you consume the news and like Donald talked about earlier not total avoidance but also not the other extreme which is obsessively searching and you know consuming information constantly and actually an interesting phenomenon that I've often seen as well I don't know either of you have noticed as well sometimes I have patients who have a really negative view of the world but they actually prefer to consume Media or information which affirms the way that they view the world around them because it's it's less jarring than forcing themselves to watch comedy shows because that's actually quite jarring when you're consuming m material which doesn't fit in with how you feel um so i' I've probably strayed far from the original question um I don't know if I'm the best person to answer that Louise because I because I I work with with um you know machine learning in AI all the time and I think I think it's got the potential for so much good but I think I understand as well why it's a very frightening topic for some people I mean a very I think a very very bra self- declared bias slightly there so I'm just going to bring de you got any views on this I think it's a really good thing to think about and I think that there are like anything there are pros and cons of any new development um I think I don't think one person can take responsibility or own that it's going to be here it's going so I guess if it's something that somebody's very concerned about then I guess we need to educate ourselves from the right places around what it actually is and what it's here for and what it's going to do I think there are some challenges with it I think there are some some good things about it so you have to decide how much you're going to engage with that information and how much you can influence it or control it so I guess if you were really interested in it maybe you go go work in that area and then you can influence direction of travel and then you can then have a say in where it goes or if you just want to be um aware of it then then you expose yourself to it but in a helpful way from the right sources or you find somebody who does know about it and you talk to them about it and you know that was an interesting take that you have on it so again it's being curious always about what's going on and why am I responding in this way um and it is an unknown which I think triggers certain reactions in us because we don't know therefore it's not certain therefore we have to make assumptions and therefore what are those assumptions and that's what we're reacting to our assumptions um so yeah I guess that's about just supporting people to reset that in their in their thought process as well and it's probably very important um point is that all the way through as as technology is advanced as Humanity's Advanced there's always been something that will have caused concern for people so when you development of electricity the development of of uh vehicles theel of flight all these things have been seen as what next what's the worry that happens next so is that just how do you manage that by looking at and almost testing yourself against saying actually we had these big advances before it went okay or we've Managed IT and things have happened so I guess that goes to that catastrophizing piece there okay right we'll take it away from the from Ai and I think something that um we definitely most of us know and and can understand so I'm going to come to you for this one Debbie this is from Matt and he says I really struggle with job interviews because my mind immediately jumps to most negative thought like what if I'm not good enough for the role it leaves me a bag of nerves in the interview what advice could you give Matt I think that's a very popular question from Matt isn't it and um I do a lot of interviews in my role and and and we try really hard to kind of people to settle and to kind of feel like a human being rather than than anything else but I think it's your it's your automatic thoughts about yourself that come in uh in terms of your own self-worth I think it's your predicting what you should say or how amazing I should look in my interview or do I know all the answers people are going to ask no no one ever does um so I think that your thoughts run away with you and I think what happens is anxiety triggers your heart rate goes up your adrenaline and your stress hormones activate which then makes the chemical balance in your brain become different and therefore you think differently and therefore you're going to predict things are going to be bad as a chain reaction so I think that if people notice that about themselves it's acknowledging that probably is an anxiety catastrophizing trigger and therefore how can I manage myself so I don't get caught up in that automatic so maybe breathing techniques before you go into an interview maybe talk to someone that you know really well just before you go in so you're feeling quite jovial you're feeling very much yourself um don't overthink don't over prepare just take yourself into the interview rather than than I've seen some people you know rehearse what they want to say so much that they're almost reading off a piece of paper and and what we're trying to get as an interviewer is actually the the human being in front of you you and we don't get that if people are very prepared so trust that you can take yourself into the room um and if you make a mistake then just say actually that wasn't what I meant it's okay to make an error or to correct yourself or to say can I answer that one again um these are just two human beings trying to you know sort of progress something thing aren't they so but I think if you're in in that state where your heart rate has gone up I think it's trying to get your heart rate down breathe um recognize that can be something that you have to manage and then again it's back to the planning of how am I going to prepare myself so I feel a bit calmer and therefore I can be more my myself more in that situation but it's really common it's really common yeah and it's a very interesting one isn't it where where you have um almost one of the best tips I was ever given about it is create it as a conversation right it's a structured conversation and and that can be very difficult going into but actually good interviewers would also do that as well to create that that atmosphere so there often it's sometimes about working out as a it's a two-way thing you're giving information but that person has also got a job and a responsibility to make sure that you feel calm I think that's a really good point Colin actually responsibility shouldn't always sit on the interviewee to make it right actually the person interviewing also has a shared responsibility for that situation you both find yourselves in so offering a share of responsibility I think is a really good mindset to kind of not have that personal um responsibility all on your shoulders because that's that can trigger anxiety in itself so I think that's a really good point and if I if I may chip in really important point to add to that is if you're being interviewed because they want you so your your potential candidate they've looked at your at the application look at the seeing they actually may be you so you already have a foot in the door right so the interview is then to ratify that there'll always be competition but the fact that you've been interviewed is it's a great plus yeah very good point it's a nice way to kind of to reframe some of those kind of negative thoughts before you go into the the the situation because it sounds like was it was this chat's name Matt mat Matt it sounds like a really good example of performance anxiety um and um I be way before I was working in the prior I I did some I was like a backstage mental well-being uh con for the MTV uh Europe Awards and I've worked with with sports people as well and even people at the top of the game uh experienced performance anxiety and then Vel these thoughts like oh my gosh everything's going to go wrong and exactly like Debbie said this is techniques that they use as well a couple of deep breaths switch off that flight or fight um by those long deep breaths stimulating the Vagas nerve um but also the other technique that that we've well i' I I use no situation of people getting performance anxiety was visualization exercises where you imagine that scenario but you imagine everything going incredibly well so you could be a gymnast on a balancing beam and you're doing back flips and you're visualizing those back back flips Landing perfectly or you could be uh a performer um at the MTV Music Awards and the crowd is roaring because they they're so en en enthusiastic about your performance and again all of us probably can relate to the experience of feeling a bit nervous talking in front of an audience um but one of the things I found works with some of my clients at the prior group is that if you encourag them to visualize the performance going well the the interview the board meeting um the talk that you're doing it at school if you visualize that going well then you almost manifest that and you you present yourself with the degree of confidence that actually invites that positive response back from from the people that will be interviewing you or in the audience um yeah so yeah there was there was lots of things I liked there but the breath work but also the kind of reframing those thoughts and and visualizing the kind of response that you want brilliant thank you and I hope Matt finds that really helpful um thank you David thank you for the rest of the the panel that's all we've got time for uh in this session um so thank you so much for the panel for for joining me uh and offering their expertise on a topic that really affects us all in the Modern Age and I think that really came through as a a real mod phenomena in many places as well so if you've enjoyed this discussion please like this video we'd really appreciate that uh for more of this type of content from PRI and to get future episodes as soon as they drop please subscribe to the channel uh thank you for [Music] watching

Channel: Priory

Views: 11,153

Keywords: anxiety relief, catastrophic thinking, catastrophizing, catastrophizing anxiety, catastrophizing cognitive distortion, catastrophizing in relationships, catastrophizing meditation, catastrophizing ocd, how to stop catastrophizing anxiety, how to stop expecting the worst

Id: i_0KmRJ-K1A

Length: 40min 55sec (2455 seconds)

Published: Mon Feb 26 2024