How to Stop Catastrophizing |CALM Series-Logic

we're in the logic section today and we're talking about a cognitive distortion that's called catastrophizing this is peach bread Co welcome to therapy for a better life today I'm talking about anxiety disorders and if you've been following along you know that I have a method of treating anxiety called the call method where C stands for calming the body a is for accepting anxiety L is for logic and logic techniques and M is for moving on and those are distraction techniques so we're in the logic section today and we're talking about a cognitive distortion that's called catastrophizing I think it's something that we all do from one time to another it's it's where we really blow up our negative thinking where we are imagining the worst case scenario and I think that it can have some negative effects well I'm sure it can it can increase anxiety it can increase depression it can cause us to avoid things and really not follow through on things that we really want to do and sometimes it can even paralyze us and you know so I wanted to talk a little bit about catastrophizing there are several different causes of why our brain is doing this first from an evolutionary standpoint we are really wired hardwired for negative thoughts and our ancestors needed to really be prepared for danger and they had to really think things through ahead of time and be prepared for whatever might happen and so part of the issue with catastrophizing I think is hardwired into our brains it's just not very helpful for us today the second thing is people with anxiety have a real difficult time with unknowing kind of ambiguity not knowing what's going to happen uncertainty and doubt and so their minds kind of play ahead all these different possible scenarios that could happen and the third thing is that it's our values it must be very important to us if we're worrying about it certainly if we're catastrophizing about it it has to be something that's meaningful to us within our value system and the fourth reason is just irrational fear our fear can just really take off sometimes the fear center of our brain can get activated by our negative thoughts and we can just really spin with the negative possibilities but there are some purposes in our brain doing this activity called catastrophizing or worst case scenario in in one way if you look at it in a positive way it prepares us it prepares us it can motivate us to really plan for all the options all the things that might happen I think also that for some people they go through that exercise because they feel like it prepares them or protects them from disappointment you know if they really imagine the worst-case scenario and they accept a work through or accept the worst-case scenario you know then if there's any chance that it actually does happen they would say see I told you so and it kind of protects themselves they almost practice their disappointment ahead of time so what do we do about it I think that there's a few things that we can do to really help ourselves if we struggle with catastrophizing the first thing is recognize that you're doing it call yourself out on it you know oh there I go again on catastrophizing you know I'm imagining the worst-case scenario and the second thing is ask yourself why you think your brain is doing it is your brain trying to keep you safe is your brain trying to predict the future because you're just uncomfortable with unknowing and uncertainty is it important to you is it just a very strong value and it's really important to you are you trying to motivate yourself you know if I imagine all these terrible things that could happen I'm just really trying to motivate myself to do something about it and is it trying to protect you from disappointment so it's interesting to just go through those questions and try to figure out why is your brain doing that the next thing I'd like you to ask yourself is how likely is this worst-case scenario to happen between one and a hundred percent how likely will it happen the next thing is I want you to imagine from the positive side what is the best-case scenario and what percent of likelihood with is would that happen on that on the positive side and the the fifth question is if the very worst case scenario actually did happen I want you to detail it I want you to write it out this is the worst case scenario that could happen and this is what I would do about it I want you to kind of list all of your resources in exactly how you would handle it and then just construct a narrative a full narrative write it out tell somebody talk to yourself and just write out you know I have this fear it's only a 1% chance of happening but it's still a pretty intense fear this is what I imagine happening and this is what I would do about it I would do this I would do that I would do that I have these resources I have these ways of coping and write it out and once you put it all in front of you it actually quiets down your brain because your brain realizes that you have a plan even if the worst were to happen you still have a plan and this is helpful in calming down anxiety so I hope that you learn something today about catastrophizing and I look forward to continuing to talk to you about my call method and if you'd like to subscribe and and hear more about mental health topics I release a new video every Monday click here and I'd also like to hear from you in the comments about what you thought about the video and why you think your brain does this catastrophizing and what you do about it when it does so I look forward to seeing you next time take care bye bye

Channel: Paige Pradko

Views: 61,433

Keywords: Catastrophizing, catastrophic thinking, Catastrophize, Catastrophizing Anxiety, Paige Pradko, PaigePradko.com, Catastrophizing thinking errors, CBT distortions, Cognitive distortions, worse case scenario, worst case scenarios, thinking errors, imagine the worse, worse possible situation, always scared, cognitive Behavior Therapy, Calm Method, how to stop thinking about the worse thing happening, how to stop catastrophizing, Calm series for anxiety, how to stop worrying, worrying

Id: cdneHaD7T90

Length: 7min 49sec (469 seconds)

Published: Mon Aug 26 2019