What to Do When Your Mind (Always) Dwells on the Worst-Case Scenario

Catastrophizing is, unfortunately, quite common to many people dealing with uncertainty in their lives.

It seems to me that this tendency has increased in leaps and bounds since Covid never ended.?I am one who constantly perseverates on my worst fears and lets my mind mis-create to the Armageddon scenario far too often.

I have many tools for this.?My favorite tool, and one of the easiest, is something my therapist taught me, who in turn was taught to her by Byron Katie:?I am to write down the stressful thought and ask myself, “Okay, what then?”

“I am going to be fired.”?Okay, what then?

If I take it to the most ridiculously illogical extreme, it helps. It can often make me laugh.

But the tendencies of mind are habitual, and I seem to indulge far too often.?I have also been asked the benefit of this negativity, and although I can find some cute and often profound sounding answers, at least to me, they are mostly attention grabs and useless.

I was told something amazing by my therapist.?She said that it took a very brave mind to obey itself and let go of negativity.?Negativity is a boring and useless habit. Taking things to the worst-case scenario and then rationalizing that it was because I was “superstitious” or this or that wasn’t true.?I was just lazy.?I was obeying an old habit.

Interesting, huh?

I’m still lazy some of the time but I stay willing…

The author of this article offers several strategies to stop catastrophizing.?He suggests the following:

Stop time-traveling.?

• Most catastrophes exist in the future. I say they must do so if I am thinking this way and writing this, or at least asking someone to ghost-write my ideas.
• And again, I will quote my therapist’s friend, Byron Katie, who says: “If you want fear, think of the past.?If you want terror, think of a future.”

Focus on what is.

• This is self-explanatory.?Rather than the “what-if’s”, focus on what is happening.?Focus on reality rather than on what isn’t happening.

Play out your worst-case scenario.

• If you take this all the way, you might find out it wouldn’t be a bad thing if the worst thing happened.?Try it. Just try it.

Play out your best-case scenario.

• This might end up rather ridiculous too.?Go for it.?For instance, when I constantly thought I was going to get fired from my job at my Firm, even up to the last three months, I played out being kept on.?It was horrible! How could that possibly work? I wanted it to end like we had all planned!

Go grey.

• Going to the catastrophic is black-or-white thinking.?The middle ground is best to hang out in.? It is always the most realistic.

Get more data points.

• The best stand-by, and one which works for me time and again, is the old yellow pad piece of paper with “pros” and “cons” listed in columns on either side of the page.? Then do your due diligence and your research.
• Most fear is based on ignorance.? Get smart.? Do your research.? Write it down.? Make a plan.? It works!

Then remember, as I have been reminded repeatedly, fears are not facts.?I have been told “feelings aren’t facts” and the acronym FEAR stands for F…everything and run.

I don’t think so.?With all the tools above, I know I can face whatever comes.? So can you.