Thought Twist #5 — Catastrophizing
Blowing things out of proportion by making them larger than life.
It is literally creating a catastrophe when in actuality, the problem that we are seeing might just be a minor issue. The practices of catastrophizing and magnifying often lead us to make average sized problems enormous, which in turn, makes them even harder to overcome. We have all witnessed it and many of us have fallen prey to this mental trap. Instead of keeping things in perspective, issues within situations are treated as being intolerable, and imperfections within ourselves are treated as being unforgivable.
• “Maybe I shouldn’t have self-published. What if someone reading doesn’t agree with what decades of psychological research says? What if they think that all of this is a bunch of hooey? What if they post a negative review? Then, everyone else will start posting negative reviews and my career will be over!”
• “My boss publicly thanked her so I know she’ll get that promotion instead of me (even though I had a great performance review and just won an industry award).”
• “I accidentally deleted the report! That means my boss won’t trust me again, I’m sure to be fired, and I’ll never find another job again.”
• “These 4 problems are way too hard for me to finish. I’m going to get them all wrong so there is no point in even starting.”
At work, this distortion can cause you to feel like you are about to be fired. It can lead to unnecessary stress and can make you to feel defeated. Instead of viewing a minor mistake as a learning experience and moving on, you dwell on it. Your thoughts can become consumed by negative “what if” scenarios and thoughts of worst-case scenarios. This becomes a distraction and ultimately affects productivity.
Productivity issues can also arise at school as a result of magnification, particularly during the adolescent years. You know how teenagers seem to be slightly more dramatic than most adults? There’s a reason for that.
Psychosocial adjustment is hallmark of this phase of development because even normal individuals struggle with issues of identity, autonomy, sexuality, and relationships. ‘Who am I, where am I going, and how do I relate to all of these people in my life?’ are frequent preoccupations for most adolescents”[1]
Therefore, magnification and other everyday thinking errors can further alter a young person’s reality and cause them to have a negative view of them self, their situation, and their future.[2] It can cause minor difficulties to seem impossible to the point where they give up trying altogether.
Thought Untwisted:
Put down the binoculars. Work through the catastrophizing thought twist by asking yourself “are things really as bad as I am making them?” Remember that none of us are perfect and anyone could have made the same mistake. Don’t obsess about the “what if” of your situation and focus more on the things that are actually happening. Try to think of more realistic consequences of your error and if you still have a hard time doing this, ask a trusted friend for their perspective of the situation. And if their perspective of your dilemma does not match yours, do not mental filter (Thought Twist #1) their perspective out of existence. At least take their point of view into consideration.
References
[1] Sharon Levy, MD, MPH, (2017). Introduction to problems in adolescence” Adolescent Substance Abuse Program, Harvard Medical School; Boston Children’s Hospital https://www.merckmanuals.com/professional/pediatrics/problems-in-adolescents/introduction-to-problems-in-adolescents
[2]Wilkes, T.R., Belsher, G., Rush, A.J., Frank, E. (1994). Cognitive therapy for depressed individuals. New York: Guilford Press.
If you enjoyed this post, you may enjoy the full series, Thought Twist: 11 Everyday Thinking Errors that Sabotage the Plot of your Life. In my blog series, I explain where several these cognitive distortions originated, then provide additional examples and solutions for each thinking error. Want to know as soon as each part in the series is released? Just follow my blog!
