Magnified Catastrophes

Why do anxious people always imagine the worst? Cuz Cognitive Distortions, that's why!

Last week, I wrote about cognitive distortions, which seemed to resonate. I got a lot of comments and responses identifying with various things on the list.  So, I thought it would be a good idea to extrapolate and expound on a few over the next couple of weeks. 

Let’s start with magnification and minimization.  In the case of magnification, an individual will perceive a relatively minor incident as being much more important. Magnification tends to occur with negative (bad) situations – mistakes a person has made or those made by people in their lives, accidents that occur, missteps taken in social situations, and the like. But in the case of minimization, the individual will downplay events that occur. This is most likely to happen with positive events or things most of us would consider “good.” 

Anxiety plays a central role in both magnification and minimization. Individuals prone to anxiety tend to experience extremes concerning themselves and others in their life. A minor auto accident might become an event of such cataclysmic proportions that the anxious person may decide to stop driving for days, weeks, or even months - even though the event yielded no significant adverse outcomes.

The first step to dealing with these cognitive distortions is knowing they occur. When you realize you are magnifying a situation, pause and reassess. Stop, breathe, and reframe the situation.   Changing your inner monologue is vital, and to do that, you have to catch yourself in the act of distorting reality.

Another distortion is catastrophizing, which is a cousin to magnification.  “Hey, I have something I need to talk to you about. But later.”  Do you want to send me into an absolute tailspin?  Well, there are not many better ways to do it than to say something like that to me!  I have a tendency to expect the worst and then ruminate on all the possibilities. By the way, almost every single time, whatever they wanted to talk about was no big deal.)  So, why do I perceive that someone wishing to speak to me will be negative?

Ambiguity or being vague can open a person up to catastrophic thinking. An unclear message could be positive or negative, but we can’t know what it is based on the limited info provided. So we start imagining the worst news. As I’ve said, there’s nothing worse than an anxious person with an imagination.  

An example would be applying for a job.  We might start to imagine the great disappointment, anxiety, and depression we will experience if we do not get the job before the organization even makes any decisions. And we probably also magnify all the potentially negative subtleties we read into the communication rather than staying in our wise minds. But it doesn’t have to be over anything important - lots of people catastrophize tiny things that looking back were insignificant. But in that moment, we can’t think about anything else.

Finally, fear, especially irrational fear, plays a big part in catastrophizing. For example, if a person is scared of illness or death, they could start to think about all the bad things a doctor could tell them even if they are just going for a check-up.  An article from MedicalNewsToday suggests some strategies to help stop this cognitive distortion.  I don’t think you’ll be shocked by any of the proposed ideas, especially if you’ve been working with me for any time.

First, they also agree that awareness that a thought is irrational is paramount to stopping it.  They suggest a thought-stopping strategy that can sometimes work; it’s simple. You just say “Stop!” And tell yourself that this is an irrational thought and that you will not allow your cognitive distortions to control your feelings and behavior.  I wouldn’t recommend this in a crowd of people, but you can find ways to make this work that won’t also get you funny looks from strangers.  (But also, do you really care what strangers think?  Oh, yeah, you probably do. I do, too.)

What if you were to consider a positive outcome?  Focus on positive possibilities, project that into the cosmos, and see what happens.  After all, what do you have to lose?  Finally, the last two are big-time Kirk-like responses:  affirmations and self-care!  If you have a daily self-affirmation practice, you are better equipped to believe that you a) deserve good things to happen in your life and b) that you can do hard things even if they happen.  And if you are taking care of your basic self-care stuff, you’ll always be a leg up with the stress arrives.

Please stay cool in this crazy heat that we’re experiencing statewide!  And I hope the power stays on . . . what was a wild week. My friend went without for four days - and her car was stuck in the garage because the manual release was broken.  Talk about a catastrophe!

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This content is for educational and entertainment purposes only and is not the same as therapy. If you need to talk to someone, go to BetterHelp.com or PsychologyToday.com and start therapy with a professional today!