How To Stop Catastrophising: CBT Cognitive Distortions
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- Опубліковано 19 лип 2024
- In this video I explore the CBT cognitive distortion known as catastrophising. I’ll explain what it is, what causes it and share several strategies to overcome it. Let look at an example, Max believes he will fail his accountancy exam even though he attended all lectures and studied hard. Max assumes. “I’ll fail my exam and I’ll never find a job”. We can also look at Joanne who had a small disagreement with her partner and concludes, “He is going to leave me and I’ll die alone”.
Both Joanne and Max are catastrophising. They are making castastrophic predictions about future events which are blown way out of proportion to reality. Since catastrophising involves thinking about terrible things that are unlikely to happen, over time it erodes your emotional wellbeing. There is actually a direct correlation between catastrophising and common mental health issues such as anxiety and depression.
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🔵 CHAPTERS
0:00 What is catastrophising
1:17 Cause of catastrophising 1: Ambiguity
1:53 Cause of catastrophising 2: Fear
2:23 Cause of catastrophising 3: The Brain
3:09 Stop catastrophising step 1:Notice thoughts
4:10 Stop catastrophising step 2: Gain perspective
4:50 Stop catastrophising step 3: Self-soothing
🔵 CBT BOOK RECOMMENDATIONS
☐ The Clinician's Guid to CBT Using Mind Over Mood by Christine A. Padesky. Please click on the link to buy from Amazon: amzn.to/409z8ko
☐ Mind Over Mood by Dennis Greenberger and Christine Padesky. Please click on the link to buy from Amazon: amzn.to/3Hi7lp9
☐ Cognitive Behavioural Therapist Basics and Beyond by Judith Beck. Please click on the link to buy from Amazon: amzn.to/3RfTN2f
🔵 There are three main causes of catastrophising: ambiguity, fear and the brain’s negativity bias. What can you do about catastrophsiing? The first step is to notice your thoughts, you might notice words such as: never, terrible, fail useless, or rejected which can lead directly to catastophrising. For example, ‘If I admit I don’t know something at work, they will think I am useless and fire me’. Catching yourself using catastrophic language may take some practice. Remember thoughts are not facts. Just because you think it does mean it’s true.
🔵 Step two, maintain perspective. For example, when George walked into the staff room two colleagues stopped talking. George thought, ‘They’re talking about me’. To gain perspective and focus on the reality of the situation George asked himself a series of questions: What is the evidence my thought is true? Am I basing my thought on facts or feelings? Could I be misinterpreting the evidence? What assumptions am I making?
🔵 Step three, learn to soothe the body. For example, Ian is driving home with his two young children in the car and has the thought, ‘What if I have a car accident and my children die’. Although the thought is unrealistic his body responds as if the scenario is going to happen in real life. His heart starts to race, he feels sweaty, lightheaded and starts to tremble.The good new is that you can dampen the fight or flight response by practicing self-soothing. Self soothing activities can vary for everyone as we are all soothed by different things. Self soothing actives include meditating, talking to a good friend, spending time in nature, exercising, listening to music, stroking a pet, the sensation of rocking and sipping a warm drink. Experiment and see what works for you.
🔵 ABOUT TERESA LEWIS
Teresa Lewis is the founder and Director of Lewis Psychology and a Senior Accredited psychotherapist with the British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy (MBACP Snr. Accred). Qualified in 1995, Teresa has been providing counselling and psychotherapy treatment for nearly 30 years. Teresa holds a masters degree in counselling and psychotherapy and is a qualified EMDR Practitioner having completed training accredited with EMDR Europe. Teresa is also a qualified adult educator and an accredited Mindfulness teacher As a recognised expert in her field Teresa is frequently asked to conduct editorial reviews and endorse counselling and psychotherapy books for international publishing houses.
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🔵Do you have any tips for dealing with catastrophising? I'd love to hear from you.
Max is lucky he only assumes he will fail his exam and stops there. My train of thought would spiral down so much and so far that in the end of the scenario I'd be getting sentenced to life in prison.
This, seriously. The examples in these videos are so stupid. 'Max worries he might disappoint his friends by being late to the concert.' Are you joking? How about those who worry we will end up homeless and kill ourselves?
This video is ME! I catastrophise constantly because of my own anxiety and depression issues. It's especially true in financial matters. I see other people who never seem to worry about things, even when seemingly bad things happen to them. For instance, a man loses a job, the job that pays his bills and feeds his family and he says, "That's ok, I'll just have to find another job once I get back from taking My family camping...", where I would be absolutely terrified that I would lose my house, my car and I will never live a normal life again. I hate being this way! I'm so glad that I'm not the only one who has this problem. Thank-you so much for making this video. While it may take a while for me to get through all my mental issues, this certainly gave me a great start. I now know there is hope.
Thanks for your comment. I'm pleased to hear this video has been helpful. Best wishes, Teresa.
Catastrophizing drains you of energy. I've been doing this all my life.
Excellent!!! Thank you. Many times I am thinking that I will be sick and nobody around me to call for help because I live alone and especially at night. I am struggling with it and I have high blood pressure. Your video is very helpful for me, and it's my first time to make such a confess.❤
This is truly crazy. I never had anxiety but once it started a few years ago, I started catastrophizing. Like when I had a trip and had to take a plane, I was always chill, but because of my anxiety, my first thoughts would be "my plane will definitely crash and I'll die.". Or I had surgery a few months ago, a pretty simple procedure and my mind went to "I'm going to die". It feels horrible and scary, but I didn't have anxiety for months now and stopped catastrophizing. The soothing method you mentioned has been the best, I do that listening to rain sounds or thunder. Which is crazy cause not long ago I was terrified of thunder but now thanks to listening to thunder white noise, I love thunder so much
Thank you for sharing your insights. Best wishes, Teresa.
I guess because our brains are wired to remember the negative, the saying "The memories are in the messes" makes sense.
Thank you I always go to the negative its a very horrible habit of mine
Thank you. A needful reminder to step back from my often ominous thoughts. 👍
Great clip. All applicable to me
Wow, I'm impressed at how clearly you explain things in your videos. This just might be my go-to psychology channel from now on. Thank you so much for sharing your knowledge, it's much appreciated! 😃
What lovely feedback, thank you so much. Best wishes, Teresa.
Mine too
Thank you for this video. I’ve watched a few different videos on the topic this afternoon, and your explanation of ambiguity and negativity bias has been the most helpful I’ve heard. 🙏🏼
Thats great to hear. Thanks for your feedback. Best wishes, Teresa.
Nice video, thanks
Thank you Valentina. Best wishes, Teresa.
Love your explanation 👏 I am doing a brain rewiring program which use those CBT understanding. All of this combined into some regular and ongoing practice of exercises which make a big difference ! Intellectual understanding is a start and acting the knowledge into real felt experiences like soothing one really reset the brain and the nervous system !
Thank you so much for sharing and doing video like this..🙏
Thank you so much for your support 🙏Best wishes, Teresa
thanks a lot, this video help me a lot
That’s great to hear. Best wishes, Teresa.
Another, amazing video. Thank you.
Thank you for your support, it’s greatly appreciated. Best wishes. Teresa.
@@LewisPsychology Thank you Teresa! Actually I love to have you as a guest on an upcoming episode on my podcast about mental health and physical fitness. Would you be interested? Trevor.
@@come.tothinkoffit Thank you for your kind offer Trevor. Your Podcast sounds interesting, what’s it called? I will certainly tune in. At the moment I’m running Lewis Psychology CIC and Lewis Psychology Online plus trying to get one UA-cam video out a week. It’s a pretty full on schedule (7 days a week) so I can’t commit to anything else. Thank you kindly for your offer. I certainly look forward to listening to your podcast. Best wishes, Teresa
@@LewisPsychology Thanks Teresa! No problem at all I understand fully youve a lot on and thanks so much for your response.Its great that you are so busy its a really good sign! Its actually not really up and running yet as everyone i've contacted so far (about 20 people) apart from one guy that i'm interviewing on Sunday, is too busy or just hasnt responded. But i'll keep trying for a bit more 😀 Again thanks so much for your response and your amazing channel. looking forward to the next video.
@@come.tothinkoffit Wishing you all the best with your podcast. Let me know when it's up and running as it sounds very interesting. Best wishes, Teresa
I journal.
What about intuition or gut thoughts
But what if catastrophic thinking becomes reality?
I was scared that my husband will die and that sounded like catastrophic thinking but he died. Sometimes it's intuition hidden behind overreacting, it's not always the same, it's not always "just catastrophising"
It's not always catastrophising, I agree. I'm very sorry to hear about your loss. Sending you my sincere condolences. Warm wishes, Teresa.
Self soothing is not something you can do instantly in a busy world. I pull my fingers through my hair and rock. Not socially acceptable. Not something done while driving for example.
Is it bad that I have these but don’t want to go to therapy for them. I really want to improve my anxiety but I want to keep to myself.
Nobody has to go to therapy, the decision has to feel right for you. Best wishes, Teresa.
I thank you. I've been recommended therapy and it could probably help but I'm really scared to talk to someone about it. Its not a trust issue or anything it just hurts to share. I thank you for your wishes teresa@@LewisPsychology
You cant change past you can't control future you can't even control what you had for dinner last night!!!!!!!
What if what your catastrophizing comes true 😮
Then it's not catastrophsing. Best wishes, Teresa.
@@LewisPsychology it didn’t 😗 I had thought of the worst. And I actually thought I’m alone in thoughts like these. Thank you 😊
I m making notes of your vedio..thank you mam
Most welcome 😊 Best wishes, Teresa.