CATASTROPHIZING

Catastrophizing is ‘to imagine the worst possible outcome of an action or event: to think about a situation or event as being a catastrophe or having a potentially catastrophic outcome.’ (Merriam-Webster)

Matt Lundquist, founder and clinical director of Tribeca Therapy comments on this issue:

“Accept bad things when they happen. This may sound strange, but I talk with patients about the idea of getting better at suffering. It always elicits a joke: ‘Oh, I’m already great at that.’ But there’s a difference between obsessing about bad things versus accepting them. Catastrophizing seems like an effort [toward] acceptance but it’s actually a strategy for avoidance. The work here is to move toward the very real sadness and stress of uncertainty rather than trying to bargain with it. The world comes with uncertainty, bad things happen, someday we’ll die.”

I believe this is a very common issue in our culture. It is perhaps because we are accustomed to having things go our way most of the time and when they don’t… we weird out. The most often weird symptom is over reacting to even simple problems as if they are actually catastrophic. One sure sign is the constant habit of using the Lord’s name in vain with ‘Oh, my god’ or ‘Oh, my gosh (god)’ or OMG as if something were really upside down and catastrophic instead of small insignificant chatter.

Instead of imaging the worst possible outcome… maybe we could imagine with the best possible faith… learning to accept bad things when they happen.

“I have told you these things so that in me you may have peace. In the world you have trouble and suffering, but take courage—I have conquered the world.” Jesus