Challenging catastrophic thoughts

You've probably experienced this. We all have. Catastrophic thoughts are false thoughts we assume about ourselves and the world around us.

They arise from irrational beliefs that, unknowingly, we all reinforce over time. However, scientific studies show that people with depression tend to have these thoughts more frequently¹.

Because they are everyday thoughts, it's quite difficult to recognize and deal with them. Moreover, they often pop into our heads without us thinking.

They can be about anything in your life, but let's analyze them here from the perspective of depression:

You have an important assignment to deliver the next day when a sudden thought pops into your mind:

"I won't be able to present this and they'll fire me"

This is an example of a catastrophic thought.

The biggest problem with these thoughts is that they can intensify to the point of being truly cruel, making you actually believe this information and automatically enter a depressive state.

What can you do about catastrophic thoughts if they pop into your head without you thinking, and the more you try not to think about them, the more they bother you?

The first step is: recognize this type of thinking.

Types of catastrophic thoughts

There are 6 different types of catastrophic thinking, and knowing how to identify them will be important for your next step.

1. All-or-nothing thinking When you think about things in extreme terms, for example:
   • "I got fired. I'm worthless"
   • "In today's presentation, I forgot to mention that important point. I do everything wrong."
2. "Should" statements When we feel guilty for not having done something we expected:
   • "I shouldn't have taken a nap this afternoon, now I won't be able to sleep at night"
   • "I have to overcome this situation!"
   • "This shouldn't have happened. I should have known how to solve that problem!"
3. Jumping to conclusions When we try to predict very negative outcomes:
   • "This depression is going to get me fired from work"
4. Overgeneralization When we generalize a pattern:
   • "My boss told me my report isn't good, everyone at work will think I'm incompetent"
   • "My last relationship didn't work out, I'll probably be alone forever!"
   • "I tried doing gymnastics once and it was terrible. I'm not cut out for physical exercise."
5. Emotional reasoning Refers to accepting emotions as fact:
   • "I feel tired, so I'll be in a bad mood all day"
   • "I feel useless, so I am useless"
6. Disqualifying the positive When we reject positive experiences as if they "don't count" (the classic "it was just luck").
   • "I got the job, but it was because I got lucky in the interview"
   • "They complimented me yesterday, but they only say that so I won't feel sad"

Once you recognize the type of catastrophic thought in your mind, the second step is: challenge them logically and objectively!

To do this, you first need to identify whether this thought is a fact or an opinion. As silly as it may seem, it's important to understand this difference to deal with it in the best possible way.

• A fact is something you saw, read, or heard. It's unchangeable, so if it already happened, you don't need to worry about it (as far as I know, we can't change the past).
• An opinion is a judgment, something that can vary from person to person and is more dangerous because it can be exaggerated. These are the opinions we will challenge.

Let's look at some examples:

• I delivered a terrible project at work → this is an opinion
• I delivered a project and my boss said it was bad → this is a fact

Now that you know how to differentiate a fact from an opinion, it's time to categorize the type of catastrophic thought. See the example:

• I delivered a terrible project at work → All-or-Nothing Thinking
• My boss doesn't like me, he's probably going to fire me → Jumping to Conclusions

Once categorized, you will rewrite this thought logically and objectively, like this:

"I delivered a terrible project at work"

"I delivered a project at work that didn't meet my expectations, but considering the time I had and the conditions, it's within expectations."

One more example, to reinforce:

"My boss doesn't like me, he's probably going to fire me"

"My boss didn't like the work I delivered. Him not liking the work doesn't mean he doesn't like me. I can better understand what displeased him and show better results next time."

This is challenging a catastrophic thought—it's bringing logic to the center of the issue.

We know there are many catastrophic thoughts throughout a day and that stopping to think about all of them at once can be very tiring, as well as painful.

We suggest you stop to think AND WRITE DOWN (it's very important that you write it down) just one catastrophic thought per day. After a few days, you will have encountered the main thoughts that torment you the most, you will know how to challenge them as we taught here, and this should give you a greater sense of control over them.

You can make these notes on paper, OR if you prefer, here at Vigilantes do Sono we have a tool that helps you with exactly this, but it's your choice where to make the notes—the most important thing is not to skip practicing every day.

You'll see! With practice, you will literally train your brain to process such thoughts, and suddenly you'll be able to deal with them much faster.

So write down the 3 steps of this technique we talked about to make it easier: