Understanding Catastrophic Thinking: From Sabertooth Tigers to Modern Day Anxiety
Many of us suffer from catastrophic thinking in part because, paradoxically, how safe we are. Thousands of years ago, we had to be on the lookout for predators that could quickly endanger our lives. But in the modern world, although obviously not universally true, the vast majority of us are safe on a moment to moment basis. Correspondingly, our life and death perception has moved from Sabertooth Tigers to more ego-related matters like our self-image and how others perceive us. Because of this, basic relational fractures and setbacks can feel like life and death, and our brain will subsequently catastrophize them.
A primary brain function is to filter uncertainty by taking our experiences and sorting them into rules in the form of “If ____, then ____.” This process allows us to properly organize and make decisions about the massive quantity of sensory input we get every day. A cliche example used in neuroscience is “If I touch a hot stove, then I’ll get burned and harmed.” Catastrophic thinking happens when our brain’s important rules were either made in the midst of extreme circumstances – like trauma – or if they haven’t been updated since we were kids and they sound like a child’s conclusions. For example, “If they leave, then I’ll never find anyone and feel miserable.
The key to avoiding and managing catastrophic thinking is to develop a higher capacity to handle the uncertainty that – for safety sake – our brain wants to eliminate with its concrete rules. Every thought you have is actually a response to a question you don’t know you’re asking. If you’re consumed by the idea you’ll never find anyone, it’s likely you’re grappling with a question about being alone, for example “Will I ever find anyone and how will that affect me?” But what we hear in our minds is often simply the answers and we miss the questions. Using mindfulness, we have to figure out the question we’re grappling with and then try to be okay with not having the answers immediately. Where before we may conclude we’re going to end up alone, feel so freaked out by this possibility, and then stay in a bad relationship, we could instead leave the relationship and use healthy coping strategies – like socializing, exercise, or learning a new thing – to handle the discomfort of being in between relationships. The more we can handle the uncertainty, the less our brain will resort to its catastrophic thinking patterns.
