Catastrophic thinking

[Kayleigh100]

I'm on week 6 of fluoxetine and the side effects have generally been settling down. I am suffering fewer panic attacks but am still getting them. I am having one now and I get awful catastrophic thinking; the end result being I lose everything I have ever worked for.

I am under extreme pressure with my business as my colleague has been seriously I'll for six months and I have covered with longer hours but it has worn me down.

Plus yesterday I had a call from the doctor at 8 in the morning asking me to come in that day for results of a scan on a lump I had last week. I spent an hour and a half in panic and thinking the worst, before being told I have an infection and need antibiotics. Again, I was thinking about losing everything (my life in this case)

Once I get in the trap of catastrhic thinking, I just cannot get myself out of this black hole of awfulness. Thank goodness I am on Prozac - I dread to think what this would be like if I were not.

I have to make myself get out of bed in the morning.

Help

[Anxious_gal]

CBT can help with your thinking.

But I would keep a journal to write down these thoughts. I find it helps.
You need to challenge them, ask your self how true they are, and what will really happen if they come true. What will your options be.
This may or not be helpful, I think it depends on your thinking style.

You are over worked.
You need to take the pressure off somewhere.
Put your health first.

It's just your over active imagination and maybe you're afraid of not being in control.

I really think some form of therapy will help.
Tablets tend to help but they won't fix the root of your issues.

---------- Post added at 05:41 ---------- Previous post was at 05:40 ----------

http://www.psychologytools.org/downl...rksheets.html/

[Arnie365]

Hi Kayleigh

I've just started cbt and already identified that catastrophic thinking is my main thinking style. Mine is all related to my heart with every twinge or stabbing pain being the start of a heart attack.

Anxious gal is right, you have to grab these thoughts (I think my therapist said they are called distorted automatic thoughts which come from your sub conscious so very difficult to grab hold of) and challenge them.

I admit it's really hard and I am nowhere near there yet doing this but I do keep saying to myself when I catastrophise about chest pains that I've had them for 7 months now and am still here. I've read about lots of other people with the same pains which are caused by anxiety and I've had loads of ecgs, blood tests and chest x rays and all doctors have told me its anxiety.

Unfortunately because these thoughts do come from your sub conscious it's really easy to start to doubt the doctors advice. I think it's natural to trust your own thoughts more because you think 'my brain wouldn't really do this to me, it must be something serious'.

Well I'm learning quickly that this is wrong! The subconscious can be a bugger and when you are in the grip of anxiety, it will do everything possible to keep you there.

Good luck

[Kayleigh100]

Thank you both.

Grab the thought and challenge it. I understand that; hard (because my head doesn't seem to want me to). Could it be that my head doesn't want me to challenge it as a safety behaviour? Because if I did think it right through like Anxious Gal says then I can justify the catastophe...

for example if I think about what I could have thought about yesterday morning to cope with the lump results ........call from doctors early morning......appointment given for within the hour....therefore, the evidence to me still is that it must be serious.

How should I be thinking it through?
(Is that what you mean Anxious Gal by 'depending on the way I think' - do I think negatively?)

[Arnie365]

There's a couple of things I've picked up (but please bear in mind I've only had two sessions so far, so far from an expert!).

The first is a worry tree. This basically beaks down a negative thought. Can you do anything about the issue/situation. Yes/no. If no then stop worrying and accept you can't do anything about it and move on as worrying won't make any difference. This is acceptance. If yes, can you do anything about it straight away? If yes then do it I.e. make a list/form an action plan etc. if no then it must be something you can do something about later on. Again make a plan of how you are going to tackle it later and stop worrying about it as you have just formed an action plan of what you will do when. Hope this makes sense! You can probably find a good example if you google worry tree.

The second exercise I did was around writing down the negative automatic thought. Mine was chest pain being the activating event. My automatic thoughts were that this was a heart attack/something wrong with my heart/I'm going to die. Then look at how this makes you feel which is the consequences so for me it was scared/angry at myself/guilty I was going to leave my wife who is 4 months pregnant, panic starting to rush through body.

The next steps are then to assess what evidence there is to support your belief/automatic thought. Write this down. Then write down what evidence there is that disputes this belief so mine would be I've had these chest pains for over 7 months and I'm still here. They always pass. I've been checked out by several doctors and they've all told me I'm fine.

Hopefully you will see that there is more evidence against your belief than in favour of it.

As I say I'm not professing to be an expert on cbt having only had two sessions but this is what is meant by grabbing the thought and challenging it. I would really think about putting your name down for cbt if you can as it's bee highly recommended by every doctor I've spoken to in tackling health anxiety.

All the best.

[Kayleigh100]

Thanks - I will try writing it down. I like lists!

I will ask for more CBT. I did have some many years ago when I had depression before and it was good but I wasn't as ill then as I am now.

Cheers

[rockbush]

i have this also. CBT does help. done that and starting up again. also was on lexapro for a while and most the ocd thoughts left.

[doramaar]

I get this and interested to read your posts on how to deal with it. I always ask myself 'what's the worst that can happen?' Not always the right response but at least it allows me to prepare myself a bit.

[SLjimbo]

Catastrophic thoughts can be a doozy. Whenever I start to get physical symptoms of anxiety, the mental part kicks in. Your mind tends to jump to the "worst-case scenario" when you start feeling anxious or panicky. A good example for me is when I start getting pins and needles feeling in my hands, I "irrationalize" that it's a serious condition that needs immediate medical attention. But with good ol' fashioned CBT, I realize that I've been typing too much on the computer at work and the anxiety is just exaggerating the symptom.