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Your phone buzzes late at night. It’s your boss: “Can we talk tomorrow morning?”
By the time you’ve put the phone down, you’ve already been let go. You’ve told your family. You’ve missed rent. You’re packing boxes. And the conversation hasn’t even happened yet.
That leap, from one small message to the end of your world in under a minute, has a name. If you’ve ever typed what is catastrophizing into a search bar, you already know the feeling. This article is about the part of it most advice skips.
What Is Catastrophizing?
Catastrophizing is when your mind jumps straight to the worst possible outcome and treats it as if it’s the likely one.
A headache becomes a brain tumour. A partner who’s quiet at dinner is about to leave. A late reply means everyone is angry with you. A small mistake at work becomes the end of your career.
The psychologist Albert Ellis is usually credited with coining the word. He also had a blunter name for it: “awfulizing,” which is taking something unwanted and telling yourself it is awful. Later, the psychiatrist Aaron Beck made it one of the classic “thinking traps” in cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT), the most studied talk therapy we have.
It isn’t a sign that something is wrong with you. Nearly everyone does it sometimes, especially when tired, ill, alone, or waiting for news. It turns into a problem when it becomes the mind’s default setting, because your body reacts to the imagined disaster as if it were real. Your heart races. Sleep goes. The day gets heavier before it has even started.
Catastrophizing Has Three Parts, Not One
Most people think catastrophizing is just “imagining the worst.” Researchers found it’s more like three habits stacked on top of each other.
In 1995, Canadian psychologist Michael Sullivan and his colleagues built a questionnaire to measure catastrophizing in people living with pain. It is still widely used today. When they looked at how people answered, three separate patterns kept showing up:
- Rumination. You can’t stop thinking about it. The thought loops.
- Magnification. You make the threat bigger than it is.
- Helplessness. You feel sure you won’t be able to handle it.
That third one is the quiet one. It rarely gets said out loud. But listen closely to any catastrophizing thought and it’s usually hiding inside. “I’ll lose my job” is really “I’ll lose my job and I won’t survive it.”
The Anxiety Equation: Why “It Probably Won’t Happen” Doesn’t Help
Here is the idea that changes how you fight this.
The British psychologist Paul Salkovskis described anxiety as a kind of sum. Roughly, it goes like this:
How likely it feels × how awful it feels
divided by
how well you think you’d cope + how much help you think you’d get
Look at the top half. That’s where almost all the usual advice aims. “It probably won’t happen.” “You’re overreacting.” “Look at the evidence.” Those can help. But you’ve probably noticed they don’t always work, and here’s why.
Sometimes the bad thing is possible. Sometimes it’s even likely. People do lose jobs. Test results do come back bad. If your only defence is “it won’t happen,” then the moment it might, you have nothing left.
Now look at the bottom half. How well you’d cope. Who would help you. A catastrophizing mind almost never asks those two questions. It runs the film right up to the disaster and then stops the tape. It never shows you the next scene: you, a week later, still standing, making a phone call, eating a meal someone brought round.
That bottom half is where the real relief is. And unlike the top half, you don’t have to win an argument about the future to change it.
How to Stop Catastrophizing: Five Things You Can Do Tonight
None of these cost money or need a therapist. They work best written on paper, or even typed into your phone’s notes.
- Finish the story. Don’t stop at the disaster. Ask, “And then what?” Keep asking until you reach a scene where you are doing something, not just suffering something. Catastrophes are scary partly because we never let them end.
- Write three versions. The worst case, the best case, and the most likely case. The most likely one is almost always the dullest. That’s the point.
- Answer the coping question. If the worst did happen, what is one thing you would actually do first? Not solve everything. Just the first step. Naming one step shrinks helplessness fast.
- Name your helpers. Write down one or two people you could call. A friend, a sibling, a neighbour. Most catastrophizing happens in a room where you’ve forgotten anyone else exists.
- Shrink the window. Ask, “What do I actually have to deal with today?” Not this month. Today. Usually it’s much smaller than the fear.
If you want to see how much of your week worry is taking up, our free How Anxious Am I? assessment takes a few minutes and gives you a plain-language result. And if the worry is mostly about things out of your hands, this piece on worrying about what you can’t control goes deeper on that side of it.
One honest note: if catastrophic thoughts come with sudden panic, chest pain, or a feeling that something terrible is about to happen right now, that’s worth taking seriously on its own. We wrote about that feeling and its medical side in Sense of Impending Doom: Why It Has a Medical Name. And if the thoughts ever turn toward harming yourself, please reach out to a local crisis line or someone you trust today.
Enough for Today
There’s an old line that’s been in the English language for about four hundred years: “Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof.”
Most people remember it as “don’t worry about tomorrow,” as if the promise were that tomorrow will be fine. It isn’t. The line comes from Jesus, and what it actually says is closer to this: each day has enough trouble of its own. It admits the trouble is real. It just refuses to let you carry next week’s share tonight.
That’s the anxiety equation, only far older. It doesn’t argue with the top half. It works on the bottom one: you’ll be given what you need for the day you’re actually in, and you won’t be facing it alone. Some people call that faith. Some just call it getting through. Either way, it’s a lighter load than the one the 3am mind hands you.
The Conversation Tomorrow Morning
Back to that message from your boss.
Maybe the talk is about a new project. Maybe it’s about a mistake. Maybe, yes, it’s bad news. You don’t know yet, and neither does the part of your brain that has already packed the boxes.
What you do know is that tomorrow’s version of you will be the one walking into that room. Rested, if you let yourself sleep. Not alone, if you let someone in. That person can handle tomorrow’s conversation. Tonight’s job is smaller. It’s just tonight.
Discussion Question
Which do you think makes catastrophizing worse: overestimating how likely the bad thing is, or underestimating how well you’d cope if it happened? Tell us in the comments below. We read every one.
Share This
Post 1: Catastrophizing isn’t just imagining the worst. It’s quietly assuming you couldn’t cope if the worst came. Finally makes sense why “it probably won’t happen” never worked for me. https://bgodinspired.com/index.php/personal-growth-and-life-skills/what-is-catastrophizing/
Post 2: Tried the “finish the story” trick last night. Kept asking “and then what?” until I got to a scene where I was actually doing something. The spiral just ran out of road. Worth a read if your brain does this too: https://bgodinspired.com/index.php/personal-growth-and-life-skills/what-is-catastrophizing/
Post 3: “Each day has enough trouble of its own.” Not a promise that tomorrow will be fine. Just permission not to carry it tonight. https://bgodinspired.com/index.php/personal-growth-and-life-skills/what-is-catastrophizing/
Questions People Ask About Catastrophizing
What is catastrophizing in simple terms?
Catastrophizing is a thinking habit where the mind jumps straight to the worst possible outcome and treats it as the likely one. For example, a short message from a boss becomes certain job loss, or a mild headache becomes a serious illness. Psychologist Albert Ellis is usually credited with naming it, and it is one of the main “thinking traps” worked on in cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT).
What are the three parts of catastrophizing?
Researchers who developed the Pain Catastrophizing Scale in 1995, led by psychologist Michael Sullivan, found that catastrophizing has three parts: rumination (not being able to stop thinking about the threat), magnification (making the threat seem bigger than it is), and helplessness (believing you won’t be able to cope with it). The helplessness part is often the least noticed and the most important to address.
How do you stop catastrophizing?
A practical way to stop catastrophizing is to finish the feared story by repeatedly asking “and then what?”, write down the worst, best, and most likely outcomes, name one first step you would take if the worst happened, list one or two people you could call for help, and focus only on what needs handling today. These steps reduce anxiety by strengthening belief in coping and support, not only by arguing that the bad outcome is unlikely.
What is the anxiety equation in CBT?
The anxiety equation, associated with British psychologist Paul Salkovskis, describes anxiety as how likely a threat feels multiplied by how awful it feels, divided by how well a person believes they could cope plus how much outside help they expect. It shows that anxiety can be reduced not only by lowering the sense of threat, but also by strengthening a person’s sense of coping and support.
Is catastrophizing a mental illness?
Catastrophizing is not a mental illness by itself. It is a common thinking pattern that almost everyone experiences at times, especially when tired, stressed, or waiting for news. It is often linked with anxiety, depression, and chronic pain, so if catastrophic thinking is constant or comes with panic or thoughts of self-harm, speaking with a doctor, counsellor, or local crisis line is a good next step.
