What to Do When You Catastrophize
What if the worst thing happens? What if it doesn't!
Things fall apart. Your life falls apart—potentially. The worst thing possible might happen. It’s possible. It’s technically possible. And that’s all you can think about. It pounds in your head. Your thoughts race. You try to calculate every possibility, every outcome, every bad outcome, to identify the danger so you can protect yourself and those you love. You prepare for the worst despite lack of evidence that the worst is going to happen because if it did happen then it would be too much to bear. In short, you catastrophize.
And while all this takes place, your heart races, your palms sweat, your body gets ready for action. Maybe you take action and try to prevent the imagined catastrophe. You call someone and apologize. You try to “fix” something. You take a test to make sure you aren’t sick. You clarify a point you made. You text someone to ask their opinion. And maybe this gives you relief and maybe it doesn’t. Maybe you just have to sit and wait and see what God has in store.
We all catastrophize from time to time. Bad news hits us and we rush to the worst possible outcome to prepare ourselves. It’s a survival mechanism, and the intention behind it isn’t altogether bad. But when it keeps us stuck, when it causes us to despair, when it makes us act irrationally, when it drives us to assume the worst, it actually prevents us from hoping and trusting in God and his promises. Rather than drawing us closer to God and healthy frame of mind, catastrophizing often involves us panicking and trying to resolve our fears on our own power.
It’s the easiest thing in the world for me to sit here and tell you to “trust in God more” when you hear some news and start catastrophizing. The words themselves wash over you like Job’s friends’ advice. But here’s what I mean in practice:
When you are hit with some errant thought and the spike of anxiety comes and you start catastrophizing, instead of fighting it, and instead of working out all the possibilities, accept that the worst could potentially happen as a matter of technically fact, and shift your focus back to the here-and-now by praying and thanking God that he is sovereign over the situation.
This takes practice, of course. But the goal is not to deny that the worst outcome is possible. Because in most cases the worst is possible. It’s just not very likely. It’s a product of your highly tuned imagination which is anxiously looking for danger to keep you safe!1 Thanks, imagination!
It is also a practice of hoping and trusting in God. It is one thing to say, “Trust in God more.” But this is what it looks like to trust in God more. You trust him and turn from catastrophizing by acknowledging your fear, giving it to God, and shifting your focus to the present moment. 1 Peter 5:7 tells us to cast all our cares on Christ because he cares for us. This is how we practice that.
The reality is that some terrible things will happen to us in this life. Some of us will get laid off, some will get cancer, some will lose their children, some will experience infidelity from their spouse. Things do fall apart. But the center holds. God is sovereign, and he loves you and is working your good, somehow, through all this. We don’t need to be afraid of troubles. Christ said, “In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world” (John 16:33).
And he has. All of this suffering is passing away. And one day your tears will be dried. In the meantime, there is great joy and beauty in this life, in the here-and-now, if we only have eyes to see. But if we get too caught up in the future possibilities of tribulations, we will miss it. God has gifted us with wonders in creation, in people, in human works to delight in. If you spend your day wondering if you will be laid off tomorrow based on a conversation you had with your boss, you’ll miss the wonder of playing a game with your daughter, or talking with a friend, or watching a good movie, or reading a good book, or taking a walk.
We rob ourselves of the present moment when we exchange it by arming ourselves for a future that will probably never come. And we never get that present moment back. When all we have to do is trust that God loves us, he is working our good, and we desires us to delight in his gift of this moment.
If you have OCD, I recommend a different way of dealing with your catastrophizing. I recommend I-CBT.