We all imagine catastrophic things happening sometimes. Maybe whenever a loved one doesn’t reply to a text message, right you automatically think something terrible has happened to them. Or perhaps every time your boss asks you to meet, you assume that you’re about to get fired.

Not only do catastrophic thoughts overestimate how bad things are going to be, they also underestimate our ability to cope if something bad does happen. You might tell yourself that you’d be completely destroyed if you got laid off or that you’d never recover if your love interest broke up with you. 

Catastrophic thoughts cause us to feel awful. And they can keep us from taking productive action if you let them.

While you can’t stop them from happening, you can choose how you respond to them. 

It’s a common issue we address in the therapy office — skills for managing catastrophic thoughts. Here's my favorite strategy for dealing with them.

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