Thinking pattern
Draft — not clinically reviewed yetCatastrophizing
Jumping to the worst outcome and treating it as likely — common in anxiety and stress.
Source: Sokol & Fox (2019), The Comprehensive Clinician's Guide to Cognitive Behavioral Therapy
For learning and reflection — not diagnosis or treatment. Willow isn't your therapist or crisis line. Based on Sokol & Fox (2019). In crisis? See crisis resources or findahelpline.com.
The pattern
Catastrophizing magnifies how bad an outcome would be and often pairs with probability errors: "If this goes wrong, my life is over."
Questions that help
- What's the realistic worst case — not the movie version?
- Then what happens next?
- Have you survived similar setbacks before?
- What resources or people could you use?
Related
- Anxiety — catastrophic error as one of three anxiety distortions
- Sleep — "I'll be destroyed tomorrow" after a bad night
- Thought record — facts and rethink steps
Try it next
Name one catastrophe your mind offered recently — Willow will slow it down with you.
From the guide
What is the worst that could realistically happen — then what? Could you cope?
— Anxiety restructuring; Sokol & Fox (2019), The Comprehensive Clinician's Guide to Cognitive Behavioral Therapy
From the guide
We couldn't pull book excerpts right now. The summary above still follows the same source material.
Related topics
Practice this with Willow
Open chat with a starter prompt for this topic. Same skills and safety rules as always.
Start in chat