Depression's Destructive Power: Catastrophic Thinking (And How To Manage It)
Creeping Depression
Therapists and Medical Professionals of all kinds love to talk about “preventive care” (or, “preventative care”, if you dig using extra letters and bigger words). Managing your daily health and stopping little problems from growing means you’ll avoid some of the worst outcomes and improve your overall quality of life.
But, what if you don’t recognize the early signs of trouble? Mental health doesn’t get the same attention as physical health and if depression is starting you on a dangerous cycle, you could miss the red flags and not get help when it’s most effective.
Juggling a full schedule in difficult times might cause some of depression’s classic symptoms such as irritability, changed appetite and persistent fatigue. At the same time, you also might feel too busy to pay attention to how you’re really thinking about life, and letting negative patterns take hold of your outlook.
For a couple of days, or even a week or two, this is nothing to worry about. But you do need to check your self and make sure you aren’t letting bad circumstances change who you are and what you want from your life.
Catastrophic Thinking
In the same way depression can turn gambling and alcohol into life-and-death struggles, depression poisons our response to adversity and makes it wildly inappropriate over time and multiple setbacks. Our ability to take things in stride and retain perspective may fall to depression’s most dangerous power: catastrophic thinking.
Unlike a pessimistic outlook, catastrophic thinking presents the absolute worst case you can imagine, and then makes that the only possible outcome you can see. Humans enjoy drama! This kind of thinking engages our brains and gives us an epic adventure to look forward to, even though it’s literally the last thing we want to happen.
But once it becomes our go-to response to any situation, day after day after week after month, we can lose our rational grip on everything from relationships to simple transactions. Depression, unchecked and unmanaged, can turn us into frightened shells of ourselves, able only to mindlessly react.
5 Steps To Get Your Life on Track
1. WRITE YOUR LIFE PLAN
Brutal, unflinching honesty is the key to this step – if you cannot admit to a problem, even though you know there is one, seriously consider counseling or a doctor visit. Otherwise, write down what you want your life to be as specifically as you can imagine it, even if it’s in chunks of possessions, locations and accomplishments.
Think about your family, friends and experiences that bring you good memories as you write these things. Think about successful projects you’ve completed or contributed to; about groups that you’re proud to have joined and supported and about what you liked and hoped for as a kid.
Everyone’s life is different and childhood might have been the worst time of yours, but if you’ve gotten this far, you know life has plenty from column A and column B and that it IS worth living. Wouldn’t you rather be happy and strong?
2. WRITE DOWN WHAT YOU’RE AFRAID OF
Don’t think about this and don’t try to order them or make sense of them before they go on the list. Don’t be surprised if you have trouble with this, or you find yourself thinking, “That’s ridiculous! That couldn’t happen!”
Think of a recent example of not doing something because you were too convinced of a bad outcome and remember what fears went through your head as you talked yourself out of trying. This is a very difficult thing to do, so pick a quiet, private and comfortable spot.
No-one needs to see this list except you, and you only need to see it once or twice. Be honest! You were not in your right mind when these fears were in it. It’s as though depression drugged you.
3. WRITE 20 REASONS FOR GRATITUDE
Write down 20 things you are grateful to have in your life, whether they’re friends, personal attributes, memories or possessions. Consider how some of them came to be in your life and what they mean to you. Ask yourself if you deserve them, or earned them, or if it’s possible that parts of life are just objectively good, and you’re part of that goodness.
When you do this, the destructive negativity of your mindset will try to make you reject that goodness as stupid or unimportant. That’s okay! Bring yourself back to gratitude and happiness. It’ll feel weird and you might have to force yourself over and over, but you can do it, even if for just a few seconds at a time.
4. MEDITATE ON YOUR GRATITUDE, ACCOMPLISHMENTS
Even if you have to repeat a phrase like, “I am a real person and I make good things happen in this world,” you can bring yourself back to gratitude and happiness, no matter how many times your mind drags you into fear. Focus on one positive aspect of your life at a time, coming back to a specific detail each time you find yourself embracing worry and pain.
Visualize and memorize a positive detail clearly – you’ll want it for the days ahead. Meditation like this requires focus and perseverance; keep coming back to positive happiness for at least 5 minutes.
5. CELEBRATE YOUR ACTION!
When you’ve finished doing this the first time, you will probably be exhausted. Celebrate it and embrace it! You’ve done some extremely hard work and taken massive action to improve your mind and life.
Tomorrow, you’ll need to hang onto the memories of your meditation and review the things you wrote in order to continue the process of changing your head. Every day becomes a victory and another step forward – even the days where you stumble and fail!
Focus on the future, hold on to your self and your life’s work. Never deny your own success! Take a moment now to list two of them in the comments; be an inspiration to others!
Mark Schneider
After a full, but empty career of writing, editing, producing and directing, Mark has settled into a life of sharing and learning, hoping to make many experiences into a teachable wisdom.
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