Catastrophising

[Awkward Annie]

Does anyone else suffer with this? I have it on a near daily basis. If I'm ringing my family and they aren't answering their phones I get extreme anxiety and began to imagine scenarios in my head. Uusually, worst-case scenarios. Then I imagine what I would do in each case and how my life would change and I generally become sick with anxiety until I find out that they just didn't hear their phone ringing.

It's the same with most things. Especially with things I've never done before. I'm putting off learning to drive because there are too many ways to feel humiliated. Cutting out, making silly mistakes, other drivers staring at you or beeping their horn, the instructor losing his patience or sighing.

When I was in New York we went to Central Park and my partner said "let's hire a rowing boat on the lake". Now, I have no particular fear of water or boats but I immediately began thinking "I can't swim, what if I fall out, what if another boat tips against us, what if it springs a leak, what if the oars break, what if we cannot control the boat and can't get back to shore." These ran through my head but in the end I was told that I had to just do it and not to be silly. I did it and it was great.

Anyone else catastrophise or have the fear of doing new things and need someone to force you into the situation?

 

[dooby-duck]

Yes. I catastrophise a lot.

 

[Hellhound]

Often... Way too often.

 

[Nocer]

sometimes i do, but i just emd up doing things eventually since i want some type of experience, makes life slightly more fun. although it does take me a while to do something like that and gain enough confidence to do it. If i am lucky then i will act on impulse

 

[Helyna]

Have you ever read a book about anxiety or depression? A CBT workbook? Get one now! This is a really common way of thinking, though the books usually exaggerate a bit.

 

[da_illest101]

i do that all the time, it's really annoying

 

[userremoved]

Yeah I do, I guess that comes with the territory of our particular problem. The good news is our fears are usually so unlikely to really come true that if you do decide to give something new a shot you should be ok or at least not as bad as you would think. Also most people don't know how to drive so they probably wouldn't notice you.

 

[206Raider]

Yes! I do that a lot, when somebody isn't around sometimes I think they might be dead or they just decided to hate me for some reason. I just worry worry and worry about things that I have no control over sometimes. But the funny thing is I don't worry about myself, I drove in a snow storm with my drivers side windshield wiper broken but didn't want to stop on the side of the freeway so I drove home pretty much completely blind and almost ran into a lot of walls, I thought if I die, I die. But when other people are out, that's when I worry.