Catastrophic thinking is a negative coping strategy and cognitive distortion in which the individual believes the worst will happen and they cannot tolerate the result(s). Patients who catastrophize feel helpless about their conditions and obsess about them. Catastrophizing has been associated with negative health outcomes. Reframing and encouraging patients to follow treatment recommendations may be helpful in combating negative effects.

Challenging cognitive distortions

Continuously expecting the worst and being convinced of its occurrence.

State University of New York at Albany

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• Overgeneralizing

• Using selective abstraction

• Taking excessive responsibility

• Assuming temporal causality

• Making excessive self-references

• Catastrophizing

• Engaging in dichotomous thinking 


Types of Cognitive Distortions

Whitbourne, S. K. (2023). Abnormal psychology: Clinical perspective on psychological disorder. (10th ed.). McGraw Hill.

Types of Cognitive Distortions Reference

Spielman, R. M., Jenkins, W. J., & Lovett, M. D. (2020, April 22). Psychology (2nd ed.). OpenStax. https://openstax.org/books/psychology-2e/pages/1-introduction

OpenStax Psychology (2nd ed.) Textbook

The belief that if something is true in one situation, it will be true in all similar situations.

Overgeneralizing

Seriously considering only situations of failure, defeat, frustration, or dispossession.

Using Selective Abstraction

When a person believes that they are guilty of every aversive event that happens to them or to the people whom the person is close to. 

Taking Excessive Responsibility

The assumption that if a situation happened before, it would always happen. 

Assuming Temporal Causality

Believing that your imperfections and slips are the focus of people’s attention. 

Making Excessive Self-References

Catastrophizing

The tendency to perceive things as one extreme or another instead of a mix of both. 

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