Inside Gigi's World

A cognitive distortion.

Catastrophizing involves fixating on potential, negative outcomes and worse-case scenarios.

Catastrophizing is often present in mental health issues such as anxiety disorders, depression, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) and attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD).

Catastrophizing can have a negative impact on people’s well-being and mental health.

People that use catastrophizing as a coping mechanism often lack the ability to make realistic assessments of situations and can believe that catastrophe is inevitable.

I wake up in the morning and decide I am going to have a bagel for breakfast. I am so hungry that I cannot wait to eat so I put my bagel in the toaster oven before I go in the shower. Except the toaster oven breaks and I have no idea because I am in the shower, singing the Weekly Top 40 as loud as I can possibly sing. The toaster oven gets hotter and hotter. The bagel is burning with a fury unlike any bagel before.

The weather has been hot, scorching. I decide I want to go to the lake for a nice day of swimming and rest. Work and school has been hectic and I am thankful for the reprieve of the summer. I access my safety: I have sunblock on, there are other people in the water, the water itself is fresh water—not salt or brackish water, just fresh. There is a sign that even tells me I am swimming in a freshwater lake. I am not wearing anything shiny. I am not oozing blood from any orifice on my body. I start by first dipping my big toe in the water and then the ball of my foot, then my whole foot. My other foot follows suit. The water, which has been warmed by the sun, invites me to indulge in my reckless abandon and lunge my whole body into the water. As onlookers watch from the beach, I am surrounded by sharks. Lots of sharks. No one knows how this has happened. Sharks don’t swim in freshwater lakes but these ones do.

I’m going for a walk. It is a nice autumn day, the foliage is changing and the air smells like warm apples from the fruit that are hanging from the trees all around me. The sun and warmth and all of the walking has made me tired. I decide I am going to pluck myself an apple and sit under one of the trees for some respite. As I am munching on the sacred fruit I hear a crack overhead. I look up and the last thing I see is…

I decided I wanted to go to the park. I drank a lot of water to stay hydrated but of course, the more water you drink, the more you have to pee which is precisely what I have to do. I have to go so bad that the urine is leaving through my tear ducts as tears. If I do not find a bathroom soon I fear I may explode. There are normally nice working toilets at this park which is why I come here instead of the other park in town where the only place to relieve yourself is in the woods with a high risk of someone walking by and catching you with your unmentionables around your ankles. However, right now the bathrooms at the park are closed. The town got a grant to make improvements to the local park and the bathroom was one thing they decided to fix. For the undetermined amount of time it will take to add new stalls, make the handicap bathroom wider and hot water to the sinks, the town decided to add a row of Port-A-Potties behind where the bathroom building is. I hate those disgusting toilets but the only other option is to pee in my pants. I knock on one of the vacant doors just to make sure no one else is in there. slowly open the door incase the non-existent person in the vacant bathroom didn’t hear me banging on the door, yelling “HELLO!” over and over again. I take one last deep breath before I run in, slam the door behind me and lock it so no one else can barge in on me. I pull my pants down and just as I sit, something lunges up and bites me right in the ass. My world goes dark, I don’t know if it is because I passed out or if it is because poison is now surging through my body.

I get sick.

I die.

The people I love most get sick.

The people I love most die.

The government turns us into servants. They burn all of the books. We can no longer get acceptable healthcare. The rich eats us alive.

There isn’t enough money for bills.

There isn’t enough money for food.

The snake grows legs, he smiles but it is menacing. He puts on a suit and we begin to trust him. He speaks smoothly. He wears an expensive suit. He makes the women of the world reproduce with him and we are overtaken by a world of snakes.

I eat a piece of hard candy…and choke.

I go for a run, I accidentally step in a bear trap. I lose my leg. I will never walk again.

Catastrophizing.

A cognitive distortion.

Often present in mental health issues such as anxiety disorders, depression, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) and attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD).