Worrying about Worst Case Scenarios

[Anxious4Days]

It seems like my GAD tends to manifest itself mostly in the form of ruminating thoughts about bad eventualities - even if I can reason that these things are very unlikely to happen. For example, I've recently been applying to a lot of new jobs trying to find another employment opportunity with a less stressful workplace and more positive company culture/management. I've recently secured a few interviews for over the upcoming weeks. I feel like I should be proud of this positive feedback, but instead I'm caught up in the fear that none of these companies will want to hire me post-interview, that I will never find a new job, and that I will be stuck in this stressful situation forever. How have you found success coping with these types of thoughts? How can I get myself out of this pattern of negative thinking?

 

[jajingna]

Maybe you will be hired? Good luck with it.

 

[Anxious4Days]

Maybe you will be hired? Good luck with it.

I certainly hope so! I'm preparing for my interviews so I think I'll do well. I just keep on getting stuck reciting this mantra of "You'll never get hired," and worrying about other bad things. I'm trying to get unstuck from that type of thinking. Thanks for the support.

 

[Mayflower7]

Hi,
You've done ever so well to secure interviews. You are preparing which is excellent.
Wishing you loads of luck.
Hopefully the more you prepare the less anxiety you will have.

 

[Anxious4Days]

Hi,
You've done ever so well to secure interviews. You are preparing which is excellent.
Wishing you loads of luck.
Hopefully the more you prepare the less anxiety you will have.

Thank you so much for the well-wishes!

 

[Bizzarebitrary]

I have to practice feeling good. Knowing that I have a mental health condition which distorts cognition helps motivates me, cause I know the illness is stacking the odds against me.

I'll have a catastrophizing thought. Okay, how do I create a more balanced thought with the understanding that feelings aren't facts?

Maybe I'll remind myself that "I don't know" doesn't actually mean "I do know and the outcome will be bad."
And sometimes, dialing down the stakes helps: "This is actually not my last, best chance. I'm gonna be okay whatever then outcome and I know this because I've survived uncertainty before."

In my experience nothing "works" all the time but something works most of the time, which is why I practice balancing distorted thoughts all the time.


How do you practice challenging distorted thoughts?

 

[Jep88]

It seems like my GAD tends to manifest itself mostly in the form of ruminating thoughts about bad eventualities - even if I can reason that these things are very unlikely to happen. For example, I've recently been applying to a lot of new jobs trying to find another employment opportunity with a less stressful workplace and more positive company culture/management. I've recently secured a few interviews for over the upcoming weeks. I feel like I should be proud of this positive feedback, but instead I'm caught up in the fear that none of these companies will want to hire me post-interview, that I will never find a new job, and that I will be stuck in this stressful situation forever. How have you found success coping with these types of thoughts? How can I get myself out of this pattern of negative thinking?

I can relate. I often feel my work situation is too stressful and that it will never improve. We really don't know what the future will bring. The best we can do is think of all the things we have to be grateful for now and continue trying to improve our situation so it might get better in the future.

 

[MeAndMyDepression]

It seems like my GAD tends to manifest itself mostly in the form of ruminating thoughts about bad eventualities - even if I can reason that these things are very unlikely to happen. For example, I've recently been applying to a lot of new jobs trying to find another employment opportunity with a less stressful workplace and more positive company culture/management. I've recently secured a few interviews for over the upcoming weeks. I feel like I should be proud of this positive feedback, but instead I'm caught up in the fear that none of these companies will want to hire me post-interview, that I will never find a new job, and that I will be stuck in this stressful situation forever. How have you found success coping with these types of thoughts? How can I get myself out of this pattern of negative thinking?

You're catastrophizing--a cognitive distortion. Here is what catastrophizing means:

When a person engages in catastrophizing, they expect disaster to strike, no matter what. This is also referred to as magnifying, and can also come out in its opposite behavior, minimizing. In this distortion, a person hears about a problem and uses what if questions (e.g., “What if tragedy strikes?” “What if it happens to me?”) to imagine the absolute worst occurring.

For example, a person might exaggerate the importance of insignificant events (such as their mistake, or someone else’s achievement). Or they may inappropriately shrink the magnitude of significant events until they appear tiny (for example, a person’s own desirable qualities or someone else’s imperfections).

 

[Saguara]

It seems like my GAD tends to manifest itself mostly in the form of ruminating thoughts about bad eventualities - even if I can reason that these things are very unlikely to happen. For example, I've recently been applying to a lot of new jobs trying to find another employment opportunity with a less stressful workplace and more positive company culture/management. I've recently secured a few interviews for over the upcoming weeks. I feel like I should be proud of this positive feedback, but instead I'm caught up in the fear that none of these companies will want to hire me post-interview, that I will never find a new job, and that I will be stuck in this stressful situation forever. How have you found success coping with these types of thoughts? How can I get myself out of this pattern of negative thinking?

I can relate to you, I just started new job and all I can think is I already made mistakes and I would have to pay for them,they will fire me, thing would spread and nobody would hired me after that. I it so painful that I can not sleep properly and when I go to sleep its quite early just like my body is shuting down because he knows that tommarow is going to be hard and then I woke up every three hours becaus I think only of that.

 

[MeAndMyDepression]

Are you taking a benzo to calm you down?

 

[crybaby11]

i’m actually in this exact situation right now. whenever an interview is scheduled, part of me deep down is upset because in my mind it’s just another thing for me to fail. i’ve done multiple interviews in the past couple of months and up until the interview itself i’m just a wreck thinking “what’s the point? i’m going to do horribly anyway and i’ll never get hired anywhere.” afterwards i think i did fine, and then when i don’t get the job i just sink back into the thoughts of not being good enough, i should just stop applying anywhere, etc.

i’ve tried changing my mindset, when i get a negative thought i try to replace it with a positive one. obviously it’s easier said than done, but it helps a little

 

[MeAndMyDepression]

Sounds like the Overgeneralization cognitive distortion:

In this cognitive distortion, a person comes to a general conclusion based on a single incident or a single piece of evidence. If something bad happens just once, they expect it to happen over and over again. A person may see a single, unpleasant event as part of a never-ending pattern of defeat.

 

[crybaby11]

Sounds like the Overgeneralization cognitive distortion:

In this cognitive distortion, a person comes to a general conclusion based on a single incident or a single piece of evidence. If something bad happens just once, they expect it to happen over and over again. A person may see a single, unpleasant event as part of a never-ending pattern of defeat.

thank you for giving me a word to explain it with!! is there anything that one can do to fight this? or is it just a matter of changing the way we think?

 

[jajingna]

You might recognize some of those cognitive distortions (there are a lot of them) sometimes, for example if you think something like, "this always happens," then you can counter that with something more accurate like, "well, actually, this has happened a few times, and it's not that big a problem anyway"

I think those distortions happen more when we're stressed and emotional, and not thinking so clearly

 

[Saguara]

Sounds like the Overgeneralization cognitive distortion:

In this cognitive distortion, a person comes to a general conclusion based on a single incident or a single piece of evidence. If something bad happens just once, they expect it to happen over and over again. A person may see a single, unpleasant event as part of a never-ending pattern of defeat.

I signe everything that you wrote, from word to word. This is it.