Latest / Float: The Anxiety Podcast with Dr John Eaton PhD / Catastrophizing: Seeing Through It

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Catastrophizing: Seeing Through It · Float: The Anxiety Podcast with Dr John Eaton PhD

• 0:00
  If you're listening to this podcast, you might be familiar with the way your
• 0:03
  brain turns a problem into a catastrophe.
• 0:07
  Say you get a bill you didn't expect. A large one. Naturally,
• 0:12
  there's a problem there. Finding the money to pay it.
• 0:16
  But that's not the way the alarm mechanism in your brain sees it.
• 0:20
  Rather than helpful advice, you'll be given a stream of anxious feelings and
• 0:24
  some doom-laden predictions.
• 0:27
  You're going under. You'll be bankrupt soon. You can't cope with all this stress.
• 0:33
  In less than 30 seconds, you might even have a panic attack.
• 0:36
  Along the way, you might also get a disaster movie to look at.
• 0:40
  That catastrophizes it. But here's the interesting thing.
• 0:45
  It doesn't altogether seem like your brain has gone off the rails.
• 0:49
  Rather, it looks like it's showing you what's going to happen.
• 0:53
  In this podcast we will explore ways to see through that deception and then to float by it.
• 1:11
  Welcome back to Float, I am Dr. John Egan, and at the core of catastrophizing
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  lies the fact that your brain is a prediction engine, constantly trying to work
• 1:22
  out what might happen next.
• 1:25
  But when it produces anxiety, that's a sign that your brain is on the wrong track.
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  Sometimes its everyday life predictions can be helpful.
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  You wouldn't want to walk across a busy street without your brain making predictions,
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  about where the traffic is going.
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  You wouldn't want to start a journey without some idea of how to get there.
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  But managing finance is an open-ended problem with no final outcome.
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  Plus, it's linked to your security, precisely the combination,
• 1:58
  which lends itself to catastrophizing.
• 2:01
  Because when uncertainty is high and security is lower, The brain has a rather predictable habit.
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  It starts filling in the blanks, usually with the worst outcome it can imagine.
• 2:15
  You don't know right now where you're going to find the money,
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  so your brain supplies you with the catastrophic thought that you're never going to find it.
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  You don't know right now exactly when the bill will be paid,
• 2:29
  so the storyteller in your brain tells you when the bailiffs are going to arrive.
• 2:33
  By this point, you might be feeling more than a little answer.
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  And the moment your brain notices that, it sends you another prediction.
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  You're heading for a breakdown.
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  And then the brain shows you that very thing happening in a movie.
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  And suddenly the future stops being something that might happen.
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  It becomes something you can almost see and taste.
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  And this is what I want to explore with you today.
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  I want you to learn to recognize the difference between the future and your
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  brain's projections about it.
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  They are not the same thing.
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  Let's suppose you're worried about an important meeting at work, this week or next week.
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  You might start thinking, well, if they ask me a question, I can't answer.
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  And then something weird happens. You don't necessarily just think the words.
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  You might actually see yourself sitting around the table.
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  Your boss is looking at you. You hear the question.
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  You imagine yourself stumbling over the answer. You see the other people staring
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  at the disappointment or frustration.
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  Then your movie jumps forward to what follows. People are talking about you behind your back.
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  She wasn't very good, was she, says one. It was rubbish, says the other.
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  And then perhaps a final scene appears. You're back at your desk.
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  You're called into your manager's office. You're told your performance isn't good enough.
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  And then you may even flip to one more center where you're scrolling online
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  at midnight looking for another job. Now stop for a moment.
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  None of this happens. You're sitting somewhere, maybe in your kitchen,
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  your office, or walking down the road.
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  But your brain has produced a film that wouldn't even raise a B-movie.
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  That's catastrophizing too.
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  Because the brain has taken uncertainty and weaved a disaster story around it.
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  In 3D imagery accompanied by a soundtrack and a crap script,
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  leaving you worried, frightened and filled with dread about what might happen.
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  Here the brain has another trick, which is to build new predictions from old memories.
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  Suppose that ten years ago you had an argument with someone close to you,
• 4:56
  the relationship ended and you were hurt.
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  Now you are having another argument, or you've just had another argument.
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  With a partner or a friend or someone in your family.
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  And your brain takes the old memory, copies it, and then turns it into a film
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  about what happens next to the new argument.
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  An angry face, a voice telling you that you will never meet again,
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  and then cut to the scene in which you are on your own. Notice what happens.
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  A memory gets dressed up as a prophecy. Because the memory arrives with the
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  old anxious feeling attached, the forecast feels convincing.
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  In the same way, a documentary seems accurate because it uses real-life locations.
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  So, what can we do about all these tricks?
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  Well, this is where the title of today's podcast comes in. Seeing through it.
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  One thing I will ask you not to do is to argue with those catastrophic thoughts and movies.
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  Doing that will only cue your brain to show them to you again,
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  just in case you don't get the message.
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  Instead, I want you to look at the whole thing as if it had nothing to do with you.
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  Rather like the slightly boring video someone shared with you on WhatsApp.
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  Just notice the substandard movie your brain is producing, as if it grew on
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  a very small screen, the sun is a postage stamp.
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  Notice the projections into the future, the imagery, the script,
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  the memory traces, the feeling.
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  I noticed that they are on the poster stamp. You don't have to follow it or finish the story.
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  There may be a real-life problem that you need dealing with today,
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  and if there is, you can deal with that. The movie isn't going to stop you.
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  There's something else to notice as well. When a catastrophic image appears,
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  or an alarming thought, or an anxious sensation,
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  I know as your eyes used to do something about it, to check something,
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  search online, ask somebody, Work out what it all means. Make the fall go away.
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  But each of those responses tells the brain, yes, this is important.
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  Keep looking, keep tracking, keep worrying.
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  And the brain loop continues. And why not try something simpler?
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  Notice what's being presented to you.
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  Watch how your brain produces it. Then float by it.
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  You don't have to engage with it or finish the story. The ending can stay unfinished.
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  Because no one knows the ending, and that's just fine.
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  And this is where catastrophizing meets float. Floating doesn't mean you stop
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  caring about genuine problems.
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  It just means you cease treating every stray projection as a guide to the future.
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  Your brain will go on producing wayward predictions. That is what brains do.
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  You don't have to like it. You only need to notice it and say to yourself,
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  There's the phone, there's the forecast, there's the old memory being used again.
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  That's the catastrophe.
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  Then look back to what's happening now, the room you are sitting in,
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  the person you are talking to, the task in front of you, the day you are living.
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  The future has not happened yet. When it does arrive, you will have the reality
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  at that moment to deal with, rather than the version of your brain advantage
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  six hours, six days or six months earlier.
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  So, the next time you catch yourself listening or watching one of these scenarios,
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  don't ask, how do I stop thinking about this?
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  Instead, ask yourself this, what's really going on here? And just look at it.
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  When you see the machinery of the projection, you are no longer inside the catastrophe.
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  You are simply watching your brain create one, and that's the beginning of steering
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  through it before you pass on by and that is the heart of float.
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  Let the mind fantasize about the future while you go on living in the present.
• 9:09
  I'm Dr. John Eaton. Thank you for listening.