How can I stop catastrophizing?

[lovely_darlingprettybaby]

Hi everyone, this is my first post here, and it’s about something I’ve been struggling with for a while. right now I’m a bit lost on what to do and would like some help with my problem.

For the last couple of years I have delved into some unsavoury things regarding politics, generally terrible things regarding different groups of people, such as women, people of colour, people of different sexual orientations, etc. While most people would typically just ignore this stuff and move on with their lives, but for some reason I just can’t do that, and seem to obsess over certain claims being made about different groups of people, especially since some of them use science to prove their points, so I force myself to analyse as much as I can no matter how much I hate it.

But I just can’t take it any more. I feel like I’m living in this constant state of fear and anxiety that I’m wrong about everything and that something will come along that will force me to view the world in a negative light. I’ve tried so long to combat the things I’ve read with my own research, but I can only do so much. And half of the time some of it doesn’t even make any sense or is just so confusing.

For example, some people have made the claim that the majority of black people have committed crimes, causing me to force myself to look into crime statistics regarding unreported crime, arrest rates, and so on, and do calculations on a percentage calculator even though I suck at math. At best, the numbers are alarmingly high, which worry me but I keep telling myself that I have to be unbiased and try to accept it, but at worst, the numbers literally make no sense whatsoever, no matter which way I slice it. And there’s so many unaccountable variables and contradictory studies that I don’t know what to believe most of the time, yet my mind constantly goes to the worst case scenario.

I’m just so tired of all of this. I get no joy out of doing any of this, and it feels like some massive weight is being pushed down on top of me, but I force myself to do it because I worry that if I don’t them I’m just remaining wilfully ignorant, or that I’m just disrespecting the suffering of others for the sake of my own beliefs. On numerous occasions, I just replay things that I already obsessed over months ago, worrying that I missed something the last time I did this, but sometimes I’ll go back and find nothing, and if I decide to be stubborn and say no to myself the guilt will eat away at me. Even on days when I don’t do any of this, the constant nagging and catastrophizing still hums away in the back of my mind like some kind of terrible song that’s stuck in my head and I just want it all to end.

Every time I try to stop I always get a few weeks of peace, before the guilt becomes too overwhelming and the cycle just begins again with some new or old. I don’t know what I’m doing wrong and I just really need some help.

I get repeated cycles of anxiety too in stressful situations and worry a lot. It is just because we struggle when we do not know and understand and struggle with foresight.
So sometimes we just need a hug and reassurance from someone we trust so we know it will be ok.
I need touch to cure anxiety and often just strokes on my skin.
Strokes on arms, legs, hugs, even on my sides or hips which is hard to get platonically.
It is hard because I like sensual strokes at times without intimacy I think. So that can be weird and hard..it is hard being autistic

 

[HorrendousHexapod]

This has been giving me anxiety for the past few days and I just don’t know what else to do.

I really don’t know what to make of this conflict in the middle east. I honestly don’t think that any of this is okay, and I do feel for the innocent people on both sides caught in the war, but that’s something that’s also got to me when reading through all of the horrific information that’s come forward. Why do people act like it’s wrong to say “both sides are bad?”

Is it really rational to just let one side's actions slide just because they’re defending themselves?
I have many thoughts on this, arguments, counterarguments.
It fills my mind.

 

[Hypnalis]

You're paying far too much attention to something you can't influence at all.

You can either proactively address this mistaken perspective, or accept it for a decade or two (at least).

 

[Rodafina]

This has been giving me anxiety for the past few days and I just don’t know what else to do.

I really don’t know what to make of this conflict in the middle east. I honestly don’t think that any of this is okay, and I do feel for the innocent people on both sides caught in the war, but that’s something that’s also got to me when reading through all of the horrific information that’s come forward. Why do people act like it’s wrong to say “both sides are bad?”

Is it really rational to just let one side's actions slide just because they’re defending themselves?
I have many thoughts on this, arguments, counterarguments.
It fills my mind.

I agree with Hypnalis that there are elements to this that are completely beyond your control. Sometimes, it can be helpful to turn off the news and focus on things that are in the realm of your control. I don't mean to suggest that you ignore everything going on in the world, but you can be more selective about how, why, and when you engage with difficult stories like you mentioned. For some people, it is important to be informed, but those people can still set limits as to how much of this information they expose themselves to.

When we are stuck ruminating on something, I think action is the best way out of it. You can either take action to distract from the rumination or to deal with the rumination. The former would be to engage in other things that bring value to your life. The latter would be to figure out something you can actually do that will address the concerns you have about the issue you are too focused on (for example, writing a letter, participating in a community organization, volunteering with an aid agency).

 

[MROSS]

Curb viewing/listening to news sources via activities which alow us to forget both sensationalist news, and the terrible thing happening in the world.

Consider quality news-sources PBS, MSNBC which tend to avoid too much catastrophizing.

From Mark Twain, "I've seen many troubles in my time, only half of which ever came true."

 

[lovely_darlingprettybaby]

Hi everyone, this is my first post here, and it’s about something I’ve been struggling with for a while. right now I’m a bit lost on what to do and would like some help with my problem.

For the last couple of years I have delved into some unsavoury things regarding politics, generally terrible things regarding different groups of people, such as women, people of colour, people of different sexual orientations, etc. While most people would typically just ignore this stuff and move on with their lives, but for some reason I just can’t do that, and seem to obsess over certain claims being made about different groups of people, especially since some of them use science to prove their points, so I force myself to analyse as much as I can no matter how much I hate it.

But I just can’t take it any more. I feel like I’m living in this constant state of fear and anxiety that I’m wrong about everything and that something will come along that will force me to view the world in a negative light. I’ve tried so long to combat the things I’ve read with my own research, but I can only do so much. And half of the time some of it doesn’t even make any sense or is just so confusing.

For example, some people have made the claim that the majority of black people have committed crimes, causing me to force myself to look into crime statistics regarding unreported crime, arrest rates, and so on, and do calculations on a percentage calculator even though I suck at math. At best, the numbers are alarmingly high, which worry me but I keep telling myself that I have to be unbiased and try to accept it, but at worst, the numbers literally make no sense whatsoever, no matter which way I slice it. And there’s so many unaccountable variables and contradictory studies that I don’t know what to believe most of the time, yet my mind constantly goes to the worst case scenario.

I’m just so tired of all of this. I get no joy out of doing any of this, and it feels like some massive weight is being pushed down on top of me, but I force myself to do it because I worry that if I don’t them I’m just remaining wilfully ignorant, or that I’m just disrespecting the suffering of others for the sake of my own beliefs. On numerous occasions, I just replay things that I already obsessed over months ago, worrying that I missed something the last time I did this, but sometimes I’ll go back and find nothing, and if I decide to be stubborn and say no to myself the guilt will eat away at me. Even on days when I don’t do any of this, the constant nagging and catastrophizing still hums away in the back of my mind like some kind of terrible song that’s stuck in my head and I just want it all to end.

Every time I try to stop I always get a few weeks of peace, before the guilt becomes too overwhelming and the cycle just begins again with some new or old. I don’t know what I’m doing wrong and I just really need some help.

May be mental illness.

Maybe you just have to stop reading things, there is a lot of hatred and prejudice in the world, you may just be anxious at the moment.

Anyway the stuff about blacks is that they are not well educated and probably feel like their country is so behind with racist views on them. There are probably still plenty of whites who do crimes especially with very little gun control in USA.
So I do not believe always those sorts of figures.

But this is not about you. Maybe you should focus on yourself and maybe you just have a state of anxiety about the state of the world
And need to focus on staying away from things that trigger you
And focus on positive and uplifting things in your life