Catastrophizing: definition and how to catch it

Catastrophizing means expecting the worst possible outcome and reacting as though it’s already likely, even when a situation is stressful but not disastrous. The APA Dictionary of Psychology credits psychologist Albert Ellis with coining the term, which he also called “awfulizing.” It’s a thinking pattern, not a diagnosis, and it gets easier to interrupt once you can recognize it running.

Where does the term come from?

Albert Ellis introduced the term in his early work on rational emotive behavior therapy (REBT), an early form of CBT. It’s since become one of the cognitive distortions that CBT works to catch and challenge: a predictable slip in reasoning under stress, not a character flaw.

What are the signs you’re catastrophizing?

Researchers behind the widely used Pain Catastrophizing Scale found the pattern reliably splits into three parts, useful to know even outside of pain. It often sounds like rumination (“I can’t stop thinking about how bad this is”), magnification (“this is going to be a disaster”), or helplessness (“there’s nothing I can do about it”). Noticing any one of the three is often enough to stop the spiral before it finishes building the disaster.

Is catastrophizing just another word for anxiety?

Related, but not identical, and not quite the same as rumination either. A 2021 study in Royal Society Open Science tested a catastrophizing questionnaire across five samples and roughly 734 people, and it held up as its own measurable pattern, statistically separate from general anxiety and worry. Rumination loops backward over what already happened; catastrophizing runs forward, rehearsing a future that hasn’t.

It’s also more than a bystander. A 2012 study in Cognitive Therapy and Research followed children in third through seventh grade and found catastrophizing predicted depressive symptoms even after researchers controlled for anxiety, suggesting it carries weight of its own.

What helps once you’ve caught it?

Cognitive reframing is the classic CBT approach: test the worst-case thought against the actual evidence instead of accepting it at face value. A short round of bilateral stimulation, the left-right technique behind EMDR, is another way to quiet a spiral once it’s already running. A health-anxiety what-if spiral is a textbook everyday example.

EmEase, a self-guided EMDR app, offers the guided version of this technique at app.emease.com. For a full step-by-step practice, see how to stop catastrophizing every situation.