Welcome to My Brain

We tend to go to the extreme when we begin thinking negative.

Someone says something negative about you becomes “no one likes me.”

A business fails or a job lost turns into “I’m going to lose everything I have.”

We catastrophize things as an evolutionary response. We psychically project in our minds to the extreme end — the worst case scenario — as a method of making preparations to prevent it. The problem is, it has a tendency to run away from us and stick us in a negative space.

It feeds anxiety and fear. It feels like inevitable prophecy, this worst thing that could happen is going to no matter what.

The truth is, it won’t. How do I know this? Because it assumes everything will be static between now and then. It assumes you wont exert any force or have any force exerted on you. There’s eight billion people in the world; the odds of you not being impacted by a single one of them in any way, shape, or form is beyond unlikely.

Early man developed imagination as a way to not be surprised by an animal jumping out from hiding at him. It’s really a defensive mechanism. It exists to protect you — to help you plan, prepare, or be ready.

And these are exactly the things you need to do when you’re catastrophizing. Exert force. Act.

It’s not easy and it takes some work. I still work on it every day. And I’m still here.

August 22, 2025