Catastrophic Thinking: It’s the Absolute Worst!

Helping students who thinking catastrophically rank their emotions and move past such negative thoughts

Have you got one of ‘those’ children in your classroom whose responses to events are… exhausting, overthe-top and catastrophic? You know this child: where a paper cut is worse than an amputation? Nodding your head? Yes, we all know someone prone to exaggerated responses, whether it be a child in class, a parent (sigh – there’s a whole other topic) or perhaps someone who crops up on your social media and you find yourself struggling to restrain an eye roll as you read about their next (and next and next) life catastrophe!

To read the full article, members please log in here. To subscribe please click here.

Understanding Thinking Styles

‘Thinking’ in psychological terms, is often used to reference our internal dialogue. It happens every minute of every day, driving our patterns of motivation, procrastination, ability to cope, successes, goals and ultimately, our accomplishments. Powerful!

At BEST Programs 4 Kids, we talk about ‘Supa Thinkin’: positive and helpful internal dialogue that motivates action and achievement and assists with coping with life’s expected and unexpected bumps. Its polar opposite is ‘Stinkin Thinkin’: an internal dialogue that predicts the worst outcome; failure already writ large when there’s not even a smidgeon of it on the horizon.

When Thinking Becomes Catastrophic

Catastrophising. Expecting disaster to strike. Blowing little situations into big happenings. Turning the insignificant into the insurmountable. Making molehills into mountains. This is usually typified by “What if” thinking:

· “What if I get there late?”

· “What if they don’t include me?”

· “What if I don’t get the job?”

And usually the question has already been answered in predictably catastrophic style of the very worst case scenario. It’s a definite precedent to feelings of anxiety and overwhelm.

Catastrophic thinking is often accompanied by:

· Rumination – chewing things over mentally and thinking about them repeatedly

· Magnification – blowing something out of proportion and finding evidence to validate it.

· Helplessness – perceiving that the situation is completely unsolvable.

It makes sense therefore, that catastrophising and intense emotions – particularly anxiety and anger – go hand in hand – and that can make for an emotional, exhausting roller coaster of a life.

De-catastrophise Thinking – Scaling

Both children and adults use a scale of experiences against which new happenings are plotted. “It’s not that bad – it was much worst last time,” is an example. Teaching children how to decatastrophise their thinking is a useful – very essential – life skill. Here are the steps to teaching this skill:

Step 1: Display numbers 1 to 10 along a wall, across the floor or vertically up a door, with 1 representing a minor emotional reactivity and 10 the maximum.

Step 2: Ask each child to think of an at school situation that they have found upsetting and to write it in brief on a post-it note. (Two essential rules – only at school situations – nothing from home and no use of another child’s name, eg. Sally bullied me at lunch time.) Each child plots their happening on the scale of 1 to 10 according to their emotional response and reactivity to it.

Step 3: Ask different children in the group the solution-focused question: “What would be happening differently if it was a 6 out of 10?” Choose a number that is only one or two numbers different from their ranking of their happening. The solution they suggest could be finding an alternative playmate; identifying someone who might help, like a parent or a teacher or perhaps it could be managing their own emotional arousal through a calming down activity, such as breathing and changing their “Stinkin Thinkin”.

A catastrophe scale in a classroom can build up a history and a story that children can use to change how they think about the happenings in their world. Going back to the scale 3 or 4 days after and asking the children if they would still rank their particular happening the same way has its own learning. Time always gives emotional distance from an event. So, when the next catastrophe occurs (and it will) it can be rated and ranked against other previous catastrophes, which in itself helps a child identify thinking that’s helpful towards decatastrophising like:

· “It’s not that bad.”

· “That happened before and I got better.”

· “The last time I argued with her, we made up the next day.”

Teach Decatastrophising Early and Often

Classroom and playground happenings are a rich way to learn the skills of emotional self-management and regulation. Every moment of every day there are unlimited opportunities to teach children the many skills required to be socially, emotionally and learning resilient – and the skill of decatastrophising thinking is most certainly one of these.

Related Posts

Fostering Wonderment and Awe in the Classroom

Fostering Wonderment and Awe in the Classroom

Back to School

Back to School

How Artificial Intelligence Augments Biological Intelligence

How Artificial Intelligence Augments Biological Intelligence

Making Learning Real

Making Learning Real

Claire Orange


Claire is the mum of 4 boys, a Speech Pathologist, Child & Adolescent Mental Health Therapist and Director of BEST Programs 4 Kids. With 25 years of experience in health and education, Claire is passionate about every child, parent and school community being empowered, educated and engaged in the journey towards glowing mental health, resilience and a lifetime of flourishing.