Catastrophic thinking might not hit everyone all the time, but for those of us who have this tendency, it can feel like a nightmare when it does come. Our thoughts can be crushing, even when the scenarios we’ve spun are nowhere near grounded in reality. Catastrophic thoughts, or what some call intrusive thoughts, can take on a life of their own especially when we’re missing information or feeling emotionally...
We make decisions under the belief that we've weighed all of the risks and benefits carefully, but our judgments aren’t always as sound as we think. We misjudge the level of risk we’re taking all the time, especially when we’re under stress or don’t have enough information. One reason for these mistakes could be a set of thinking errors called cognitive distortions. Here's why this happens. Risk and...