Recently, I came across this interesting article that is not CRPS-specific, but still very relevant.
“Catastrophic Thinking (aka catastrophizing) refers to a cognitive distortion where a person exaggerates the potential negative consequences of a situation or event, believing that the worst possible outcome will occur”. It is closely related to anxiety.
Guess what, turns out that many patients with chronic pain not only tend to catastrophize, but they are also completely unaware that their way of thinking is not normal, that it is unhealthy and may turn a temporary pain into a chronic condition.
You may ask, how do we know when we are catastrophizing? This is when mindfulness becomes very important. Dr. Zaubler who is quoted in the article calls it reality-testing. Each time you are very worried about something that would go wrong (you will be late to the important appointment, or the rain will soak you and you would inevitable catch cold, or that your toe would never heal after the injury, etc. etc.) make a point to notice that you arrived to your appointment 15 minutes early because you had everything well planned and executed or that the rain was pretty bad and you did get wet and cold, but you did not get sick at all! Needless to say, toes usually heal, and pain is temporary – unless your catastrophizing mind turns it into a chronic pain. The more you validate your worry against the reality, the more confidence you are going to build to face the unknown ahead of you.
Once you start noticing how routine your catastrophic thinking is, it becomes easier to catch it before it overtakes your mind!
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