Humans are among a very small percentage of creatures that have the documented capacity to imagine vivid and complex ideas. We can engage in fun fantasies like driving our dream car, traveling to exotic locations, and finding our true love in the most romantic way. We can also imagine worst-case scenarios like our heaviest concerns for the day coming to pass, imagining coming face to face with a specific phobia, or picturing exactly how that argument with your partner will play out later.
Cognitive distortions are errors in thinking, which are generally irrational or exaggerated. These thoughts are not usually based on facts, but we believe them to be true. When we believe these distortions, we find ourselves having high levels of stress and anxiety, which also effects our overall self-esteem. Catastrophizing is one of those cognitive distortion (aka magnifying). It consists of the way we magnify things out of proportions, which causes us to think about terrible scenarios that we believe could happen.
