Asked Around by Susan L.

  After yesterday's post I decided to do a mini survey to see if anyone else had daymares. The person I asked gave me an awesome word that describes them beautifully: catastrophizing.
  According to PsychCentral, it means believing a situation will end up as a worse case scenario. When my car needed to go to the garage because it had a squeaky belt, thinking it might need a whole new engine is catastrophizing.
  The other aspect is more mental and is focused around negative, worry enforcing words. Chicken Little from the children's story crying, "The sky is falling! The sky is falling!" is a doom crier of the nth degree.
  I don't think my brief visits into horror fantasy are quite so bad simply because, most of the time, they get cut off and I turn my mind to better things.
  And a laugh bursts out at my own expense. There's an ice storm happening here with a potential for power outages. My mind starts thinking about the basement right away. A power outage means the sump pump will stop pumping the water out which means a flood. Thoughts of a foot or two of water down there, having to replace the furnace, the mess, the cleanup. Yup, that's catastrophizing for sure! The most water I have ever had to deal with is two or three inches.
  But there's things in place that can offset the worry. I have a generator and a full tank of gas in case the power goes out. Most of the stuff is off the floor. Best of all is a prayer that the power stays on!
  If it does flood, the floor will end up really clean!
  Gratitude, the best medicine next to laughter.
  I don't mean to make light of this. Catastrophizing can both suffocate and paralyze any actions or plans. Fear of the future can rob us of so much because it's easier to do nothing than to take a risk.
  Within the mental health field, there is often talk of self-fulfilling prophecy. We believe what we say. That's why it is so important to speak good things into the future and the present. Stinkin' thinkin' is an open invitation to the enemy of our souls and he is more than delighted to make life difficult.
  "Above all, taking the shield of faith with which you will be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked one." Eph 6:16