{"id":35814,"date":"2014-04-29T16:40:18","date_gmt":"2014-04-29T16:40:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.ou.org\/life\/?p=35814"},"modified":"2014-04-29T17:36:40","modified_gmt":"2014-04-29T17:36:40","slug":"catastrophic-thinking","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/life\/parenting\/catastrophic-thinking\/","title":{"rendered":"Catastrophic Thinking"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright size-medium wp-post-35814 wp-image-35820\" alt=\"Father comforts a sad child\" src=\"http:\/\/www.ou.org\/life\/files\/soclof0414-300x199.jpg\" width=\"300\" height=\"199\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/life\/files\/soclof0414-300x199.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.ou.org\/life\/files\/soclof0414.jpg 425w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/>How many times do parents hear from their children:<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI had the worst day ever!\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cSara is so mean to me! She did not give me her snack! She hates me!\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cMy teacher is the worst teacher. She gives tons of homework!<\/p>\n<p>This is called \u201ccatastrophic thinking.\u201d Children are egocentric and don&#8217;t have the perspective that adults have. This can put them in a bad mood and they are unable to problem solve or be realistic about their problems, making everything in their life seem worse than it actually is. We all know adults who indulge in this type of thought process.<\/p>\n<p>There are ways to help children retrain their brains to think more optimistically and help them interpret life\u2019s bumps in more positive ways. We can teach children to \u201cdecatastrophize.\u201d According to Martin Seligman, the father of the positive psychology movement, this is one of the most critical parts of learning to be optimistic (and to ultimately prevent childhood depression). He states that children can learn to ask themselves the following questions:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>What is the worst thing that could happen?<\/li>\n<li>What is the one thing you can do to help stop the worst thing from happening?<\/li>\n<li>What is the best thing that might happen?<\/li>\n<li>What is one thing you can do to help make the best thing happen?<\/li>\n<li>What is the most likely thing that will happen?<\/li>\n<li>\u2028What can you do to handle the most likely thing if it happens?<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>In his book, \u201cThe Optimistic Child\u201d (p. 219), Seligman documents a conversation with his client and how he helped his client work through the problem and decatastrophize:<\/p>\n<p><em>\u201cCarly is my best friend and she lent me this really cool sweater she has. It has many different colors in it and pieces of leather and other stuff too. I wore it to the party and Molly and Marcus even said it was nice. But somehow, I don&#8217;t know how, I got icing all over the front and the sleeve. It was bad, like the chocolate smushed into the sweater. I couldn&#8217;t brush it off or anything. My mom says I ought to just dress in plastic because I am always spilling things on my clothes. I was really scared to tell Carly. I knew she was going to be way mad.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n<p><strong><em>What is the worst thing that could happen?\u2028<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The very worst is that Carly will get so mad that she\u2019ll tell me she doesn\u2019t want to be best friends anymore. She\u2019ll tell Joanie and Heather too, and they will be mad at me.<\/p>\n<p><strong><em>What is the one thing you can do to help stop the worst thing from happening?<\/em>\u2028<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>I can use my allowance money to buy Carly another sweater<\/p>\n<p><strong><em>What is the best thing that might happen?<\/em>\u2028<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>She will tell me she is not mad at all<\/p>\n<p><strong><em>What is one thing you can do to help make the best thing happen?<\/em>\u2028<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>I can say I am really sorry. And I can give her one of my favorite sweaters.<\/p>\n<p><strong><em>What is the most likely thing that will happen?<\/em>\u2028<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>I think she will be kind of mad at me and she won\u2019t talk to me for a bit.<\/p>\n<p><strong><em>What can you do to handle the most likely thing if it happens?\u2028<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>I can tell her I\u2019m sorry. I can be super nice. I can play with Lisa more.<\/p>\n<p>Can we try this at home with our kids? I certainly am going to try!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>How many times do parents hear from their children: \u201cI had the worst day ever!\u201d \u201cSara is so mean to me! She did not give me her snack! She hates me!\u201d \u201cMy teacher is the worst teacher. She gives tons of homework! This is called \u201ccatastrophic thinking.\u201d Children are egocentric and don&#8217;t have the perspective<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":720,"featured_media":35822,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_cloudinary_featured_overwrite":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-35814","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-parenting"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v24.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Catastrophic Thinking - OU Life<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/life\/parenting\/catastrophic-thinking\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Catastrophic Thinking - OU Life\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"How many times do parents hear from their children: \u201cI had the worst day ever!\u201d \u201cSara is so mean to me! She did not give me her snack! She hates me!\u201d \u201cMy teacher is the worst teacher. She gives tons of homework! This is called \u201ccatastrophic thinking.\u201d Children are egocentric and don&#8217;t have the perspective\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/life\/parenting\/catastrophic-thinking\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"OU Life\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2014-04-29T16:40:18+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2014-04-29T17:36:40+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/life\/files\/featured1.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"360\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"200\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Adina Soclof\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Adina Soclof\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/life\/parenting\/catastrophic-thinking\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/life\/parenting\/catastrophic-thinking\/\",\"name\":\"Catastrophic Thinking - OU Life\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/life\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/life\/parenting\/catastrophic-thinking\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/life\/parenting\/catastrophic-thinking\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/life\/files\/featured1.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2014-04-29T16:40:18+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2014-04-29T17:36:40+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/life\/#\/schema\/person\/e1d662e1b99b4cb9d5268c1a8111a03a\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/life\/parenting\/catastrophic-thinking\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/life\/parenting\/catastrophic-thinking\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/life\/files\/featured1.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/life\/files\/featured1.jpg\",\"width\":360,\"height\":200},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/life\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/life\/\",\"name\":\"OU Life\",\"description\":\"Everyday Jewish Living\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/life\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/life\/#\/schema\/person\/e1d662e1b99b4cb9d5268c1a8111a03a\",\"name\":\"Adina Soclof\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/life\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"http:\/\/www.ou.org\/life\/files\/Adina-Soclof_avatar-96x96.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"http:\/\/www.ou.org\/life\/files\/Adina-Soclof_avatar-96x96.png\",\"caption\":\"Adina Soclof\"},\"description\":\"Adina Soclof, MS. CCC-SLP is a certified Speech Pathologist. She received her master's degree from Hunter College in New York in Communication Sciences. She works as a Parent Educator for Bellefaire Jewish Children's Bureau facilitating \\\"How to Talk so Kids will Listen and Listen so Kids will Talk\\\" workshops as well as workshops based on \u201cSiblings Without Rivalry.\u201d Adina developed TEAM Communication Ventures and conducts parenting, teacher and clinician workshops via telephone nationwide. Adina lives with her husband and four lively children in Cleveland, Ohio. You can visit her at website at www.parentingsimply.com.\",\"sameAs\":[\"http:\/\/parentingsimply.com\"],\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/life\/author\/adinasoclof-me\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Catastrophic Thinking - OU Life","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/life\/parenting\/catastrophic-thinking\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Catastrophic Thinking - OU Life","og_description":"How many times do parents hear from their children: \u201cI had the worst day ever!\u201d \u201cSara is so mean to me! She did not give me her snack! She hates me!\u201d \u201cMy teacher is the worst teacher. She gives tons of homework! This is called \u201ccatastrophic thinking.\u201d Children are egocentric and don&#8217;t have the perspective","og_url":"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/life\/parenting\/catastrophic-thinking\/","og_site_name":"OU Life","article_published_time":"2014-04-29T16:40:18+00:00","article_modified_time":"2014-04-29T17:36:40+00:00","og_image":[{"width":360,"height":200,"url":"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/life\/files\/featured1.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Adina Soclof","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Adina Soclof","Est. reading time":"3 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/life\/parenting\/catastrophic-thinking\/","url":"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/life\/parenting\/catastrophic-thinking\/","name":"Catastrophic Thinking - OU Life","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/life\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/life\/parenting\/catastrophic-thinking\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/life\/parenting\/catastrophic-thinking\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/life\/files\/featured1.jpg","datePublished":"2014-04-29T16:40:18+00:00","dateModified":"2014-04-29T17:36:40+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/life\/#\/schema\/person\/e1d662e1b99b4cb9d5268c1a8111a03a"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.ou.org\/life\/parenting\/catastrophic-thinking\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/life\/parenting\/catastrophic-thinking\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/life\/files\/featured1.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/life\/files\/featured1.jpg","width":360,"height":200},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/life\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/life\/","name":"OU Life","description":"Everyday Jewish Living","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/life\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/life\/#\/schema\/person\/e1d662e1b99b4cb9d5268c1a8111a03a","name":"Adina Soclof","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/life\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"http:\/\/www.ou.org\/life\/files\/Adina-Soclof_avatar-96x96.png","contentUrl":"http:\/\/www.ou.org\/life\/files\/Adina-Soclof_avatar-96x96.png","caption":"Adina Soclof"},"description":"Adina Soclof, MS. CCC-SLP is a certified Speech Pathologist. She received her master's degree from Hunter College in New York in Communication Sciences. She works as a Parent Educator for Bellefaire Jewish Children's Bureau facilitating \"How to Talk so Kids will Listen and Listen so Kids will Talk\" workshops as well as workshops based on \u201cSiblings Without Rivalry.\u201d Adina developed TEAM Communication Ventures and conducts parenting, teacher and clinician workshops via telephone nationwide. Adina lives with her husband and four lively children in Cleveland, Ohio. You can visit her at website at www.parentingsimply.com.","sameAs":["http:\/\/parentingsimply.com"],"url":"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/life\/author\/adinasoclof-me\/"}]}},"acf":[],"brizy_media":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/life\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35814","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/life\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/life\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/life\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/720"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/life\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=35814"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/life\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35814\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/life\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/35822"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/life\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=35814"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/life\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=35814"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/life\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=35814"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}