Catastrophising

That’s excellent news.

Thank you for letting us know.

Great news.

I hope the thread has also provided answers for stopping catastrophising too.

Best wishes.

Distraction, STOPP app, work on solutions re finding the cat, and preventing it going missing in future

Great news. My wife's cat is back home. Thank you for your support and best wishes

Thank you ArchaeC for the best wishes, and the idea of listing the positives.

I'm so sorry to hear about your cat, I hope they show up soon. These kind of emotions and worry can be quite normal. 

A big thing for me is trying to cultivate presence and a sort of mindfulness. Avoiding worrying about the future is very hard, especially iniments like this. Instead of catastrophising and worrying on the things you can't control, maybe there are things you can do in the present like putting out posters or trying to figure out her favourite walking spots (maybe you've already done this). Worrying about the future will often turn to dark places, but they to accept what you can and be there for your wife. 

I really hope the cat turns up soon

I can understand how you feel because years ago, when my puppy ran off on the trail of something, I panicked and my mind was in overdrive thinking he could be stolen, run over etc. He returned home two hours later, but the horrible experience has stayed with me. 

The period my dog was away was too short for me to do much but panic and keep searching for my dog, but on other occasions when catastrophising, I list the more positive things that could have occurred and try to focus on those. Mindful breathing exercises help, e.g, watching (with the mind’s eye) the abdomen rise and fall as you breathe in an out, not changing the normal breathing pattern in any way. 

I hope your cat returns soon. Even though she hadn’t been in the habit of disappearing, things can change. I have heard of many cases of older cats disappearing for various periods of time, returning and carrying on as if nothing has happened during the period they were missing.

Thank you Alice_Mod for the link and the understanding . 

Hi Old Guy, 

I am very sorry to hear that your wife's cat has disappeared. Having had cats myself, one of which can often go away for days (I know this is not the case with your wife's cat) I understand how stressful this can be. 

We have a page on Autism and Catastrophising, which you may find helpful to read and it does have a guide on how to help.

Best wishes,

Alice Mod

Thank you TheCatWoman , unfortunately Gracie does not wander.

Hi Paul1956 

I have recently observed that I am more likely to be pessimist if I am low on energy or if you like "brain fuel".

This seems to me that the boundaries of fearing the worst are set lower if one's capacity to do something about it is lower - so "risks" are flagged up higher.

So for me it's about attenuating with how much "mental energy" I have at a base level and being honest with myself about that. The risk of letting the base energy get too low is that because risks are flagged into "alarm mode" easier in this state.  Then I can end up feeding more precious energy into something that I either can't resolve easily because I have too little energy to think clearly about to resolve.

I appreciate this answer begs another question but I hope you get my drift and your cat returns soon.

Best Wishes

One of my cats has wandered off, again! He does this fairly often and I think he's found some holiday makers who are his second family, or maybe he just hangs out around camp sites cadging burgers and sausages, he always comes back looking healthy and well fed. Maybe this is what your cat's doing?