Overcoming Hypervigilance: How Childhood Trauma Rewires Your Nervous System

This article was updated on October 11, 2026.

Hypervigilance is a heightened state of sensory awareness designed to help humans detect, evaluate, and avoid threats in their environment. 

Abstract minimalist landscape serving as a visual somatic resource—evoking the expansive inner stillness and down-regulation cultivated through bottom-up trauma therapy with Greenwich Village, Manhattan, NYC psychotherapist Josephine Ferraro, LCSW (10011).

While this biological alert system is essential for immediate self-preservation, individuals with unresolved psychological trauma often find themselves locked in a perpetual state of autonomic hyperarousal. When the brain’s emotional processing center—the amygdala—remains in chronic overdrive, the body treats everyday modern life as an active combat zone.

What Causes Chronic Hypervigilance?

While chronic hypervigilance is most frequently rooted in systemic psychological trauma, it can also manifest alongside, or be exacerbated by, several distinct physical and psychological conditions:

• Generalized Anxiety Disorder and Panic Attacks
• Clinical Depression
  
• Neurodegenerative Disorders (such as Dementia)
• Endocrine Disregard (including Adrenal Disorders)
• Chronic Somatic Conditions (such as Fibromyalgia and Lupus)

Unresolved Childhood Trauma and the Neuroception of Threat

When a child grows up within a dysfunctional family system characterized by addiction, unpredictable emotional volatility, physical abuse, or systemic neglect, hypervigilance develops as a brilliant, unconscious survival strategy. 

To maintain physical and psychological safety, the child's nervous system learns to constantly scan for microscopic shifts in a parent's vocal tone, body language or footsteps.

Through this constant practice, the brain's unconscious threat-detection system—known as neuroception—becomes miscalibrated. 

Without targeted trauma therapy, this survival blueprint does not simply vanish once the individual leaves the home. Instead, these traumatized children grow into adults whose nervous systems remain hardwired to expect impending danger in all areas of life.

How Hypervigilance Manifests in Adulthood

In adult life, chronic hyperarousal typically branches into three distinct, debilitating behavioral patterns:

1. Environmental and Social Hypervigilance

Traumatized adults frequently exhibit an exaggerated startle response, flinching at minor sounds or sudden movements. In social settings, this manifests as an exhausting, hyper-fixation on other people's body language, micro-expressions, and perceived shifts in mood. Every interaction is unconsciously scanned for signs of impending rejection, anger or abandonment.

2. Somatic Hypervigilance and Health Anxiety

Individuals who have survived catastrophic medical events, or who witnessed a primary caregiver suffer from a severe illness, often turn their scanning inward. A completely normal somatic fluctuation—such as a brief muscle twitch or a minor headache—is instantly processed by the alarmed amygdala as a catastrophic, life-threatening medical emergency.

3. Catastrophizing and Defensive Avoidance

Hypervigilance can distort cognitive processing, causing a person to create elaborate, negative mental narratives that spin out of control. If a friend or partner does not reply to a text message immediately, the hypervigilant mind skips logical explanations and instantly concludes that the individual has died or abandoned them. Even during happy, secure moments, the individual is plagued by the chronic anxiety of "waiting for the other shoe to drop."

To prevent these anticipated catastrophes, individuals deploy severe behavioral coping mechanisms:

• The Fawn and People-Pleasing Response: Attempting to disarm potential threats by chronically placating others, over-functioning, and abandoning personal boundaries to avoid conflict.
• Extreme Avoidance Behavior: Completely withdrawing from beneficial life experiences due to a single uncomfortable event. For example, avoiding all air travel after experiencing standard turbulence, refusing to drive after a minor fender-bender or completely avoiding romantic relationships following a painful breakup. While this avoidance provides a temporary wave of relief, it prevents the nervous system from learning how to cope, leaving the individual emotionally stuck and isolated.

The Toxic Impact on Somatic Health and Relational Intimacy

Living in a state of perpetual high alert exacts a severe physiological and psychological toll:

• Somatic Exhaustion: A constant flood of cortisol and adrenaline depletes the body's physical reserves, directly contributing to chronic fatigue, systemic inflammation, and autoimmune distress.
• Relational Rupture: While hypervigilance can help an individual spot interpersonal red flags, it also prevents them from relaxing into genuine relational safety. The hypervigilant partner is often hyper-sensitive and emotionally overreactive to benign comments, making emotional vulnerability feel too dangerous to sustain. Over time, this fear of getting hurt can lead to profound loneliness and social isolation.
• Down-Regulating the Nervous System Through Advanced Trauma Therapy
  While daily grounding exercises, structured mindfulness, and limiting nervous system stimulants like caffeine or alcohol are helpful lifestyle adaptations, they cannot fully rewrite an ingrained trauma response. Because chronic hypervigilance is a subcortical, physiological defense loop, it must be addressed through mind-body oriented, bottom-up experiential therapies.
  At my private psychotherapy practice in Greenwich Village, Manhattan, NYC 10011, I specialize in utilizing advanced clinical modalities to help individual adults and couples process the historical roots of their hyperarousal:

• EMDR Therapy (Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing) Targets and desensitizes the original memory networks of childhood helplessness or terror, allowing the amygdala to recognize that the historical threat has passed.
• IFS Parts Work Therapy (Internal Family Systems): Focuses on welcoming and understanding your internal system of parts. Instead of fighting your hypervigilance, you learn to step into your compassionate Core Self to dialog with your anxious "Manager" parts. By understanding how these parts have worked tirelessly to protect your vulnerability since childhood, you can safely help them step down from their exhausting protective roles and release their historical burdens.
• AEDP (Accelerated Experiential Dynamic Psychotherapy): Leverages the power of a deeply secure, attuned therapeutic relationship to process overwhelming emotions in the here-and-now. By tracking somatic shifts and "undoing aloneness" alongside a securely attached therapist, AEDP helps you transition out of a chronic state of threat detection and experience a profound, embodied sense of relational safety and post-traumatic growth.

You don't have to spend the rest of your life scanning the horizon for danger. 

Working alongside an experienced trauma therapist allows you to safely disarm your defense loops, step out of a protective survival state, and reclaim your capacity for deep somatic relaxation, mutual trust, and relational joy.

👤 Josephine Ferraro, LCSW - NYC Psychotherapist & Trauma Specialist
I am a licensed NYC psychotherapist with 25+ years of experience working with individual adults and couples.

I see clients in person in my private practice  located in Greenwich Village, Manhattan, NYC (10011).

I also see clients online throughout New York State.

I am an advanced practitioner in EMDR, AEDP, IFS, Somatic Experiencing, Hypnotherapy, EFT for Couples and Certified Sex Therapist.

How to Contact Me:

I offer a free 15 minute phone call before setting up an appointment.

You can contact me by email or phone:

🌐 Visit My Website: Josephine Ferraro, LCSW - NYC Psychotherapist

✉️ Email: josephineferraro@iCloud.com

📞 Phone: 917 742 2624 (during standard business hours)

How to Stay Calm and Stop Catastrophizing During a Crisis

During a crisis, like the pandemic we're currently experiencing, it's easy to catastrophize and have thoughts like, "It's the end of the world!" or "We're all going to die" (see my article: Common Reactions to COVID-19: Fear and Anxiety). It's easy to understand how someone might get so panicky and filled with dread because we're in an unprecedented time in modern history (see my article: Are You Catastrophizing?, Living With Uncertainty and Tips For Coping With Panic Attacks).

How to Stay Calm and Stop Catastrophizing During a Crisis

What is Catastrophizing?

• Catastrophizing is an Overreaction to a Current or Anticipated Situation
• It's a form of distorted thinking (also called cognitive distortion) where these irrational thoughts go to extremes, including that the worst possible scenario will occur in the present or in the future (see my article: How Psychotherapy Helps You to Understand and Change Distorted Thinking).

• Catastrophizing is More than Just Feeling Afraid or Anxious
• It goes beyond being afraid and involves persistent worry and heightened anxiety.

• Expressing Catastrophic Thoughts to Your Loved Ones Can Heighten Their Fears and Anxiety 
• It's important for your peace of mind and well-being as well as your loved ones to recognize and overcome your distorted thinking.

• Catastrophizing Clouds Your Ability to Cope and Think Clearly 
• It makes it difficult to cope, thinking creatively and plan.
• Depending upon how overreactve you become, it can also psychologically paralyze you to the point where you can't think or act on your behalf or on the behalf of your loved ones.

Tips on How to Stop Catastrophizing
While it's important to take the current pandemic seriously, as previously mentioned, overreacting will get in the way of your coping effectively.  So, it's essential that you get a handle on your distorted thoughts in the following ways:

• Take Care of Yourself:
• Get enough restful sleep (see my article: Tips For Getting Restful Sleep).
• Eat nutritiously
• Remain in contact with your loved ones online or by phone (see my article: Undoing Aloneness: Staying Socially Connected Even Though We're Physically Apart).
• Get a handle on your anxiety (see my article: The Mind-Body Connection: Calm the Body, Calm the Mind).

• Calm Your Body, Calm Your Mind:
• Be proactive in terms of calming your mind and your body rather than allowing distorted thinking to make you increasingly anxious.
• Engage in mindfulness meditation (see my article: Mindfulness Meditation).
• Do breathing exercises (see my article: Square Breathing).
• Get physical: Exercise or do yoga based on a level that's right for you. 
• Use your imagination in a positive way rather than imagining end of the world scenarios (see my article: Using Your Imagination as a Powerful Tool For Change).

• Maintain Your Perspective: Step Back and Question Your Distorted Thoughts:
• Write down your thoughts. Be specific so they are clearly defined rather than just nebulous thoughts floating around in your mind.  After you've written them down, take a step back from your thoughts and ask yourself about each one objectively and how likely it is that your worst thoughts will come true.  Once you've written them down and you gain some perspective about your thoughts, you might realize that your fears are exaggerated.
• If you still believe your thoughts, imagine you can put each thought individually on a large screen 20 feet away from you and examine it. If 20 feet isn't enough, imagine putting the screen further back.  Now that your thought can be viewed at a distance outside of you, how does it seem?  Once again, ask yourself how realistic it is compared to reliable information that you're receiving.  In other words, you're externalizing your thought so you can be more objective.

• Recognize That Your Thoughts Aren't Facts and You're Not Defined By Your Thoughts:
• Your thoughts can also shift from one extreme to another.  You might go from catastrophizing to being overly optimistic while you try to get a handle on your thoughts.
• Remember you might experience your thoughts as very powerful and real, but remember they're only thoughts. Thoughts aren't facts.  

• Pay Attention to the Sources of Information that You Listen to and How Often:
• Listen to reliable information.  There's a lot of misinformation circulating around, so use good judgment when you watch, listen or read the news.
• Don't spread unreliable news because it could have an adverse effect on you and others.
• Take a break from watching, listen to or reading the news.

• Recognize That Past Unresolved Trauma Might Be Negatively Affecting Your Current Perspective:
• Be aware that prior unresolved trauma often gets triggered by a new crisis, which often distorts the current situation (see my article: Reacting to the Present Based on Your Traumatic Past and Unresolved Psychological Trauma Often Creates Negative Expectations About the Future).
• Recognize that it's often difficult to distinguish the past from the present when you're triggered (see my article: Working Through Psychological Trauma: Separating "Then" From "Now").
• Unpacking your reaction and uncoupling the past from the present on your own is difficult, especially when you're feeling overwhelmed. A skilled trauma therapist can help you to uncouple "then" from "now" (see my article: Experiential Trauma Therapy, Like EMDR Therapy, Helps to Achieve Emotional Breakthroughs).

• Recognize That You're Not Powerless:
• Remember other times when you were in a crisis and you were effective in dealing with the problem at hand. 
• Remember the sense of agency you had in those prior situations and ask yourself how you can use those same skills in the current situation.

Getting Help in Therapy
Social isolation and loneliness can take a toll on most people's psychologicalwell-being.  So if you're feeling overwhelmed, you're not alone.

Many therapists, including me, are working online to provide you with online therapy, which is also called teletherapy, telemental health and telehealth (see my article: The Advantages of Online Therapy When You Can't See Your Therapist in Person).

Rather than struggling on your own, get help from a licensed psychotherapist, especially if you're having difficulty getting a handle on your catastrophic thinking or you have unresolved trauma that's getting triggered by the current crisis.

About Me
I am a licensed NYC psychotherapist, hypnotherapist, EMDR, AEDP, Emotionally Focused (EFT) and Somatic Experiencing therapist who works with individual adults and couples (see my article: The Therapeutic Benefits of Integrative Psychotherapy).

I am providing online therapy sessions during this crisis.

To find out more about me, visit my website: Josephine Ferraro, LCSW - NYC Psychotherapist.

To set up a consultation, call me at (917) 742-2624 during business hours or email me.

Living With Uncertainty

I've written prior articles about excessive worrying.

See my articles: 

How to Stop Worrying: What is Chronic Worrying?

Steps You Can Take to Stop Worrying

Overcoming Anticipatory Anxiety

Learning to Stay Calm During Uncertain Times 

Are You Catastrophizing?).  

In this article, I'm focusing on living with uncertainty because so many people are talking about worrying, checking the news several times a day, getting alerts on their phone, and so on.

Living With Uncertainty

To a certain extent, we all live with a degree of uncertainty all the time--whether we're aware of it or not.

When we feel more vulnerable and fragile in our personal lives, we might be more aware of the possibility of uncertainty than at others times when we're feeling confident and positive.

Coping Strategies For Living With Uncertainty

Practice Living in the Moment:
When you feel particularly vulnerable about things that you have no control over (e.g., nuclear war, a sudden economic downturn, etc), a good strategy is to recognize that your thoughts might be running away with you and bring yourself back to the present (see my article: Being in the Present Moment).

Ask yourself, "Am I alright right now?"

If the answer is "Yes," then you know that you're racing ahead in your mind and worrying about things which may or may not happen, and worrying about it won't help.

One of the reasons why I like mindfulness is because when you practice mindfulness, you keep bringing your mind back to the present instead of dwelling on uncertain possibilities (see my article: The Mind-Body Connection: Mindfulness Meditation).

And while you can't always live in the present moment, if you spend some time each day--even if it's just five minutes--practicing mindfulness, you'll probably feel a lot calmer.

Be Aware of Your Thought Patterns
Do you have a tendency to project your worries and fears into the future?

Ask yourself how many times you've done this in the past and how often these worries materialized into problems.

If you're like most people that tend to worry, you'll realize that most of the time your worries came to nothing, and you might have worked yourself up into a frazzled state thinking about everything that could go wrong.

Write About Your Worries and Fears
There's something about writing, especially when you're worried, that helps to concretize and externalize your thoughts and feelings (see my article: Journal Writing Can Relieve Stress and Anxiety).

Rather than allowing yourself to ruminate about your worries, when you write and then read what you wrote, you tend to question the negative assumptions that you make.

After a while, you realize, once again, that you have a particular thought pattern that is getting in your way.  It might be that you've engaged in this pattern of thinking for many years--possibly since childhood.  Maybe one or both of your parents tended to catastrophize and you learned to do it too.

Be Selective About Watching News or Monitoring Social Media
Broadcast news tends to sensationalize the news in order to get the public's attention and high ratings.

Be selective about the kind of news that you watch so that you're not getting frightened and alarmed on a daily basis.

You might even want to take a break from broadcast news for a while--possibly read a quality newspaper instead which doesn't attempt to sensationalize the news.  You might discover that you're a lot calmer.

The same goes for social media.  There are some sites that are constantly pumping out sensationalized news to get your "clicks."

Ask yourself what it might be like not to monitor the news on social media all the time.

Think About What You Can Do to Feel Empowered
One of the things that I keep hearing is that people feel so disempowered about things that are going on in the world.

While it's true that you're probably not going to be the negotiator for world peace, maybe there are things that you can do that will help you to feel empowered, like volunteering for an organization or cause that is important to you.

Even if you don't have time to volunteer, maybe you can make a phone call to your city councilperson or senator about an issue that's important to you.

Taking action can be empowering.

Getting Help in Therapy
There are times when the world around you can trigger certain emotional vulnerabilities that you have (see my articles: You Can't Change Your Past, But You Can Change How the Past Affects You, Psychotherapy to Overcome Your Past Childhood Trauma, Overcoming Trauma When the Past is in the Present, Understanding Why You're Affected by Trauma That Happened a Long Time Ago, and Coping With Trauma: Becoming Aware of Emotional Triggers).

The strategies that I mentioned above can be helpful, but if you keep getting triggered, this is usually a sign that there are underlying issues that need to be resolved.

One of the benefits of psychotherapy is that it can free you from your history so you can live your life unencumbered by problems from the past (see my article: The Benefits of Psychotherapy and How to Choose a Psychotherapist).

A skilled psychotherapist can help you to work through these issues so that you don't keep getting triggered.

When you're free from a traumatic history, you're free to live your life in a calmer, more meaningful way.

About Me
I am a licensed NYC psychotherapist, hypnotherapist, EMDR and Somatic Experiencing therapist who works with individual adults and couples.

To find out more about me, visit my website: Josephine Ferraro, LCSW - NYC Psychotherapist.

To set up a consultation, call me at (917) 742-2624 during business hours or email me.

How Psychotherapy Helps You to Understand and Change Distorted Thinking

Generally, most people don't spend a lot of time trying to understand their particular style of thinking.  Many people are unaware that they engage in distorted thinking (also known as cognitive distortions).  But when you're in therapy, you have a unique opportunity to understand and change distorted thinking (see my article: The Benefits of Psychotherapy).

How Psychotherapy Helps You to Understand and Change Distorted Thinking

What is Distorted Thinking?
Here's a list of cognitive distortions and definitions:

• Catastrophizing
• All of nothing thinking
• Taking things personally
• Jumping to conclusions
• Overgeneralization
• Fallacy of fairness
• Blaming or externalizing
• Emotional reasoning
• The need to be right
• Filtering

Catastrophizing

When people catastrophize, they tend to exaggerate situations.  They can expect a disaster when, objectively, there is no reason to expect disaster.  

Distorted Thinking: Catastrophizing

For instance, a person who catastrophizes can hear a weather report for a few inches of snow and this builds in her mind until she is convinced that there will be a huge snowstorm even when there is no evidence of this.  She will usually go around in a state of anxiety and excitedly tell others to expect a big snowstorm (see my article: Are You Catastrophizing?)

All or Nothing Thinking (see my article: Overcoming All or Nothing Thinking)

Taking Things Personally

People who tend to take things personally see others' words and deeds as being directed at them when it's not.

Distorted Thinking: Taking Things Personally

An example of this might be:  A new policy is announced that changes the way sales managers are compensated.  The person who tends to take things personally will think that the policy is aimed at her when, in fact, it's for everyone on the sales team.

Jumping to Conclusions

People who jump to conclusions will make assumptions without having objective facts, and they will assume that they're right.  For instance, someone who runs into a neighbor, who looks angry, might assume that the neighbor is angry with him--when in fact the neighbor is angry about something that has nothing to do with him.  

Overgeneralization

People who engage in overgeneralization often take one instance of something happening and make the assumption, based on that one instance, that this is how it is always.  For instance, if a writer submits an article to be published and her article is rejected, she assumes that this is how it will always be when she submits articles.  She is engaging in overgeneralization.

Fallacy of Fairness

Many children grow up thinking that the world should be "fair" and, as adults, when they encounter situations which are "unfair," it contradicts their way of thinking.

Distorted Thinking: Fallacy of Fairness

But, as we know, the world isn't "fair."

Blaming or Externalizing

When people have a tendency to engage in blaming (also known as externalizing), they don't take responsibility for their own thinking, feelings or actions.  

Distorted Thinking: Blaming or Externalizing

Instead, they put the responsibility on others.  An example of this is a person who didn't complete an assignment.  Instead of taking responsibility for not completing the assignment, he blames a coworker for distracting him.

Emotional Reasoning

Emotional reasoning is when a person assumes that whatever he feels must be true.  An example of this would be a person who feels that a person doesn't like her based on her own emotions rather than anything objective that is happening with the other person or the situation.  Reasoning is based solely on emotion.

The Need to Be Right

The need to be right involves a need to prove that one's opinion, feelings or actions are correct even  in the face of contrary facts.  

Distorted Thinking: The Need to Be Right

Someone who needs to be right will argue his opinion regardless of what the other person says.  Being right is more important than the relationship with the other person, how it makes the other person feel or whether or not it's objectively true.

Filtering

Filtering involves paying attention to only certain aspects of a situation and not to others.  For instance, a person who tends to engage in filtering might only pay attention to the negative side of a situation rather than looking at the whole picture which includes positive aspects.

How Cognitive Distortions Create Problems

As you can see from the descriptions above, these cognitive distortions can be rigid and applied across the board to many different situations.

The problem is that the person who engages in cognitive distortions is usually unaware of it and it can cause many problems for himself as well as others due to his lack of awareness.

How Cognitive Distortions Create Problems

Due to a person's tenacity in using cognitive distortions and their ingrained nature, there is little possibility for change if s/he cannot take in new information from the outside.

Other people, including a spouse, sibling, friend or a supervisor can try to help the person to see how his thinking is distorted, but this is often disregarded by the person using cognitive distortions.

Not only do cognitive distortions create problems for others--they also create internal problems for the person who engages in them.

For instance, in the example above on overgeneralization, the writer, who believes that her writing will always be rejected, might give up too soon and stop writing or stop submitting her writing.  In doing so, she deprives herself of the joy of writing or the anticipated joy of seeing her work published.  She also deprives potential readers of the satisfaction of reading her writing.

How Psychotherapy Helps You to Understand and Change Distorted Thinking

When you're in therapy, your therapist is usually trained to detect cognitive distortions, among other things.

While your family or friends might actually believe in the same cognitive distortions that you do or they might get tired of trying to get you to see the distortions, a skilled therapist will be attuned to distorted thinking and help you in a tactful way to be aware of it and to change it.

How Therapy Helps You to Understand and Change Distorted Thinking

Changing distorted thinking isn't always easy.  You need to feel safe enough in your relationship with your therapist to hear her and also be open to looking at your own way of thinking and relating.  

Even if you feel comfortable with your psychotherapist and you're open to self reflection, there might be other obstacles getting in your way.

It's the psychotherapist's job to help you to identify the underlying reasons why you might be ambivalent about change.  And, let's face it, most people are at least somewhat ambivalent about change even when they come to therapy to make specific changes.

For example, the writer who overgeneralizes based on one rejection will have to look at what it would mean if she let go of this cognitive distortion.  

How Psychotherapy Helps You to Understand and Change Distorted Thinking

One possibility might be that if she opens up to the possibility that she is the one who is getting in her own way of writing or submitting work to publishers, she would need to face her own internal fears, whatever they might be.  

There can be many deeper levels involving the unconscious that will need to be unearthed, exposed to the light of day, and explored.  The underlying unconscious reasons might have nothing to do with what the writer identifies as her conscious reasons.

For example, staying with the same example of the writer:  What if her mother always wanted to be a writer, but because she was a stay at home mom, her lifelong dream of being a writer never materialized?  As a result, the writer feels guilty that she might succeed as a writer and her mother did not.

If these feelings of guilt come up as the deepest layer of unconscious material, the writer might assume that she will ruin her relationship with her mother by succeeding where her mother did not.  And, since she doesn't want to ruin her relationship with her mother, she stops writing, not realizing this underlying unconscious reason.

The writer's assumption (that she will ruin her relationship with her mother by succeeding) might also be a distortion because it's possible that, contrary to what the writer thinks, her mother might be delighted to see her daughter succeed as a writer.

But if this unconscious material is never exposed, the writer and the therapist could go round and round for a long time just talking about how the writer is using overgeneralization.

To get to the unconscious material, a skilled therapist must be trained in how to get to these underlying emotions, whether the therapist uses psychodynamic psychotherapy, clinical hypnosis, Coherence Therapy or any one of a number of modalities that deals with unconscious thinking and emotions.

So, it's not enough to identify the particular cognitive distortion.  A skilled psychotherapist must also be able to get to the deeper underlying causes of the problem, otherwise the therapy will remain superficial.

Getting Help in Therapy

If you suspect that your style of thinking could be getting in your own way or compromising your interpersonal relationships, you owe it to yourself and your loved ones to get help in therapy.

Freeing yourself from cognitive distortions and the underlying unconscious thinking and emotions that are driving them will change your life and the lives of those you love.

Rather than suffering on your own, get help from a licensed psychotherapist who is skilled in helping clients to identify their cognitive distortions, get to the root cause of the problem, and make healthy changes.

About Me

I am a licensed NYC psychotherapist, hypnotherapist, EMDR and Somatic Experiencing therapist who works with individual adults and couples.

My original training is in psychodynamic psychotherapy.  I also use cognitive behavioral therapy when it is needed.

I have helped many clients to overcome their own cognitive distortions and make lasting changes so they can lead a more fulfilling life.

To find out more about me, visit my website: Josephine Ferraro, LCSW - NYC Psychotherapist.

To set up a consultation, call me at (917) 742-2624 during business hours or email me.

Overcoming Anticipatory Anxiety

In a prior article, How to Stop Worrying, I addressed a concern that many chronic worriers have.  In this article, I'm addressing a specific type of worrying, which is called anticipatory anxiety.

Overcoming Anticipatory Anxiety

Many people struggle with anticipatory anxiety, which is worrying about something in advance of it occurring.

The thing that you're worried about is something that may or may not occur at some point in the future.

Anticipatory anxiety isn't an anxiety disorder.  It's part of different types of anxiety disorders, including generalized anxiety, panic attacks, posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and other forms of anxiety.

What Are the Symptoms of Anticipatory Anxiety?
Symptoms can include:

• excessive worrying
• insomnia
• muscle aches
• nausea
• headaches
• hyperventilation
• feelings of dread
• overeating
• gastrointestinal problems
• panic attacks

When, Why and How Does Anticipatory Anxiety Occur?
Anticipatory anxiety can occur at any time and for many people it's a chronic condition.

Anticipatory anxiety can include worrying in advance of anything being wrong about money, job loss, problems in a relationship or any other event or situation that hasn't occurred yet.

The fact that it hasn't occurred yet is key--it is the anticipation that something bad will happen.  It's not necessarily based on anything objective that is going on now.

Anticipatory anxiety can occur based on your past, including early childhood experiences.

For instance, if you grew up in a home that was chaotic where your parents were constantly worried about real and imagined problems, you can grow up feeling that the world isn't a safe place and, generally, anything that can go wrong will go wrong in your life as an adult.  This can develop into generalized anxiety disorder.

Many people who suffer with anticipatory anxiety are unaware that they have become accustomed to this habitual way of worrying.  Their habit of worrying has become automatic.

If you had significant trauma that has resulted in your developing posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), you might respond to many events or situations in your life as if they will result in catastrophe (see my article:  Are You Catastrophizing?)

There is no differentiation between traumatic events and normal non-traumatic life events.

How to Overcome Anticipatory Anxiety?
Here are some tips that might be helpful to you:

• Rather than allowing your thoughts to run away with you, make a conscious effort to step back from worrying and question whether the things you're worrying about are likely to happen.
• Ask yourself if you're okay now (as opposed to your worries about the future).
• Think about all the other times when you worried about something and things turned out well.
• Distract yourself from your worries by focusing on something else.
• Talk to a friend or loved one to get a better perspective.

Getting Help in Therapy
The tips outlined above work for some people.

Many other people, who try to deal with their anticipatory anxiety on their own find that they need the help of a professional mental health professional, especially if their problems are longstanding and ingrained.

A licensed psychotherapist can help you to get to the root of the problem that causes you to have anticipatory anxiety.

Rather than suffering on your own, with the help of a licensed therapist, you can overcome this problem so you can lead a more fulfilling life.

About Me
I am a licensed NYC psychotherapist, hypnotherapist, EMDR and Somatic Experiencing therapist who works with individual adults and couples.

To find out more about me, visit my website:  Josephine Ferraro, LCSW - NYC Psychotherapist.

To set up a consultation, call me at (917) 742-2624 during business hours or email me.

Are You Catastrophizing?

In my last article, I focused on Overcoming Your Fear of Making Mistakes which is a common problem for many people. Related to fear of making mistakes is the habit of catastrophizing.

Are You Catastrophizing?

Habitual Catastrophizing:

Why do I call catastrophizing a habit? Because it's usually an automatic negative way of thinking that becomes habitual over time. Many people who engage in catastrophizing don't even realize that this is what they're doing. It becomes such an automatic way of thinking that they tend to see most situations as being dire and dangerous, and they approach many new situations with fear.

What is "Catastrophizing"?
Simply, catastrophizing is when a person expects the worst in most situations. His or her fears are usually highly exaggerated without sufficient evidence for this type of fear. It's a distortion in the way a person thinks.

People who engage in catastrophizing usually fear making mistakes. Their exaggerated fear that something dire will occur if they make a mistake leads them to expect the worst in most situations. They might engage in endless "what if's" that keep them stuck in their particular situation, too afraid to go back but equally afraid to move forward.

When we think about the old story about Chicken Little running around saying, "The sky is falling! The sky is falling!" this is an example of catastrophizing.

Often, people who engage in catastrophizing can get other people very anxious as they trigger their vulnerabilities and insecurities.

The following fictionalized scenario is an example of catastrophizing, and how an individual can overcome this habitual form of negative thinking:

Joanne:
Most people who knew Joanne knew that she tended to see the worst possible scenario in just about every situation that she encountered. For Joanne, decision making was fraught with fear and anxiety about all the possible things that could go wrong. Whether she was trying to make a career decision or go on a trip, she was sure that something awful was going to happen.

Joanne's fears kept her ruminating about all the "what if's" in any given situation: What if the boss in the new job turned out to be difficult to work for? What if the plane that she was on had a malfunction and crashed? What if the house that she and her husband were considering buying turned out to have a lot of problems? What if..what if...what if...

One day, Joanne's husband, Ken, told her that she was driving him crazy with all of her exaggerated fears, "You see everything as a potential catastrophe." They had been talking about having children, but Ken told her that he didn't want to raise children in a household where they were constantly badgered about everything that could possibly go wrong. He told Joanne that, for her own sake, for his sake, and the sake of their future children, she needed to get psychological help.

At first, Joanne was offended that Ken told her to get psychological help. She felt that her fears were legitimate and not at all distorted. But when she talked to her sister and her best friend and they both agreed wholeheartedly with Ken, Joanne found his suggestion hard to ignore. Even though she didn't think that she had a problem, she thought she would, at least, go for a consultation with a psychotherapist.

No sooner did Joanne decide to find a psychotherapist than she began to worry excessively about the cost. Even though she and Ken had an upper middle class standard of living and they were in stable jobs, she worried that spending money on psychotherapy would drain their savings. Ken tried to reassure her that she had nothing to worry about, but she continued to engage in "what if's"--until, finally, Ken pointed out to Joanne that this was yet another example of her catastrophizing.

Reluctantly, Joanne began psychotherapy. She began therapy by telling the psychotherapist that she didn't think she needed to be there, and she was coming to prove it to her husband. But almost immediately, Joanne began to engage in her habitual and exaggerated negative way of thinking in her first session. When her therapist pointed this out to Joanne, she began to consider that there might be a kernel of truth to what her husband, sister and best friend were telling her.

Exploring her habitual ways of thinking was very uncomfortable for Joanne. She grew up in a family where both her mother and father had strong fears, so it seemed "normal" to her to engage in this type of thinking.

But when she was able to look at her parents' negative and distorted ways of thinking, it was much easier for her to see the problem than when she looked at her own way of thinking. She began to remember times when she was growing up that were spoiled for her because her parents approached most things like they were potential catastrophes. This made her feel very sad, and she thought back to her husband's words when he told her that he didn't want to raise children in an atmosphere of exaggerated fears and negative thinking.

As Joanne remembered those times when she looked forward to going to a party or seeing friends and her parents spoiled those times for her by not allowing her to go ("What if you get into a car accident?"), Joanne began to see how her way of thinking was just like her parents. She told her therapist, "I never wanted to be like that, and now, look at me."

With her psychotherapist's help, Joanne began to question herself whenever she began to worry excessively about ordinary things. She asked herself if there was any rational evidence that these awful things that she was projecting were likely to happen. Not if they could ever happen--but what was the likelihood of their happening? After a while, she had to admit that most of her fears were unfounded.

Over time, after she managed to get her thoughts and emotions under control, she also began to work with her therapist on the underlying issues that caused her to engage in so much catastrophizing. As she worked through these issues, she discovered that she hardly worried excessively any more. When her husband pointed out to Joanne that she was so much easier to be around now, they rekindled their relationship and it became much more passionate than it had ever been before.

Getting Help in Therapy
If you're catastrophizing, you're not alone.

There are many people who engage in this form of distorted and irrational thinking. And there are many people who have been helped in psychotherapy to overcome this problem.

Rather than agonizing about what could go wrong and causing a lot of stress for yourself and those around you, you owe it to yourself to learn to stop catastrophizing.

About Me
I am a licensed NYC psychotherapist, hypnotherapist, EMDR and Somatic Experiencing therapist who works with individual adults and couples.

To find out more about me, visit my website: Josephine Ferraro, LCSW - NYC Psychotherapist

To set up a consultation, call me at (917) 742-2624 during business hours or email me.

Also, see my article:  Overcoming Your Fear of Making Mistakes