YouвЂ™re more likely to catastrophize when youвЂ™re tired, stressed, and drained. Deep breathing also helps you practice mindfulness, return from worst-case future fears, and hone in on the present moment. Calm yourself by slowing down your breathing and taking long belly breaths. When your emotions arenвЂ™t helpful, you can change their intensity with controlled breathing. Try watching a funny video, go for a run, or maybe list as many funny or unrealistic best-case outcomes that can come from this.В Positive mental breaks can help you calm down and put you in position to refocus on the issue at hand. Positive feelings help ease the effects of stress, anger, and other negative emotions. So, try to do something that will distract you for a minute or two to help you laugh or feel some other type of positive emotion. For instance, have you ever been really anxious because you were running late and couldnвЂ™t find your keys-but after you calmed down you noticed they were on your bed right in front of you the whole time? When youвЂ™re overwhelmed with negative emotions, itвЂ™s hard to think rationally. When you think the world is falling apart, a positive mental break can help clear your mind. When you see on paper that you or your battle buddy think, вЂњIвЂ™ll never get a jobвЂќ because you failed one test, it helps you to push back and ask, вЂњIs this really the case?вЂќ Getting thoughts out of your head and onto paper helps you take a clearer view of things. Here are 3 strategies that can help if you or others are struggling with catastrophic thinking. The jumps between thoughts often seem sensible and lead to a logical, final outcome-even though it might be extreme from what will actually happen. вЂњIf I lose a connection with my kids, IвЂ™ll completely fall apart and die alone.вЂќ.вЂњIf my spouse leaves, then theyвЂ™ll likely get custody of the kids, and IвЂ™ll lose touch with them.вЂќ.вЂњIf I lose my job, then my spouse will get fed up and finally leave me.вЂќ.вЂњIf I canвЂ™t handle all that pressure, then IвЂ™ll eventually get chaptered out of the military.вЂќ.вЂњIf my career becomes a mess, then my spouse will get mad, causing even more pressure to build up.вЂќ.вЂњIf I get an article 15, then itвЂ™s going to cause major problems with my career.вЂќ.вЂњI failed to report, and it could result in me getting an article 15.вЂќ.Look at the example below to learn how this works. However, when you catastrophize, your brain is making small, sometimes logical, вЂњif.thenвЂќ connections that slowly build up to an irrational worst-case outcome. The jump from вЂњfailing to report one timeвЂќ to вЂњIвЂ™m going to die aloneвЂќ might seem extreme and unlikely. The upshot is that there are ways to notice, understand, and manage things when you or someone you care about is catastrophizing.

And even though their fears might be unreasonable, in that moment they seem real. You might think theyвЂ™re being ridiculous and want to tell them to snap out of it, but whatвЂ™s really happening is theyвЂ™re catastrophizing-or magnifying a situation and getting stuck in irrational worst-case fears.

When she was talking to me, I realized for the first time, вЂњWhat if it was my sister?вЂќ I thought, вЂњFuck Charlie Manson.вЂќ I went home and cried that night.Imagine your battle buddy is upset, calls you, and says, вЂњIвЂ™m going to die aloneвЂќ because they failed to report one time. She lost her sister from a senseless, ignorant situation that I donвЂ™t want to support. IвЂ™m in this place where a weird part of history occurred.вЂќ I guess it never really struck me before, but it did then. I said, вЂњNo, itвЂ™s just sort of my own interest in American folklore. And she said: вЂњAre you exploiting my sisterвЂ™s death by living in her house?вЂќ For the first time, the whole thing kind of slapped me in the face. It was a random thing, just a brief encounter. While I was working on вЂњDownward SpiralвЂќ, I was living in the house where Sharon Tate was killed. The house was converted into a record studio that Reznor called вЂLe PigвЂ™, referencing when Susan Atkins wrote вЂPigвЂ™ in TateвЂ™s blood on the front door of the house. Nine Inch Nails second full-length studio album, The Downward Spiral (aka Halo 8) was created as a partially self-biographical tale about a man who was on a вЂdownward spiralвЂ™ through depression to suicide.ДЄs with Halo 5, the album was recorded at 10050 Cielo Drive, the site Sharon TateвЂ™s murder by the вЂManson familyвЂ™ in 1969.

Downward spiral