Catastrophising

Ever since one of my wonderful readers left a comment a few days ago (thanks again) suggesting that what Robbie does is catastrophising, I've been reading a bit about it and it does indeed sound a lot like it. He expects the worst and reacts to what he thinks is going to happen rather than what's actually happening.

For example, yesterday Robbie had a morning activity with the cubs. He woke up in a bit of a mood and announced that he'd decided the cub activity was going to be boring and he didn't want to go. We asked why he thought it was going to be boring. He couldn't come up with a reason, he "just knew" it was going to be. We replied it wasn't a good enough reason not to go, and he got angry. He tried to do something that would mean he wouldn't be allowed to go, so he hit me with a pillow. I explained that there would be a consequence for that, but it wouldn't be not going to the cubs activity. Robbie remained angry, but eventually snapped out of it.

Glen dropped Robbie off at the cubs activity and picked him up four hours later. He came back caked in mud and clearly looked like he'd had a blast. I casually asked if he'd had a good time and he excitedly told me about all the fun stuff they'd done. I said I was very pleased he'd had such a good time and then Glen and I tried to make a point about how things turn out better than he expects. As soon as he could see where we were going with that, Robbie said it had been boring after all.

The good thing about being aware of his catastrophising is that I react better to it. As soon as Robbie starts getting angry I remember to ask myself (and sometimes wonder out loud for him to hear) if this may be caused not by what's actually happening but by what he thinks it's going to happen. As a consequence I'm not frustrated or puzzled by the fact that he's reacting to what may seem like nothing. Well, at least some of the time.