Do you ever prepare for the worst and forget to hope for the best?

Maybe your boss sends a vague email—“Can we talk?”—and suddenly you’re convinced you’re getting fired. Or your doctor leaves a voicemail asking you to call about lab results, and within minutes your mind has spiraled into imagining a rare, incurable illness.

If this sounds familiar, you’re not alone. What you’re experiencing is a common thinking trap called catastrophizing—when your mind automatically jumps to the worst-case scenario and treats it like fact.

Our brains love simplicity, but when life gets reduced to black-and-white thinking — success or failure, good or bad — it can take a serious toll on our emotional well-being. This is known as all-or-nothing thinking, and it often runs in the background unnoticed. In this blog, we’ll break down why it happens, how it affects your mood and health, and practical strategies to think in a more balanced way.