about how negative thought patterns or
sometimes learned habits
I am mpj and you are watching fun fun
I am back from Christmas break I am here
in my studio space or rather this is
actually not my studio place my studio
place is upstairs this is like the
co-working space normally there’s people
here but I’m recording this at night so
I figured it like what the hell like
there’s nobody here let’s use the space
so I want to do a soft start to this
year and talk about something else then
then coding that is something that I am
done from time to time on this channel
but it was quite a while ago and I felt
it was time today I want to talk about
how negative thought patterns can
sometimes actually be learned habits
what I mean by negative thought patterns
or these thinking traps that we tend to
get caught up in and have a hard time
getting out of even if both you and I
struggle with negative thought patterns
the thinking traps that you get caught
up in our probably different from mine
because there are many many different
kinds of thinking traps blaming yourself
mind-reading fortune-telling downplaying
positives many of them you can google
thinking traps actually to find good
lists of them and the whole habit thing
that I’m going to talk about in this
episode there it’s going to apply to a
lot of them but I am going to use one
specific one in this episode because one
that I suffer from a lot which is
catastrophizing but before we get into
catastrophizing I want to talk about
what a habit is what is a habit an
example habit of mine is my morning
coffee a habit has three components
trigger action and reward so for example
for my morning coffee habit getting into
the office is the trigger
it’s what activates my habit after the
trigger comes the action which is you
know the actual habit
that you do sort of the going into the
kitchen and making some coffee after the
action comes the reward the reward is
it’s almost always the trickiest
component to figure out what it is it
might be that I like the bitter taste it
might be that I like the warmth after
getting in from like a cold bicycle ride
it might be that it just me putting off
work and for some habits the the reward
doesn’t always happen when I when you
execute the action maybe it’s just once
or twice per month that I have gotten
that really good cup of coffee that yes
it’s just right with the caffeine levels
and I just feel really good about it
maybe that or maybe that just happened
like once per year or something but I’m
still doing the action in the hopes of
repeating that thing again but the point
is that there is always a reward behind
every habit somehow trigger action
reward habits are incredibly powerful
things in our brains habits are stored
in a different place than memories and
we know that because there are people
that have gotten certain kinds of
irreversible brain damage that causes
them to be and they’re or are they are
unable to form new memories but they can
form new habits so the caretakers of
these these people with the brain damage
they took them for walks daily walks and
the caretakers had to go with them
because naturally if you can’t remember
more than five five minutes back then
that means that you can very easily get
lost and one day when the caretakers
didn’t pay attention the patient just
walked off out of the house and they
everybody pretty much panic because they
had no idea and they had no
tracking this person down and they were
very worried but the person just
eventually showed sure back up so of
course they had walked this path this
this war daily walking path on their own
even though they could not consciously
understand know what where where they
were they just intuitively knew what to
do like every every little thing you’re
in the path triggered a habit loop so
habits can be very complex and that’s
also why I sometimes just find myself
holding a cup of coffee in my hand even
though I had resolved not to drink any
more coffee that day so habits trigger
action reward and you do that enough
times and it’s burned into your brain
now let me tell you about
catastrophizing for example the trigger
for my catastrophizing can be that I’m
feeling a bit tired one day and I have a
bit of a headache the action that I take
in response to this headache is to try
to find some reason for it
maybe I’m starting to get sick or
something and once my brain goes down
that path there are just a few tiny
steps to terminal brain cancer another
example would be me getting some bad
feedback at work and then I just
extrapolate that to getting fired never
getting another job and then killing
myself because I’ve been ostracized from
so basically catastrophizing is when we
take a small event or mistake that we
made and then extrapolate that to
catastrophic proportions
[Music]
and up until a few weeks ago I figured
that this was just the way I am I
figured that I was I was just an anxiety
person that was the end of it but
recently I’ve learned that these these
negative thought patterns these
they are very often learned habits
remember now how I said before that the
reward is the least obvious component of
the habit it is really tricky to see
what the reward would be in the case of
catastrophizing I am known about how
habits work for years and years and
years but I’ve never made a connection
to catastrophizing because it just
seemed ludicrous to me why I how I could
be doing it for a reward
it’s catastrophizing is quite literally
the number one source of pain in my life
I just thought it absurd that I would be
doing it for a reward but well it turns
let’s say that I get a letter from the
tax office before I have the opportunity
to open the letter my brain is like here
we go and ends up on this being back
taxes for the last ten years and I’m
going to be living on this street but
only after I’ve been in jail now so far
this is all just completely unnecessary
and irrational suffering but after I
opened the letter and get my ward
because of course when I open the letter
there’s actually nothing dangerous in it
it just some random information from
them that is not even relevant to me
that is a huge relief which is a super
positive emotion and this is why
catastrophizing is so rewarding
if I hadn’t think the test revising
opening that letter would yes I mean man
like a neutral emotion but because I did
I was now saved from a life in poverty
having my life taken away and I’m now
free essentially I get rewarded for my
catastrophizing with this hit of
dopamine and that is how negative
thought patterns like catastrophizing
are learned and reinforced as habits
they are triggered often by some
negative event like the tax letter then
you do the action the thought pattern in
my case the catastrophizing and then
finally I get my reward which is the
relief of reality not being as bad as
the insane catastrophe I’ve created in
my brain and that’s it that’s my big
learning from the holidays you have just
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it in the episode description I am mpj until next Monday morning stay curious