#catastrophic thinking

The whole "don't give any attention to the old story, ignore the 3D" advice can get toxic when you end up ignoring real problems, but there is a grain of truth in that advice.

What is that truth, you might ask?

Don't give into rumination, don't entertain catastrophic thoughts, and don't beat yourself up.

Rumination is when you keep thinking about negative stuff for a long period of time. It can be your fears, bad things that happened to you in the past, or unpleasant things about your present that you can't really change right now. It's a very unhealthy behavior, and it's good to practice mindfulness so you can catch yourself if you start doing it. Anyone can ruminate, but it's especially easy to get caught up in it if you have OCD. There's a lot of info on managing rumination out there, which you can search up. Here's one page: 8 Ways To Stop Repetitive Thinking.

Catastrophic thinking is when your brain starts spiraling into worst-case scenarios. For example, you might make a post and someone might respond in an angry way, and you might spiral into fears that you're a horrible person or no one will love you. Another form of catastrophic thinking is spiraling into a fear you can't heal from trauma or toxic indoctrination, and you're doomed to be where you are right now. Again, there's lots of info out there on managing this, and one page you can start with is How to stop catastrophizing.

Beating yourself up is essentially a form of psychological self-harm, where you indulge negative thoughts about yourself. You might do it because you think it'll help you become a better person, or let you atone for your wrongs. (It won't do either.) If you find yourself indulging these kinds of thoughts, you can try the strategies in the articles linked above. One strategy many people on Tumblr have used is deliberately thinking positive thoughts about themselves whenever they catch themselves thinking a negative one. For example, if you find yourself thinking, "I'm so ugly," quickly think to yourself, "I'm incredibly fabulous."

Practicing mindfulness in general is always good, and if you continue struggling with negative thought patterns, it might be good to seek professional help.

The air raid siren is blaring

And the bomb’s about to blow

Red lights flash and flaring

And the troops are made to go

The guns are being loaded

The ships are out at sea

But it’s only some broken glassware

If only you could see

But the dogs are barking and biting

And the horsemen are riding to war

And everyone’s fussing and fighting

And pounding on your door

And the president’s giving a statement

And the press is on the case

But it’s only a crack in the pavement

Or a shoe with an untied lace

And the cannons are being readied

And the flags are being raised

And the smoke and flames are steady

And everything’s in a daze

But it’s only a little problem

A harmless cut or a bee

Yes it’s totally ridiculous

If only you could see

So turn off your lights and sirens

And put your guns to bed

Let the men hold cards and whiskey

Asmaa here ! No sister has sent an ask about this matter, tonight I am the one needing a safe space.

Where do I start? One of my main longterm struggles is my anxiety vs. my beliefs. If you know anything about having chronic anxiety, or any type of anxiety, you'd know that in one word? Anxiety is irrational ! If reason was this way, anxiety would be at the other end of the world. And even if you used every logical argument in the world to try and talk sense into your brain, anxiety is just - and I quote my therapist - one of the two most stubborn mental disorders out there , and tbh I forgot what was the other one, lol.

Anyways, as believers, we have to believe in qadar, and mektub, and destiny, we have to trust in Allah's plan, which supposedly is meant to calm our worries about the future. In other words, if I know and I believe that Allah swt has my best interest, Allah swt is the best of the planners, and that whatever is meant for me will be mine at the end of the day, and what I didn't get was never mind and was never destined for me in the first place, and most importantly, in our Prophet ﷺ s words " everything that happens to the believer is khayr " .. but as an adult living with anxiety, OCD, and what it entails of obsessive thinking, catastrophic thinking, and whatnot, I find myself being sucked into a tornado of scenarios and restless infinite spiral of thoughts that are eating my brain alive, and end up triggering my compulsions , thus me hurting myself (not that kind of self-harm don't worry, I am okay Alhamdulillah).

Anyways, yes I do say anyways a lot, umm, something actually good happened to me today career wise, Alhamdulillah, something actually great! Ma Shaa Allah la quwata illa billah, Allahuma barik, but I only felt joy for 0.2 seconds before anxiety took over, and I haven't been able to shut my brain up since 8 a.m. this morning! (It's almost ishaa time) and it has already put me in a bad mood, and it has already ruined my day, even though I did manage to pray all my prayers Alhamdulillah and on time Alhamdulillah, and recited my adhkar, Alhamdulillah, and I tried Quran also , Alhamdulillah, but I just can't.. I feel like my brain is gonna inflate so hard and swallow me :')

And I just wanna speak up for myself and for everyone who's living with similar conditions, that anxiety or depression never meant a low Iman like they like to point at us, it never meant that we believe less or trust Allah swt less! It's just how our brains are wired. It's a daily battle that we go through, it feels like swimming in the open ocean with high waves around you and very angry waters! sometimes we manage to float, and sometimes the water swamps us a little, and on our worst days we sink..

So, from this weak slave to all of you, I pray Allah swt sets at ease our dismay, calms our worries, and engulfs our hearts with his mercy. Hold on my little fighters, Allah's relief and mercy is near. May we reach the shore safely and be able to take a breath of calmness, comfort, and content. Ameen.