And I still can't win an argument

When an over active imagination turns into catastrophizing, okay. If it's not taking up too much space or time, it just means you are prepared for whatever happens; you've already imagined all the outcomes. When catastrophizing turns into anxiety? That's a problem.

I've got my main bujo for scheduling and shit. I haven't touched it in a few months but it's on my to-do list to start doing that again. Real soon now (tm). Natch.

I got a second bujo for just writing shit down. Brain dumps. It really helped with the anxiety-inducing scenarios. I'd start a new page, title it with the pending disaster:

Party on Friday

Then I'd list all the bad things that I was fearing:

  • Say something stupid, everyone thinks I'm weird.

  • Get stimulus overload and have to dip without saying goodbye to anyone; they think I'm weird and don't like them.

  • Party gets invaded by ninjas, we all get mown down in a hail of throwing stars and swords.

Then I'd list the likelihood of each event happening: 50%, 100%, 1%

Finally, I'd list the actual, real fallout of each event:

  • They already think I'm weird.

  • Ditto above, and they know I like them and often dip early.

  • Death.

Then I really assess how bad it all really is. There's a not inconsiderable chance that I remind everyone that I'm odd at social functions and a non-zero, but very low chance that I die to ninja attack. Okay. That's all doable.

It eased the anxiety for me a lot, let me get some things done that I was struggling with.

/r/adhdmeme Thread Link - i.redd.it