Is it Likely?

This is a technique to ameliorate panic spirals and catastrophizing.

The Beginner Version

The premise is simple: when you're worried about something terrible happening, or you're fixated on the bad possible outcomes of an action, you ask yourself "Is what I'm worried about actually likely?"

This helps to cut off panic and catastrophizing by making you examine what the likely outcomes of an event actually are. In its most basic form, "Is it Likely?" works by simply getting you to think about something other than what you are panicking about.

The Intermediate Version

This is still very simple. Once you've broken the panic spiral by considering whether or not your concerns are likely, you can sit down and make a simple list with three categories:

• The best possible outcome
• The worst possible outcome
• The most likely outcome

This gets you to think about what's really scaring you and what you're hoping for, and will hopefully give you a more realistic perspective on the likely outcome of the action.

The Advanced Version

This version involves taking action to try to prepare for the outcome of an action. We're going to use "Job Interview" as the action here. So let's say you've been panicking about the job interview, you're terrified it's going to go badly. You've asked yourself "Is it likely that this job interview will go badly?" and have decided that actually, it might, so you have sat down and written out what your best case, worst case, and most likely scenarios are, and they might look like this:

• Best: You get the job at a much higher salary than expected and are promoted when you get hired.
• Worst: Not only do you not get hired, the company maligns you on social media and job sites.
• Likely: Either they like you and they hire you, or they pass over you for a different candidate.

Now, having looked at the best and worst possibilities, you can do things to improve the chances of your best case, reduce the chances of your worst case, and prepare for the likely case. Maybe you run a salary negotiation roleplay to prepare for talking about a higher wage, and you make sure to show up on time and follow up promptly to avoid any chance that the company will have a reason to speak critically of you; perhaps you're concerned that they'll pass over you so you make sure to have a couple more applications out before you go to the interview, so even if this job falls through you've got other opportunities cooking.

This method works because it gives you something to do, thus injecting some agency into the situation; having agency is going to make you feel less helpless and will give you a greater sense of control in the situation. Even if they pass you over for the job, you've got more opportunities coming up and you did all that you could to improve your chances, you tried your best and you've got other avenues to follow up on.

Sometimes it can be very, very difficult to feel like you've got agency in a situation, but there is usually at least something you can do to improve outcomes. If your spouse is in the hospital waiting for a transplant and you can't do anything about a match, you can ensure that you take care of yourself and your joint finances are in order and you have a plan if the transplant falls through. If you are dying, you can make sure your loved ones have the password to your email.

Even in the worst situations, there are often ways that you can make yourself more secure and can make things easier for yourself and the people around you so it's worthwhile to try even if it seems like you're not doing much. You're doing something and that's enough.