Ch 5

I thought this was an interesting and eerie chapter to read: people who tend to overreact about their problems generally are more likely to die sooner. However, I am wondering if whether it was solely the action of catastrophizing that makes one more likely to commit suicide/ die earlier or if it could be due to something within the quality of catastrophizing. The book mentioned that Dr. Kelley, a psychiatrist who performed psychological tests on Nazi leaders was a sensitive man who had seen too much evil in the world. Could it be that rather than catastrophizing, the individuals who died earlier also tended to be more sensitive? From my perspective, the book is attributing multiple characteristics for multiple outcomes, and I have come to a point where I feel like the book is overgeneralizing these qualities as being the key to early deaths or long lives.

Adding onto the book’s point about catastrophizing, I learned in a previous course that chronic stress is associated with being a cause for many serious illnesses. Therefore, I would like to make a counterpoint to the book’s point. Instead of the act of catastrophization being the cause of early deaths, I think it is the biological aspects OF catastrophization that lead to early deaths. It may be that sensitive individuals suffer the consequences of catastrophizing their problems that they tend to die from chronic diseases such as heart attacks and cancer due to the constant inundation of stress to their biological systems. I don’t think it is solely the action of catastrophizing that makes one more prone to dying earlier. I think it is the biological and neurological processes that seem to make one more prone to dying earlier.