That's called catastrophizing and I'm pretty sure it's a technical medical term.
I think things like this and OCD are evolutionary developments and are probably genetic. Remember that the Black Death killed about a third of the population of Europe in the 14th (??) century. That was just one very important "selection" event that made it much more likely that people who were extremely fastidious and wary of disease would survive. Same with catastrophizing.
Now multiply that by the multiple plagues and pandemics that have swept across human cultures over the millenia and it's not hard to see how such behaviors could develop.
But there's also a dark side to these "abilities." Often times our perception of risk can be horribly skewed such that we place an inordinate amount of importance on trying to prepare for things that have at best an infinitesimal chance of actually happening. At that point, these "abilities" become maladaptive and counterproductive and serve only to make our lives miserable.
Oddly enough, for me, my anxiety is largely driven by my digestion. I grew up with debilitating anxiety & eventually panic attacks, which was not the most fun thing in the world lol. A few years ago, I got on a magic pill for my food intolerance issues & my anxiety magically disappeared! (comes back when the medication wears off & my digestion goes to crap, pun intended haha). A few years, I got into DIY cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT), which is a form of talk therapy that identifies distortions:
A list of cognitive behavioral therapy techniques, CBT interventions & more.
positivepsychology.com
For me, it sort of boiled down to an adrenaline issue: I'd run into a situation and go
oh crap! And the adrenaline would make my brain spin fast & create a zillion outcome options, and then land on a negative one as the most salient. Then that would combine with another distortion I suffer from - "all or nothing" thinking - which is where I feel pressured to do a
really awesome job at everything, which is largely driven by my ADHD because I forget stuff easily lol, so I'm like oh dang, I need to catch up & do a really great job to make up for missing the deadline or forgetting to do the task or whatever. I developed a coping strategy called the GBB Approach to manage that situation. Basically, I audit each responsibility by asking myself what level of quality the job needs to be completed at:
1. Good
2. Better
3. Best
Then I accept it as an internal commitment, rather than just going full-bore on it as my instant, no-think, adrenaline-drive reaction. This approach has helped me
tremendously, because I tend to over-commit to things & then build up projects so big that I either can't get started or can't sustain the effort. It's sort of like the approach from Billy Murry's "What about Bob" movie - baby steps! My brain tends to think in terms of big home-run efforts, rather than consistent itty-bitty efforts over time, so adopting the GBB Approach has really helped me push through my internal barriers of getting overwhelmed & going into stasis by auditing what quality level I'm willing to commit to & then just chipping away at things.
It's helped even in small stuff, like sometimes I'm just fried after work & I'll say screw it, I'm having cereal or a microwaved hot dog for dinner, and that's "good enough" to meet the need to execute on-time delivery (i.e. fill my stomach when it's hungry, lol). It's a silly & a bit of an irrational thing to deal with, but unfortunately I'm stuck with that on my plate, so I've had to find some good management strategies to keep getting over the finish line! Auditing task requirements is not a default behavior for me, so I have to make sure I use the GBB Approach so that I don't get all fired up about something as my default reaction to learning about it or getting reminded about it.
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