My husband also tended to catastrophize, as well as fall prey to black-and-white thinking. Like you, he's done massive amounts of work on himself to improve these patterns. Our coach described these old patterns as grooves carved in your brain. Just because you're carving a new track, it doesn't mean the old one goes away. It's still there, and you can still fall into it. Progress is measured in how quickly you recognize that this is your old response, how quickly you can get out of the groove, and how long you can go without falling into the groove again.

Congrats on recognizing your old pattern and getting out of it quickly! Progress!