While overthinking may not be a mental illness in itself, it can certainly feel just as debilitating. The constant worrying can quickly take away from the joy of everyday life but stopping it isn’t as simple as just choosing not to worry. It’s much more of a learned behavior or unhealthy habit that develops from an unfortunate situation, such as a traumatic event or mental illness, such as anxiety, depression, eating disorders and addiction. In some cases, chronic worrying seemingly comes out of nowhere. It may even feel like you were born an overthinker. The good news: whatever has caused you to have excessive, worrying thoughts, there are many techniques that can help you finally put an end to the ruminating thoughts.
What is Overthinking?
In the simplest terms, overthinking is when you worry or dwell on the same thought excessively, over and over again. It typically involves thinking and over-analyzing a specific topic or situation for a long period of time, making it difficult to focus on anything else.
People who experience overthinking can also become paralyzed by their ruminating thoughts. They may also struggle with making decisions or taking action due to the constant stream of unhelpful and unproductive thoughts. It can be incredibly debilitating and negatively impact various aspects of your life, resulting in lower quality of life. For this reason, it has similar long-term effects of many mental health conditions.
Overthinking isn’t a mental illness in itself. It can, however, produce feelings of anxiety, depression and PTSD. Overthinking is also a common symptom of anxiety, depression, eating disorders and addiction. But just because you experience rumination doesn’t mean that you have a mental illness either. In fact, everyone overthinks sometimes. So, it’s important to seek medical attention to receive a proper diagnosis if you think you may be struggling with a mental health condition.
In the meantime, some common signs that you’re an overthinker are:
- Being unable to relax
- Constantly feeling anxious or worried
- Having difficulties thinking about anything else
- Fixating on things beyond your control
- Having a lot of negative thoughts
- Second-guessing your decisions or having a hard time making decisions
- Excessively replaying situations and experiences in your mind
- Constantly thinking about worst-case scenarios
Types of Overthinking
As if being an overthinker, in general, wasn’t overwhelming enough, there are various forms that you may experience. You may engage with one specific type or struggle with various kinds. Most importantly, identifying the type of worrying thoughts that flood your mind can help you narrow in on the best techniques for overcoming them. As such, here are some common types:
- All-or-Nothing Thinking: When you can only see situations in black or white. For example, you may view a situation as being a total success or a total fail; there’s no in between.
- Catastrophizing: When your thinking makes things seem far worse than they are and often involves worrying about unrealistic worst-case scenarios. For example, if you fear you may fail an exam, instead of ending it there, your overthinking turns it into failing the class, and then failing school, and then not getting a job and then being homeless, and so on and so forth.
- Overgeneralizing: When your thinking involves applying something from one situation to all other situations without accepting that different outcomes are possible. For example, if you interview for a job and don’t get it, you think you will never get a job.
- Mind-Reading: When you constantly come to conclusions about what other people are thinking. For example, people laugh around you and you immediately think (and feel like you know)they’re making fun of you.
- Over-reading: When your thinking goes into overdrive, catastrophizing and obsessing over possible, and often unrealistic, outcomes. For example, you have a stain on your shirt and for the rest of the day, all you can think about is that stain and how everyone must think you’re a slob and how it will negatively impact the rest of your life.
How to Stop Overthinking
There are various strategies that can help you finally put an end to your excessive worrying and help you regain a sense of control over your mind. It can give you the freedom you need to get back to living life, worry-free. Here are some excellent tips to get you started.
Distract Yourself
When you notice your thoughts going into overdrive, instead of sitting and dwelling on the worry, try to distract yourself with another task. Even if it’s as simple as folding the laundry or going for a walk, this brief distraction can be enough to break the cycle of rumination.
Practice Mindfulness
Making a conscious effort to bring your focus to the present moment can help prevent excessive worrying about the past or future. It’s an easy practice that simply requires you being aware of your thoughts, so you can notice and redirect them as needed.
Start Meditating
Speaking of the prior, incorporating meditation into your day can help you develop the skills needed to take control of your thoughts, as it trains you to be more aware of them in the first place. This gives you the opportunity to redirect them more positively. You can also meditate when you find yourself struggling with intrusive thoughts; studies have found that a quick 10-minute meditation can be the perfect solution for ending overthinking.
Challenge Your Negative Thoughts
With overthinking, the thoughts are often unrealistic and not based on facts. As such, an excellent way to put an end to them is to challenge whether the worries you’re having are fact or fiction, truthful, accurate or realistic. This will give you the opportunity to identify when your worries and thoughts aren’t helpful, so you can reframe them in a more positive way. For example, if you didn’t get the job you interviewed now and your thoughts are travelling down the path of “I’ll never get a job. I’m going to be homeless. I’ll never be anything,” stop yourself and analyze whether any of these are based on fact. (Hint: They aren’t).
Do A Daily Brain Dump
Grab that cute new journal you recently picked up and have been trying to figure out – and likely overthinking about what you’re going to do with it. Journaling can be an effective way to get all of those anxious thoughts and intrusive worries out of your head, so they don’t bother you so much. Seeing them on paper can also be an excellent way to determine whether they’re truthful, accurate or realistic. So, jot down all of your worries or make a to-do list of everything that is overwhelming you. You can do this right any time of day or right before bed if your worries tend to keep you up at night). Don’t have a journal? Open up your notes app.
Everyone overthinks sometimes. In fact, studies found that 73% of people between the ages of 25 and 35 and 52% of people between the ages of 45 and 55 are chronic overthinkers. However, when your overthinking becomes excessive and starts to control your decisions and dictate how you live your life, this is when it can take a serious toll on your mental health and quality of life. The good news: you now have effective strategies for putting your intrusive thoughts on silent.
