Overthinking: Know its Meaning, Symptoms and Treatment!

Human Mind is a precious tool which distinguishes us from other living beings on this planet, as we have mind which helps us to think about any situation, condition, or place. Thus, we humans are said to be the only living being blessed with the thinking capacity. It is thinking only which helps us in studying, inventing, solving problems of daily life and achieving success.

But what happens when the mind gets out of control or instead of getting controlled by us it starts to control us? What if it keeps on producing unnecessary and destructive thoughts on a daily basis? Some times in a phase of life we get to worry about any one thing repeatedly. Such problem is often recognized as "Overthinking", which at first place looks like a simple problem and we take it lightly, but in a long run "Overthinking" can lead us towards serious mental health issues. So let's first understand what "Overthinking" really is and how we can stop it!

WHAT IS OVERTHINKING?

Overthinking is worrying about any certain topic excessively and analyzing it for a long period of time continuously. When we worry about any certain topic for a very long time our mind finds itself difficult in focusing on any other thing. People who overthink become paralyzed by their worries so much that they even struggle in making decisions and taking any actions.

Although generally many scientists, researchers and writers also overthink regarding certain issues or topics but their thoughts are related to a particular invention, idea or creativity. Thus, their overthinking is different and cannot be seen as an disorder. But overthinking about we are talking here involves a loop of unproductive thoughts or an excessive amount of unnecessary thoughts which leads a person nowhere but destruction. Hence, thinking is not an issue but unnecessary thoughts which are of no use may damage our mental health, so we must be careful regarding that.

SYMPTOMS OF OVERTHINKING

As we have discussed earlier that overthinking can be a great threat to our mental health, however overthinking regarding any research or invention by a scientist or overthinking regarding any other productive work such as writing, composing songs, etc. are completely different. Following are some of the signs of overthinking disorder:-

1- A Constant feeling of Worry.

when we overthink we are unable to relax and as a result become anxious, it happens constantly and leave us feel tired. While suffering from overthinking people suffer from constant feel of worry every time due to which they even become unable to enjoy their good times also.

2- Developing negative thoughts.

one common sign of overthinking is that it always brings up negative thoughts in our mind, that is why when we overthink 90% of our thoughts are negative. As overthinking is related to some problem or situation in our life, out of fear we think of the worst possibilities only.

3- Feeling mentally exhausted.

as overthinking leads our mind in developing a lot of catastrophic possibilities, it consumes a lot of mental energy and ultimately lead us in feeling tired. That is one of the reason after a lot of overthinking we feel tired and unable to do or concentrate on any other work also.

4- Replaying any particular situation or past experience in mind.

most of the times when we overthink we think about any bad experience in our mind again and again, we start to worry that whether it will repeat or something even more bad can happen in the future. That bad experience can be anything, it may be any past insult we faced or past failure we suffered in our life.

IS OVERTHINKING DANGEROUS?

Overthinking is not described as any mental illness, most of the people suffer from it and take it as a normal thing. But what most of us don't realize is that overthinking in a long term can lead us towards various mental health issues. Not only this but overthinking can act as a barrier in our success, career and creativity.

Overthinking always have a bidirectional relationship with mental health problems, it can also act as a barrier in having good relationships with others. Some of the bad effects of overthinking can be:-

a) Depression

b) Anxiety

c) Paranoia

d) Bipolar disorder

e) Panic disorder

f) Weight loss or gain

g) Developing diseases like thyroid, blood pressure, sugar, etc.

h) Loss of creativity

i) Decrease in work productivity

j) Inability in decision making

HOW TO STOP OVERTHINKING?

As overthinking leads us towards several problems, it is very essential to make a stop to it. So what are some tried and tested ways to stop or control overthinking and have a peaceful life, let's find out.

1- Focus

there are times when someone insults or hurts us, when things don't happen according to our wish, when we are very worried regarding future, at such points of time we start overthinking about that particular problem which do not help us but even make things worst. Overthinking at such time rather waste our time and energy because it leads us only towards negative or unproductive thoughts.

So, the best way to overcome any problem is to "Focus" on the actions that are under our control and not to worry about the result or outcome which is not under our control. As when we get worried about the result, we waste all of our time and mental strength on that rather we must try to focus on our work as our actions are 100% under our control. Therefore whenever mind tends to overthink divert it towards the present and focus on the work. The people who focus and work hard in their present moment only get success and mental peace, as past cannot be changed and future cannot be predicted, what is in our hand is our present only.

2- Try to control negative thoughts.

as generally overthinking leads to development of negative thoughts, we must try to make our mind and inner self realize that our thoughts are not truthful and realistic, we should try to challenge them by reframing them in a positive way which can help us to get relieve from overthinking.

Therefore, whenever we are preoccupied with overthinking we should ask our inner self that are these thoughts realistic and what can be the alternative scenarios in place of these negative thoughts. This habit can be seem as little difficult in the beginning but after some time it will only help us overcome problem of overthinking.

3- Meditation

just as our physical body needs exercise to keep fit, our mind also needs exercise to keep itself fit and the most beneficial mental exercise in the world is meditation. A daily practice of meditation can prove to be very effective to overcome overthinking. As meditation helps us to focus and live in our present moment, also meditation helps in reducing the frequency of thoughts which helps our mind to calm down. Through this excellent mental exercise we can get relieve from stress, worry and anxiety, therefore we must practice meditation daily at least for half an hour a day.

4- Maintain a healthy lifestyle

as our mind and body are connected with each other, one without the other cannot remain healthy. If our body is not well, our mind cannot be at peace and if mind is not well, our body cannot remain healthy. Therefore, in order to keep our mind well we must maintain a healthy lifestyle and for that some things should be included such as getting up early in the morning, practice yoga or exercise, eat healthy food, avoid junk food, drink sufficient water and have enough sleep. All these things we must do daily to maintain a healthy lifecycle.

5- Consult a doctor

if self help is not working and symptoms are getting worse day by day then we should immediately seek medical help in this regard, as overthinking is very closely associated with mental health issues. Thus, in serious cases only doctor can diagnose and tell that whether we are suffering from overthinking only or is there some other problem involved.

 

As overthinking disorder is often seen as a common thing in our society, very less attention have been paid to this issue. But we must understand that overthinking creates an endless cycle of stress, worry and anxiety which ultimately reduce our mental strength, creativity and work productivity. On the other hand it plays a great role in mental health issues like depression, paranoia, panic and anxiety attacks. So it is very essential to find ways to break out of such unproductive and negative thought patterns.

Firstly we should try some self help ways to control the problem of overthinking, if they are working then it is good but incase the self help ways are not working and overthinking becomes out of control taking toll on our mental health, then we must consider talking to any mental health professional to prevent ourself from overthinking.