Overthinking Meaning: How to Stop Overthinking

Overthinking is when a person hyperfocuses and excessively analyzes the same thought repeatedly to the point that it disrupts their day-to-day lives. A person in the middle of an overthinking episode may find it difficult to take action, make decisions, or rid a particular thought from their mind.

Overthinking impacts a person’s mental health, fuels perfectionist behaviors, and leads to cyclical negative thoughts. Those with anxiety disorders may be more prone to overthinking than others. The two types of overthinking are rumination (which involves rehashing past events) and worrying (or hyperfocusing on an anxious concern about the future).

Sometimes it’s hard to know if you’re experiencing normal stress or something more. Look for these signs of overthinking:

1. 1. Disrupted sleep: Those stuck in a ruminative loop may find it difficult to shut off their brains at bedtime. Additionally, these thoughts might cause a person to wake up in the middle of the night and have trouble falling back asleep.
2. 2. Indecision: Overthinking involves repetitive thoughts, which can lead a person to feel overwhelmed when they need to make decisions. Even when a person finally reaches a decision, they may second-guess themselves, compounding their stress levels.
3. 3. Problem-solving difficulties: An overthinking person will imagine (and often catastrophize) every possible outcome of a stressful situation, hampering their abilities to come up with productive solutions.
4. 4. Repetitive thoughts: A hallmark of overthinking is thinking, worrying, or ruminating about the same few stressful thoughts on a loop.

Follow these tips and tricks to help curb intrusive, ruminative thoughts:

1. 1. Become aware of and challenge your negative thoughts. Through diligent and regular self-reflection, recognizing when negative, unproductive thoughts surface is the first step to changing them. When you feel yourself overthink, try to calm yourself down by taking deep breaths and noticing how your body feels. Identify the thoughts or beliefs that are making you stressed, and challenge them in a non-judgmental way.
2. 2. Consider ways to problem-solve. Taking action alleviates stress and feelings of helplessness. Brainstorm and write down a few actions you can take to mitigate a situation you’re overthinking. This will help you externalize and disempower negative thoughts.
   
3. 3. Get your mind off it. Exercise, spend time with a friend, or think about something you enjoy to get your mind off of your thoughts. This will help disrupt the vicious cycle of overthinking.
4. 4. Practice mindfulness. Developing a mindfulness practice is beneficial for chronic overthinkers, because it refocuses their mental energy on the present moment, relieving them of the pressure of focusing on the past or future. Learn more about mindfulness.
5. 5. Understand what you can and can’t control. Obsessing over something out of your control compounds feelings of stress and helplessness; it also allows negative thoughts to run wild. Dispassionately acknowledging you can only do so much to fix something may alleviate some of your worries. Recognize that repeatedly thinking about a situation without taking action is unproductive and unkind to yourself.
6. 6. Work with a mental health professional. Especially if you struggle with an anxiety disorder, working with a clinical psychologist to treat overthinking patterns can help you unlearn these habits and replace them with positive coping mechanisms.

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