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Is overthinking cutting into your sleep, work, and life?
Overthinking is very common, so you're not alone. In fact, studies have shown that 73 percent of 25- to 35-year-olds overthink, and 52 percent percent of 45- to 55-year-olds overthink.
Overthinking is most often unhelpful. It drains our energy, increases our stress and anxiety, and is linked to many mental health issues.
But what constitutes overthinking? What differentiates critical thinking from overthinking? What's the difference between realistic thoughts and intrusive negative thinking?
Wait a second, am I already overthinking overthinking? It's a vicious cycle. In this article, we'll dive into overthinking—and find ways to replace rumination with action.
Table of Contents
- What Is Overthinking?
- The Psychology of Overthinking: Why People Overthink
- Types of Overthinking + Cognitive Distortions
- How to Stop Overthinking
What Is Overthinking?
Thinking seems like a good thing, right? Using your brain to explore potential problems seems like a great way to proactively problem-solve, especially in the workplace.
Overthinking describes the act of thinking about something too much and for too long—often without any solution. Overthinking tends to send folks into a spiral that feels like a trap.
Overthinking is not casually worrying or making last-minute preparations for an event.
Overthinking is characterized by destructive thought patterns like rumination and incessant worrying. Overthinking is a habit that can be hard to break.
Rumination overthinking is dwelling on past circumstances—especially moments that may have been particularly embarrassing. Rumination is when one constantly returns to mistakes, flubs, or bad decisions. Rumination is destructive when it doesn't help to focus on a solution or a lesson learned.
Instead, destructive rumination is like playing the blooper reel of your life over and over—and it's not funny at all.
Overthinking increases stress, wastes time, and often replaces reality with an anxiety-fueled alternate reality.
The Psychology of Overthinking: Why People Overthink
Overthinking exists as a survival mechanism. When humans needed to hunt, seek shelter, avoid danger, and eat in order to survive, overthinking served as a means of survival.
Since modern humans are less likely to regularly face life-threatening situations, overthinking as a survival mechanism is less helpful and more harmful. However, it's there because we're humans.
Many factors, including social expectations, interpersonal relationships, perceptions of failure, and past experiences, can cause overthinking.
There are types of people who are more vulnerable to overthinking—including highly sensitive people, shy people, and insecure types.
Types of Chronic Overthinking + Cognitive Distortions
Overthinking is a cognitive distortion. Cognitive distortions are mental biases that increase our stress and anxiety. They work overtime to make us feel bad about ourselves, and they cause us to perceive reality inaccurately.
When you're bombarded by negative intrusive thoughts masquerading as your reality, it's easy to get sucked down.
Types of Cognitive Distortions:
- All-or-Nothing Thinking: This thinking causes you to believe that if something doesn't go one particular way, it's doomed. "If I don't get this promotion, my career is over."
- Jumping to (Negative) Conclusions: This is worst-case scenario thinking. "I'm going to fail this interview."
- Personalization: This is when you assign culpability to yourself, and typically only yourself. "We lost that client because of my presentation."
- Shoulds or Musts: These are statements that apply intense pressure. "I should be working overtime every day."
- Negative Mental Filters: These are limiting beliefs or "rules" about what you are capable/incapable of. "I'm a terrible driver."
- Magnification or Minimization: This describes over-simplifying or over-exaggerating what's happening in reality. "That typo will cause everyone to realize how stupid I am."
- Comparison: This overthinking pits you against everyone around you. Spoiler alert: They always seem to be doing better than you are! "Everyone here is so much smarter than I am."
How to Stop Overthinking
Overthinking is quite different from being thoughtful or thorough. Repetitive negative thoughts characterize destructive overthinking.
Letting negative thoughts take over leaves anyone vulnerable to depression or anxiety disorders. If you want to break the vicious cycle and replace your excessive worries and catastrophizing with something better, we have some advice.
We're not here to tell you that trying breathing exercises or starting a yoga practice will help you. In fact, overthinking can be a symptom of a much larger mental disorder that requires professional intervention from a psychologist or mental health professional, which we will cover.
Let's dive into solutions and substitute stressful emotions with a healthier mindset to keep you in the present moment (ideally, with a smile on your face!).
1. Focus on Solutions Over Problems
Battle your overthinking by switching your perspective. Instead of giving in to doom thoughts, focus on problem-solving what is happening right now.
Positive reframing allows you to acknowledge the negative aspects and then asks you to evaluate whether there’s another way to think about the situation. Perhaps there are benefits or things you can change about it.
2. Keep Track of Patterns and Potential Triggers
If your overthinking happens when you're expecting a visitor, during a specific season, or when you feel stress wrapping around you, take note. Keeping track of specific triggers can help you to avoid the triggers themselves.
When you can't avoid triggers entirely, knowing where they lurk can help you prepare to fight against them.
For example, if you find that a quarterly meeting with your bosses always dredges up feelings of inadequacy and impostor syndrome, you can load up on self-directed kindness. Look through your smile file, remember your best career wins, and remind yourself why you are amazing (and you are, okay?).
3. Simplify Your Life
This tip builds on triggers, too.
Sometimes, overthinking can bring up "chicken or the egg" questions. Do you overthink because you're stressed? Or does overthinking cause you to start stressing?
If you find stressors that bring up compounding negative thoughts, see if you can rid yourself of them. For example, have you been putting a ton of pressure on yourself to hit your daily step goal or make every friend gathering? Take some pressure off by letting some things go.
Identify your priorities and simplify your life. Knock some extras off your to-do list and make space for what you enjoy.
4. Start a Worry Journal
One of our favorite ways to reduce worry is by naming it—and letting it go.
That's why we love keeping worry journals. We write our biggest worries and try to solve them on the page. Once we close our journals, we usually feel so much better.
Jenny Maenpaa, a psychotherapist, has a similar practice she uses when dealing with overthinking. "One thing I have found success with is writing down my feelings and waiting at least 24 hours (or just a few hours if it’s an urgent matter) before replying or taking any sort of impulsive action," she says. "Then, I put that draft away while I distract myself with another task."
Writing your worries on paper is a great way to remove their power.
5. Retrain Your Brain
You might still feel skeptical if you're reading this while lost in an overthinking spiral.
Pulling yourself out can feel nearly impossible when you're in it. You can try many science-backed strategies to retrain your brain and stop getting stuck in overthinking overdrive.
Try making positive thinking a habit. Use positive affirmations to combat the negative thoughts gathering in your mind. Create a long list of positive comments so that they're ready the next time you feel stuck.
Another great habit to combat overthinking is asking questions that appeal to a reality outside of the negativity you might be experiencing.
By asking questions like, "What approach can I use to fix this problem?" you can identify elements within your control—and those that might be outside of it. From there, you can take the next steps to find help.
6. Distract Yourself
We can't take time to worry when we don't have any time to devote to intrusive and destructive thoughts. Keep yourself busy. If negative thoughts start creeping in, get up and shake it off.
The best way to really distract yourself is by taking time to do the things you love.
Ways to Distract Yourself
- Go for a walk with your audiobook or favorite podcast.
- Call someone you love or someone whose advice you cherish.
- Go for a run or start playing pickleball (because everyone else is apparently playing pickleball!).
- Throw your favorite album on your speakers and sing along.
- Watch an episode of your favorite TV show (preferably one that makes you laugh).
7. Breathe + Meditate
When lost in the midst of a particularly stressful overthink, learn how to breathe and/or meditate.
Try some relaxation techniques to calm down and soothe yourself. Controlled breathing can help create a sense of calm. Also known as pranayamic breathing, these relaxation techniques help to reduce stress in the nervous system while prepping your brain for a night of sleep.
We found these three breathing techniques to be very helpful:
- Controlled Breathing aka Persed Lip Breathing
- 4-7-8 Method from Dr. Andrew Weil
- Square Breathing aka 4x4 Breathing
Learning to meditate can also help pull you out of a deluge of negativity. If you have a meditation practice, put it to good use against your overthinking. If not, there are many ways to meditate. Meditation is about paying attention to our breath, slowing down, and living in the current moment.
However, you achieve a meditative state is up to you. You can create and recite positive mantras, sit in a dark room and work on slowing your thoughts, or practice some of the breathing exercises from above.
8. Ask for Help + Seek Professional Help
While everyone overthinks sometimes, there's a point where it can become destructive. For example, if you’ve been unable to control how much you worry and it starts interfering with your ability to function, it may be time to seek help from a professional.
If you don't know where to start, we borrowed this list of therapist directories from GoodRx.
- Good Therapy
- Therapy Den
- Psychology Today
- QPoC Therapist Directory
- Gaylesta (LGBTQ therapists)
- InnoPsych (BIPOC therapists)
- Open Path Psychotherapy Collective (Low-cost therapy)
9. Stay Present
It's tough to overthink something that happened in the past or something that could potentially occur in the future when we are solidly standing in the present.
Staying present is a meditation on its own—and it can be the key against spiraling out of control.
For example, if your overthinking attacks in the middle of the night, you're probably losing meaningful sleep. When you can't sleep, you can lose your capacity to make smart decisions and keep your level head. When tossing and turning in your bad, ask yourself:
- "What can I do at this moment to solve this problem?"
- "Is there anything I can do right now to solve this issue?"
Sometimes, the answer is "nothing," and hopefully, that can soothe you to sleep. If not, we have other tips on what to do when you can't sleep.
10. Practice Self-Compassion
If you've ever yelled "SHUTUP!" to your own brain at the top of your lungs, you're certainly not alone.
Getting caught in a loop of negative or even downright catastrophic overthinking is frustrating. Learning that it's a reality you've created—and one you control—is not all that comforting when you can't escape it.
Give yourself grace.
