What Is Overthinking Disorder? How To Cope With Anxiety And Overthinking
Have you ever felt like you can’t escape your thoughts? Do you find yourself telling others that you “think too much” and wish you could stop overthinking? If so, you are not alone. Many of us tend to overthink, and it can become detrimental at a certain point. So, what do you do if you want to stop overthinking? Read on to learn more about overthinking and how to combat the habit of overthinking.
What is overthinking a symptom of?
There is no such thing as an overthinking disorder. However, anxiety and overthinking are related concerns, and the tendency to overthink can be affiliated with multiple diagnosable mental health conditions. Overthinking is a symptom of a variety of mental disorders, including anxiety disorders. When someone talks about “overthinking disorder,” they may actually be referring to an anxiety disorder or other disorders that can lead to obsessions, intrusive thoughts, or compulsive behaviors.
Generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) is a common mental health condition that impacts around 3.1% of individuals aged 18 or older in the United States alone. Signs of a generalized anxiety disorder include:
Excessive worrying
Trouble focusing
Unwanted or intrusive thoughts
Rumination
Twitching, trembling, or shaking.
Racing heart or heart palpitations
Panic attacks
GI symptoms such as nausea
Stiffness or tension in the body
Sweating
Insomnia
Restlessness
Fatigue
Irritability or agitation
The excessive worry that generalized anxiety disorder is characterized by might be what you’re actually experiencing when you say that you overthink or have overthinking disorder. While generalized anxiety disorder is common, it is not the only anxiety disorder. It’s also important to note that you can have more than one anxiety disorder. For example, you might battle both social anxiety disorder and generalized anxiety disorder. Anxiety disorders can also co-occur with other mental health conditions such as personality disorders like BPD and mood disorders like bipolar disorder.
Overthinking is often counterintuitive when solving problems in your life, so if you want to stop overthinking, know that you’re taking a positive step. Recognizing anxiety and overthinking is the first thing you need to do to overcome these problems, and by doing so, you’re already part of the way there!
Other root causes of overthinking
Another mental health condition that can come with overthinking is bipolar disorder. When taking in information about bipolar disorder, we often think of the periods of depression and mania or hypomania that it’s characterized by.
Depression can, at times, cause you to ruminate or overthink. You may ruminate over depressive symptoms, circumstances in your life, or the feelings of worthlessness or hopelessness that can come with depression. While conditions like depression and bipolar disorder come with challenges, it is possible to live a full life with bipolar disorder and depression. Many people with bipolar disorder find that seeing a therapist and psychiatrist helps them manage their condition effectively.
It’s also important to note that those with a history of one mental disorder are more likely to live with other mental health conditions. Struggling with mental health disorders such as anxiety disorders can put you at an increased risk for other medical or mental health conditions such as eating disorders.
Research indicates that anxiety and eating disorders are often co-occurring, and eating disorder patients are more likely to be diagnosed with an anxiety disorder. Some common eating disorders include bulimia, anorexia, OSFED, and BED. Eating disorders themselves can come with anxiety and overthinking; they may cause you to ruminate on your body, health, and eating behaviors. Eating disorders are severe conditions, so if you believe that you may have an eating disorder or even disordered eating, it is vital to reach out for help.
Why do I overthink?
Sometimes, people confuse overthinking with problem-solving. You may believe that you are helping yourself by overthinking when, in reality, it doesn’t actually help you solve problems if what you’re coping with is indeed overthinking. It’s imperative to understand the connection between anxiety and to overthink if the underlying issue is an anxiety disorder.
If overthinking is fleeting for you and it doesn’t happen often, it might be no big issue. However, if you overthink regularly and impact your life, there may be an underlying issue, such as an anxiety disorder. If you have anxiety, treatment for anxiety, such as counseling, could alleviate your overthinking and overall discomfort. Seeing a mental health professional can help you through generalized anxiety disorder, bipolar disorder, and personality disorders.
If you believe that you may have a mental health condition such as anxiety, bipolar disorder, or depression, it’s essential to talk to your general doctor or go to a psychiatrist for an evaluation.
How do I stop my brain from overthinking?
Distractions can help you stop overthinking at times, and they can be an excellent tool for those who go through both anxiety and overthinking. The distractions you choose will vary depending on your personality type, what’s fascinating for you as an individual, and what’s engaging enough to get your mind off of anxiety and overthinking truly. If you want to stop overthinking, here are some healthy distractions that you can try:
Journaling
Engaging in physical activity or exercise
Watching a movie or TV show
Practicing art, such as painting or drawing
Reading a book
Listening to podcasts
Calling a friend or relative
When it comes to anxiety and overthinking, you can face a lot of unhelpful intrusive thoughts. There are ways to work through these thoughts. Here’s how to cope with thoughts that are affecting you negatively:
Notice what triggers your anxiety or overthinking
Use positive distractions such as meditation, art, exercise, or something else that you enjoy.
Use positive self-talk
Work on mindfulness exercises provided to you by your therapist, an online search, a mindfulness app, or anywhere else
Break big tasks that may overwhelm you and cause overthinking in anxiety down into smaller pieces so that you don’t get overwhelmed
Set realistic deadlines for yourself
Communicate to your loved ones that you are trying to stop overthinking so that you can get support from them
Of course, if this is an issue in your life that you cope with regularly, seeking the help of a mental health professional such as a counselor or therapist is essential. If you are trying to stop overthinking and feel overwhelming or impossible, a mental health provider can help. People overthink for many different reasons, and it is nothing to be ashamed of, nor does it have to rule your life. You can work through “overthinking disorder” – instead, anxiety and overthinking – and develop coping skills not to be a pervasive issue in your life moving forward.
How do you treat overthinking disorder?
Since an overthinking disorder is not a diagnosable or recognized mental health condition, there is not treatment designated for it. However, you can stop overthinking, and there are ways of treating anxiety disorders that can help someone who tends to overthink.
When you want to stop overthinking, it is a process, so be sure not to beat yourself up. It is easy to get into the habit of overthinking, but it is possible to break that habit. Many forms of mental health therapies, such as cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT), can help you work through difficulties surrounding overthinking.
In therapy, you’ll find a wide variety of skills that can help you stop overthinking, including but not limited to: mindfulness, radical acceptance, challenging cognitive distortions. If you’re in a situation where you cannot currently get into therapy or want to work on overthinking outside of therapy, there’s an abundance of CBT workbooks and free CBT worksheets online as well as CBT or mindfulness apps you might find helpful. You can print out free CBT worksheets from a variety of websites and use them at home. Your therapist may be able to give you homework to help you stop overthinking what you can work on outside of sessions.
Although the overthinking disorder is not a real condition, overthinking is a real issue that can substantially impact your quality of life. If you tend to overthink and notice yourself overthinking regularly, it is crucial to reach out. You can use methods to help yourself with overthinking outside of therapy, such as self-help books, self-help videos from professionals in the mental health field online, and CBT or DBT worksheets.
If “overthinking disorder” or anxiety and overthinking are impending issues in your life, seeking support from a professional is your best bet. Therapies such as CBT are often short-term, so there’s no need to fear that you’ll be in treatment for the rest of your life. Therapy can help you gain skills to cope with “overthinking disorder” or anxiety and overthinking.
Help for anxiety
If you live with frequent overthinking, anxiety, or both, therapy can help. Counseling is shown to be beneficial for those experiencing mental health conditions, life stressors such as those related to work or education, relationship issues, and more. Online therapy platforms like Regain enable users to book sessions with licensed therapists at convenient times and from preferred locations – all you need is a safe internet connection.
Online therapy has also shown effectiveness in treating anxiety and other mental health conditions via several research trials. In fact, results of one study showed how online counseling was efficacious in reducing psychological distress, obsessive-compulsive behaviors, anxiety, and interpersonal sensitivity while simultaneously increasing life satisfaction among college-aged adults without any adverse childhood experiences.
The mental health providers at Regain are here to help individuals and couples with various concerns, including anxiety and overthinking, through online counseling. Search the network of mental health providers at Regain and find the best fit for you, or consider reading reviews from people who have experienced success working with licensed Regain therapists.
Counselor reviews
“I don’t know what I would have done without Harry. I was in a super low place and I was not sure what my problems were or how to solve them, but he was able to help me get to the bottom of my problems and work through them. Today I am happy and feeling like myself again. He was so easy to talk to and worked with me whenever I needed him. Even on vacation he took time to call me and talk through whatever I was going through. I would highly recommend him.”
"My experience with Priscilla has been immensely helpful in better understanding myself and providing me with the tools to see my life and relationships with more clarity and compassion."
Takeaway
We cannot control the initial thoughts that come into our heads, but we can create new thought patterns, and we can learn to radically accept our feelings and dismiss ideas that do not serve us. Over time, neural plasticity allows our brain to think more positively if we work on challenging negative thoughts and thought patterns.
Positivity does not mean that you are happy all the time; often, what this looks like is gaining a better sense of intrinsic rationality. At first, when you are learning to stop overthinking or work through overthinking, you will have to do a lot of active work to challenge the thoughts you have that aren’t serving you. It’s essential to keep those skills handy if the situation arises again, but it will get easier over time.
When you’re ready to take the first step to managing overthinking in your life, reach out to a compassionate, experienced online therapist at Regain.
Frequently asked questions
What is an overthinking disorder called?
Overthinking is not a mental disorder. Overthinking makes it feel like you cannot escape your thoughts no matter how hard you try. If you have a problem overthinking, it might feel like your mind is racing at a mile a minute, and no matter how hard you try, your mind feels like it is on an endless loop. While it is uncomfortable to overthink, overthinking on its own constantly is not a mental disorder. However, overthinking and anxiety often go hand-in-hand.
Someone who refers to having been diagnosed with the overthinking disorder is likely referring to either anxiety or another mental disorder that leads to obsessions, intrusive thoughts, or compulsive behaviors, such as obsessive-compulsive disorder or bipolar disorder. Having a diagnosis of an anxiety disorder, social anxiety, and a variety of other mental disorders can lead to overthinking, especially when the person is in situations that are particularly stressful or triggering. Overthinking might be a sign of a mental disorder when worry becomes overwhelming, and it becomes impossible to focus or think about anything else.
Why do we overthinking?
Overthinking is something that happens to everyone at one point or another. For some people, overthinking might be an annoyance that happens when stressful life events arise. For others, overthinking may be a symptom of a mental health issue, like depression, anxiety disorder, social anxiety, bipolar disorder, and many others.
The connection between anxiety and overthinking is obvious, and extreme overthinking and anxiety can make it extremely difficult, if not impossible, to tackle daily tasks. When you go through an anxiety disorder, social interactions may be difficult for you as you constantly worry about how others will perceive you. People with anxiety disorders often live in the future and overthink what outcomes various situations will have. People with anxiety disorders who also struggle from overthinking tend to have difficulty following along and contributing to conversations and continually focusing on worst-case scenarios involving themselves or those they love.
While the connection between anxiety and overthinking might seem obvious, bipolar disorder is another mental health disorder where people struggle with overthinking. People with bipolar disorder are categorized as either depressed or manic, leading to overthinking by a person with the disorder. They might worry if they’re in a depressive episode that a manic episode will happen soon. Similar to people with anxiety disorders, people with bipolar disorders often overthink upsetting or distressing thoughts or worry about the future or the side effects of the medication they take.
Negative thinking patterns might arise from time to time, depending on what’s going on in your life at that moment. When you’re stuck in a negative thinking feedback loop, it’s important to remember that while overthinking happens to everyone, it may be a sign of a mental disorder when worry becomes all-consuming.
What are the six types of anxiety disorders?
The six types of anxiety disorders are phobias, generalized anxiety, panic disorder, social anxiety disorder, obsessive-compulsive disorder/post-traumatic stress disorder, and separation anxiety disorder.
Phobias are intense fears of specific animals, objects, or situations. A person with a phobia goes out of their way to avoid the feared object or situation or face it but experiences extreme distress.
Generalized anxiety is when someone worries about various topics, including school or job performance, finances, world events, natural disasters, relationships with others, and other topics. These worries are hard to control and make it difficult for people to focus on their activities.
Panic disorder is when a person experiences panic attacks that get in the way of their life in some way. Panic attacks can include any combination of sensations, including racing heart, rapid breathing, chest pain, dizziness, nausea or abdominal pain, blurred vision, sweating, shaking, feelings of doom, feeling like the world isn’t real, or experiencing the moment as though you are outside of yourself.
Panic attacks usually hit their peak intensity within 15 minutes. While panic attacks are a symptom of panic disorder, people can have panic attacks without diagnosing panic disorder. The difference is that a person diagnosed with panic disorder will either avoid situations that they think will cause a panic attack or experience ongoing worry that they will experience another panic attack.
Social anxiety disorder is the constant fear of being judged by others, accompanied by intense discomfort interacting with other people.
Obsessive-compulsive disorder and post-traumatic stress disorder used to be grouped with anxiety disorders. Still, they are not classified under their own category because they have unique causes, brain structures, and treatments that distinguish them from other anxiety disorders.
Separation anxiety disorder is when someone has persistent and excessive worry about being separated from or losing a caregiver or attachment figure. Separation anxiety can be a normal part of a child’s early development, but it can impair their development when mere negative thinking turns excessive.
What is a drug that calms you down?
Overthinking may be a sign of a mental health disorder when worry is all-consuming. If you have been diagnosed with a mental disorder, such as anxiety, your mental health practitioner might have mentioned anti-anxiety medication to help you stop thinking negatively. Anti-anxiety medications have physical effects on the brain and the body, which can help a person finally overcome feelings of anxiety, such as fear, worry, and panic attacks. These medications must be prescribed by a doctor, often by a psychiatrist. There are several different anti-anxiety medications available that can help you stop thinking anxious thoughts.
How can I stop excessive worrying?
Overthinking can be uncomfortable and can get in the way of a person’s day-to-day life. Finding ways to stop overthinking can be challenging, but once you find what works for you, it can make a world of difference. Time thinking about your worries is time spent away from the various things that you may want to accomplish in your life.
Some ways to stop your brain from overthinking include meditation and mindfulness exercises. Meditation and mindfulness practices allow you to stay present, which is helpful in calming worrying thoughts about the future. Finding a distraction by getting involved with a project or activity that you enjoy has also been beneficial when people find themselves caught in a negative overthinking cycle.
What is the main cause of overthinking?
How do I know if I am overthinking?
What type of person is an overthinker?
What are the dangers of overthinking?
What is the difference between overthinking and anxiety?
How do I relieve stress?
How can I live a stress-free life?
How do you release stress and overthinking?
What is an example of overthinking?
Are overthinkers happy?
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