Overthinking: how it affects your life and how you overcome it

تمت الكتابة بواسطة: فاطمة وكدا آخر تحديث: 24 أبريل 2024

Overthinking: how it affects your life and how you overcome it, After midnight, after the day has passed and people have succumbed to sleep, you sit in your room with a voice that makes you blame and dire on situations that have gone on, and his voice rises to remind you of a harsh accent about your unknown future and you get more anxious, and you get into a spiral of endless thoughts that worry your comfort and disturb your mood and hinder you from advancing in your life. You may think that thinking for a long time brings you the best solution, but you don’t know that this behavior is the cause of most obstacles in your life. Let’s find out what overthinking is, what its causes and symptoms are and how to get rid of it. Overthinking: how it affects your life and how you overcome it

What is overthinking?

Overthinking: how it affects your life and how you overcome it
At the outset we must make it clear that there are two types of thinking:

Conscious thinking: When you make an important decision in your life such as choosing a university major or leaving one job and moving to another, it is normal to wait and take the time to think deeply to get to the best decision that benefits you
Unconscious thinking: involuntarily messaging thoughts into things that have happened and ended in the past or things that may happen in the future and may not happen and therefore it is useless thinking

Consequently, overthinking is an unconscious thinking or state of excess anxiety and an excessive focus on negative attitudes, events and bad expectations that can affect your psychological state. Research suggests that overthinking is accompanied by feelings of depression, anxiety and psychiatric disorders.

This does not mean that we do not learn from the mistakes of the past or prepare ourselves for the future, but we must strive for balance and wisdom without excess or excess. We do not burden ourselves with thinking about the past and do not harmonize with events without planning for the future.

Am I overthinking?

There are some obvious symptoms and signs that show if you are overthinking or not, including:

Not being able to think of anything else but one idea
Feeling anxious and stressed over time
Difficulty controlling the torrent of ideas
Constantly restoring attitudes and memories
Think of all bad scenarios
Reluctance to make decisions
Focus on matters beyond your control
Increased scrutiny of small details

You may occasionally experience some of these symptoms when solving a particular problem or making an important decision in your life, and you may now wonder if the difference between overthinking and thinking to solve problems?

A fundamental difference between the two situations is that problem solving focuses on situation analysis

and results in practical steps to find solutions, while overthinking revolves around the problem and fuels negative emotions without reaching a solution.

For example, imagine that there is a storm to come and notice the difference between the reaction of a person relying on overthinking and another thinking of solving the problem:

Focus on the problem: “I hope the storm doesn’t come, it will be horrible, I hope the house will not be damaged. Why do these bad things always happen to me? I can’t deal with this “.

Think about solving the problem: “I’ll hide everything outside the house that can fly from the storm. I’ll put sandbags on the door openings. If we get heavy rain, I’ll go to the store to buy pieces of wood to cover the windows. “

Moreover, we can turn overthinking into something positive and effective in our lives by focusing on possible solutions and taking concrete action.

Factors that stimulate continuous thinking

Although we are all in a state of anxiety and overthinking for a temporary period in our lives, there are some people who are more vulnerable to this behaviour than others and there are some key reasons for this:

Surroundings: If a person feels socially pressured and unable to meet others’ expectations, they may start overthinking in an attempt to feel accepted and valued by the surroundings
Overview: Some people set high goals and spend a lot of time thinking and planning these goals, although ambition and insistence are important, but setting high expectations for oneself can lead to frustration and frustration and exacerbate overthinking.
Trauma: People who have experienced traumatic events in their lives may be more likely to overthink because of fear and anxiety to go through the same experience again
Excessive idealism: Some people try to pursue idealism in everything and reach perfection. Although the pursuit of the best is always good, excessive idealism can lead to overthinking and feeling dissatisfied with self and life.
Psychiatric disorders: Common psychiatric disorders such as anxiety and social phobia can be a reason for overthinking. In this case, the individual suffers from constant tension an
d a sense of fear and anxiety that causes excessive and persistent thinking.

Negative effects of overthinking

Overthinking turns into a daily habit if you don’t take real steps in controlling it, and this habit has some negatives that affect both your mental and physical health, among the most significant problems that result from overthinking:

High blood pressure
If you suffer from constant thinking, you work to strain your brain and increase your blood pressure making you susceptible to serious health problems such as stroke or heart attack. In addition, severe mind stress increases the level of cholesterol and follows unhealthy habits such as smoking.

Damage to the digestive and immune systems
Overthinking may cause serious damage to the digestive system, as it reduces blood and oxygen flow to the stomach. Therefore, stress caused by overthinking can cause digestive problems such as fascial colon disease (IBD) or irritable bowel syndrome (IBS). This is in addition to releasing cortisol hormone into the body, which ultimately leads to a weakened immune system and an increased risk of allergies and infections.

Sleep problems
Do your sleep attempts fail due to constant thinking? Do you feel that your brain is in constant vigilance? Well, exposure to sleep problems is one of the common effects of overthinking. If you are overthinking, you will be unable to get a deep night’s sleep, making you feel tired, angry and lethargic the morning after. You will also find it difficult to focus on your work which reduces the productivity of overweight as a result of overeating.

Social anxiety
How many times did you think of starting a conversation with someone but hesitated at the last minute because of your fear of rejection? Or is your presence not welcome? Do you find yourself reluctant to think about what your friend said? Many people interpret and analyze other people’s actions according to their personal identities, which are often the result of a spiral of ideas that imagine you are not worthy of approaching or interacting with these people, ultimately leading you to isolation and fear of social attitudes.

Psychiatric disorders
Excessive thinking alters the structure of the brain and connects its parts leading to mood disorders or psychiatric diseases such as anxiety, stress and depression. In addition, it can weaken your energy to focus on tasks and affect your ability to solve problems and make decisions.

Lost Opportunities
Because some opportunities will not come twice, sometimes it is necessary to make quick decisions in order to progress in life. If you are stuck in the quagmire of your thoughts, it will delay the decision to make and you may lose your chances of success. This does not mean that you are reckless in making decisions but be wise and cleverly analyze the situation based on available information and do not hesitate to engage in new experiences.

How to overcome overthinking?

Now that you know the negative effects of excess anxiety and thinking, it’s time to control those thoughts and use them wisely through some practical tips and solutions that restore your balance again:

Type
Brain prisoner thoughts if not liberated by your family, if you leave your negative thoughts unleashed, you will get into a vicious cycle of rumination and malaise. A good way to edit your ideas is to write, writing enables you to see ideas in their natural size rather than letting the mind weave stories and imaginations around them. When you feel that there is an idea that you need to start writing everything that goes around on paper to get a sense of the reality of these ideas.

Divert your attention
When you find yourself overwhelmed with thinking about solving a problem, try to distract you away from it and perform any other activity. This allows your brain to work in the background to address ideas and find solutions to that problem. It is preferable to choose interactive and positive tasks or activities that divert your attention from overthinking and allow your mind to work better, such as: exercising, solving a crossword puzzle or watching an interesting film and other healthy and useful activities.

Accept Yourself
The problem of overthinking stems from centering around past mistakes and things you can’t change. As a result, you start reprimanding and underestimating yourself, rather than sympathizing with her and accepting her mistakes. Among the things that help you accept yourself: practice gratitude and think about the good aspects of your personality, forgive yourself for past mistakes and prepare to go through new trials with new mistakes. Error is part of the journey and you won’t know right unless you try the mistake.

Develop your personal skills
Studies have shown that improving personal skills can help you quit excessive anxiety, because it has a significant impact on the habit. Restraint, self-awareness and self-confidence are the most important factors that help you enhance your personal skills.

Make time to think
Respecting your mental abilities and appreciating your thoughts is important, which this method achieves, as you realize that the mind is a great blessing from God. But it takes organizing and legalizing this process so that it doesn’t turn into a problem. This method is used in cognitive behavioral therapy and means allocating a specific time called “anxiety time,” at which time you can think about all the concerns and things that worry you. Accordingly, when you have a random risk throughout the day, you record it in your book and postpone it until it is hostile at “anxiety time.” So you can stop wasting a lot of time in constant thinking while at the same time your thoughts are not suppressed.

Talk about your problem
If you face many problems in your relationships, you will find yourself thinking a lot about situations that bring you to the ends of the problem, such as friends, life partner or family. To overcome these problems, try to talk to the other side directly about the problem you’re thinking about. Anxiety in relations is natural, especially when trust between the parties is weak. Since you are associated with someone with their own behaviors and complex patterns, it is easy to misinterpret words, actions and references. So the best way to understand the other side is to communicate clearly, and if you’re not ready to discuss the problem with him you can visit a psychologist and talk to him about your problem.

Consult a psychotherapist
If you are unable to break the cycle of anxiety and thinking, you can seek help from a specialist such as a psychotherapist. A therapist may help you identify habits and behavioral patterns you could not observe yourself. In addition, it teaches you skills and exercises that help you overcome anxiety and ruminate thoughts and take them to no avail.

Conclusion

In general, it can be argued that overthinking is a disturbing behavioral pattern that can lead to psychological and physical problems. Therefore, it is important to identify the reasons behind overthinking and work to change them. Do not hesitate to seek the necessary support and assistance from people who love you and want to help you or get psychotherapy and cognitive behavioral therapy that helps to cope with this behavioral pattern and improve your psychological and physical condition.