Overthinking is both a cause and a result of anxiety. We overthink things we are anxious about, and that overthinking creates more anxiety. You want to know how table tennis is involved? … Then read on.
Overthinking means being caught in that state of mind where you are going over and over the same thing in your head. Maybe something happened that you did not like, and you go through what happened time after time, trying somehow to square it all away. Or maybe you are concerned about something that is coming up, and think about what might happen over and over again. This is overthinking.
What Is Wrong With Overthinking?
The problem with overthinking is that no matter how many times you go over something that has already happened – you cannot change it. It is gone … learn from it and then move one. Thinking about it again and again will not change what happened and will not change how you think about it.
If you are overthinking something that is coming up – something you are worried about – it does not change the fact that it is going to happen. Worrying about a work meeting, say, doesn’t stop the meeting happening – it just gets you more stressed about it.
How Does Overthinking Effect the Brain?
All the overthinking adds stress to your “stress bucket” – and more stress means that the fight-or-flight centre (the amygdala and other parts of the brain’s limbic system) are more likely to be triggered.
The amygdala is not an intelligent part of the brain – it is quite primitive. It is not capable of thinking up new ideas. So when the amygdala starts to take control of your thinking, it will simply repeat patterns that it already knows. If you have thought through a situation a couple of times, the amygdala learns this as an “appropriate” response, and so it encourages you to repeat it. The more you repeat it, the more embedded the response gets … and so the vicious cycle repeats.
How Do You Overcome Overthinking?
Overthinking is all about repeating patterns of thinking. So you have to practice changing those patterns. When you catch yourself out overthinking, force yourself to think something else. This is a basic distraction technique.
Simply doing something else that absorbs your thinking, like playing table tennis, will do it. Playing table tennis is something you have to concentrate on. You cannot play table tennis while you are overthinking something else.
Of course, it doesn’t have to be table tennis. You can read a book, talk to someone (about something other than what you are overthinking), browse the Internet, bake a cake … anything that will absorb your mind into something else.
And Finally …
I help people who are only just coping with stress and anxiety. I use hypnotherapy to help them regain control of their lives and return to a state of normality. I work out of my clinic in Fleet, Hampshire as well as online. Contact me if you would like a chat about it.
Photo courtesy of the Mental Health Foundation / Catherine Williams