People with anxiety often experience a feeling of being overwhelmed by worry and overthinking. These feelings can bring on intrusive thoughts and excessive analysis, making individuals feel trapped. Emma McAdam, a licensed marriage and family therapist and the founder of Therapy in a Nutshell, suggests that one way to address these thoughts is by retraining the brain. She notes that the brain may mistakenly believe that overthinking is keeping a person safe.
McAdam identifies four different types of overthinking. The first type is worry, which she describes as the main driver of anxiety disorders. Worry involves constantly thinking about potential problems in the future and can lead to increased stress from hormones like cortisol and adrenaline.
The second type is intrusive thoughts, which many people experience. Research indicates that 94% of individuals report having these thoughts, meaning that if you have them, you are not alone. Examples include thoughts about harming others, inappropriate actions, or fears about losing control.
The third type is overplanning or overanalyzing. According to McAdam, this happens when the nervous system tries to cope with anxiety by controlling situations. Overplanning might involve mentally rehearsing scenarios, making lists, or attempting to prevent errors.
The last type is rumination, which McAdam describes as fixating on past mistakes or events. This can lead to feelings of depression and hopelessness.
To address each type of overthinking, McAdam offers several strategies. For worry, she recommends a technique called “scheduled worry.” This involves setting aside a specific time each day to write down worries, which helps train the brain to limit worrying to that time.
To manage intrusive thoughts, McAdam suggests using cognitive defusion, where a person acknowledges the thought without letting it control them. Techniques include naming the thought and focusing on the present moment. She also suggests using humor, such as singing the thought in a funny voice or giving it a name, to lessen its impact.
These methods can help reduce the hold that overthinking has on a person. Which of these strategies do you think would work best for you?
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Source: Upworthy, by Emily Shiffer