Overthinking is commonly associated with generalized anxiety disorder (GAD), says Duke. GAD is characterized by the tendency to worry excessively about several things. “Someone can develop GAD due to their genes. Or it could be personality factors like the inability to tolerate uncertainty in life.
Overthinking is not a recognized mental disorder by itself. But research has found that it's often a symptom of other mental health conditions, including: Depression.
Do you often find yourself worrying about everyday issues for no obvious reason? Are you always waiting for disaster to strike or excessively worried about things such as health, money, family, work, or school? If so, you may have a type of anxiety disorder called generalized anxiety disorder (GAD).
Generalized anxiety disorder symptoms can vary. They may include: Persistent worrying or anxiety about a number of areas that are out of proportion to the impact of the events. Overthinking plans and solutions to all possible worst-case outcomes.
Call it overthinking, obsessing, brooding, or wallowing, or, call it the official term: rumination.
In short, no. There is no such thing as overthinking disorder. However, there is of course such a thing as generalised anxiety disorder, a symptom of which can be overthinking.
If you can't stop thinking about every situation relentlessly, then chances are you're a chronic overthinker. Simply put, overthinking can best be described as your mind running endlessly on a hamster wheel, with nowhere to go—other than the worst possible situations, of course.
Medications to treat the symptoms of GAD include: Fluoxetine (Prozac) Sertraline (Zoloft) Citalopram (Celexa)
Overthinking can be an all-natural process, it can also be the result if the creative and overly active ADHD brain. While most believe overthinking to be a symptom of obsessive-compulsive disorder, it' actually relates more to ADHD.
Overthinking is caused due to various reasons like fear, intolerance to uncertainty, trauma, or perfectionism. Overthinking can also be a symptom of already existing mental health conditions such as generalized anxiety disorder, social anxiety, or depression.
Sometimes it's helpful to have a way to distract yourself with happy, positive, healthy alternatives. Things like mediation, dancing, exercise, learning an instrument, knitting, drawing, and painting can distance you from the issues enough to shut down the overanalysis.
Overthinking leads to exhausting the brain cells, thus making them incapable of generating creative insights; It decreases self-confidence and fosters self-doubt. Increased tendency to overthink leads to increased self-doubt which again reinforces the overthinking cognitive style.
Overthinking strikes all of us at some point, but if it goes unchecked and unresolved, overthinking can certainly morph healthy relationships into toxic relationships. If you fall victim to your thoughts and allow them to go too far, they can end up driving a wedge of distrust between you and other people in your life.
While both mental health conditions involve repetitive worrying, people with obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) often engage in unwanted and repetitive behavior in response to their worry. People with anxiety, however, tend to overthink their worry, but don't act in specific responsive manners.
People with ADHD will have at least two or three of the following challenges: difficulty staying on task, paying attention, daydreaming or tuning out, organizational issues, and hyper-focus, which causes us to lose track of time. ADHD-ers are often highly sensitive and empathic.
The ADHD brain also gets easily consumed. This means ADHD and overthinking kind of go hand in hand. The ADHD brain grasps hold of your thoughts and runs away with them, while emotions keep the engine running.
When to See a Doctor. Overthinking can be more pervasive for some people than others. “If your thoughts are intrusive or highly distressing, or your tendency to ruminate is interfering with your ability to function, I recommend seeking the assistance of a mental health professional,” says Dattilo.
If you have anxiety, medication can help because the medicines used for anxiety alter the chemicals in your body and brain, reducing symptoms, and often helping you calm down and focus on other things.
If you find yourself struggling to overcome overthinking, you should seek professional help. Therapy and counselling can help you vent out your worries and irrational thoughts.
You often worry about things you can't control. You constantly remind yourself of mistakes you made in the past. You relive embarrassing moments in your head over and over again. You can't help but think of things you wish you wouldn't have said when you recall past conversations with others.
Hyper-Rationality is a trauma response and coping strategy. Overthinking, over-analyzing, and over-rationalizing are coping strategies that we learned early on to help us make sense of an unpredictable environment that at some point made us feel unsafe.
Stress is one of the “usual suspects” when you can't seem to stop thinking. Stress causes your body to release cortisol, and cortisol helps you stay alert. This means that your brain stays alert, too — even when you don't want it to.