"Frequent racing thoughts may be related to anxiety disorders, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD), trauma, or other mental health issues that need exploring," says Fabrett.
Take deep breaths
This may happen when the mind begins racing. MHA suggest that taking slow, deep breaths can reduce the body's stress response and promote a feeling of calm, helping to quiet or stop racing thoughts.
Racing thoughts in ADHD can be a mental manifestation of restlessness, a result of your brain's unique self-regulation processes. While sometimes confused with racing thoughts in bipolar disorder, an ADHD active mind may last for an hour, a day, or a couple of days.
Racing thoughts – fast, repetitive thought patterns about a particular topic – are a common feature of anxiety and other mental health disorders. They can also happen any time you are in an anxious or stressed state, even if you are not experiencing other symptoms of a mental health disorder.
According to Healthline, hyperactivity is often caused by an underlying mental or physical condition, attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), being one of the most common or well-known. But there are others, including generalized anxiety disorder and major depressive disorder.
The vast majority of adults with an ADHD nervous system are not overtly hyperactive. They are hyperactive internally. Those with the condition don't have a shortage of attention. They pay too much attention to everything.
Considerations. Hyperactive behavior usually refers to constant activity, being easily distracted, impulsiveness, inability to concentrate, aggressiveness, and similar behaviors.
Racing thoughts might revolve around rhythms, almost like a broken record without sound. They might include a bar of music, a snippet of a conversation, a sentence in a book, or dialogue from a movie that repeats in one's mind.
Racing thoughts are often one of the first symptoms to develop when someone with bipolar disorder is entering a hypomanic or manic episode. 4 It can be—but is not always—a debilitating experience. Some people describe it as having excessive thoughts that move quickly, but with a sense of fluidity and pleasantness.
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.
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.
People who are distressed by recurring, unwanted, and uncontrollable thoughts or who feel driven to repeat specific behaviors may have obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD). The thoughts and behaviors that characterize OCD can interfere with daily life, but treatment can help people manage their symptoms.
People with factitious disorder make up symptoms or cause illnesses in several ways, such as: Exaggerating existing symptoms. Even when an actual medical or psychological condition exists, they may exaggerate symptoms to appear sicker or more impaired than is true. Making up histories.
Most people overthink decisions or second-guess choices they've made at one time or another but when you have bipolar disorder, it can feel like you're on a hamster wheel without any signs of a slow down or an end in sight.
BPD can leave a person in an utter state of uncertainty and extreme emotion – a feeling that could cause a person to feel helpless. Racing thoughts and intense emotions may mean that a person lashes out, even when they may not necessarily want to.
Antipsychotics are commonly prescribed to help with symptoms such as hallucinations, delusions, or racing thoughts, but can also be prescribed for individuals without those symptoms. Some antipsychotics are considered mood stabilizers because they, too, even out the highs and lows.
In the rare condition known as tachysensia, a person experiences a temporary distortion of time and sound, during which they get the “fast feeling” that everything is moving more rapidly than it actually is.
Tachysensia. Tachysensia is a non-visual symptom of Alice in Wonderland syndrome. It impacts the individual's perception of time. Tachysensia can make it feel as though time is moving more rapidly than it actually is. Episodes of tachysensia can last up to 20 minutes.
Finding ways to tune in to the present moment is a great way to quiet racing thoughts. You could try yoga, meditation, body scan meditation, or deep breathing. Deep breathing exercises may be particularly helpful. A 2021 study measured negative thinking in groups of participants.
What is ADHD? ADHD is a complex neurodevelopmental disorder affecting one in 20 Australians, which has an impact on their ability to have age-appropriate self-control, according to ADHD Australia.
Does a brain with ADHD look different? The ADHD brain may look different on brain imaging scans compared to the non-ADHD brain. Differences include smaller sized areas in the ADHD brain and different levels of functional activity between regions. These differences may resolve with age, as the brain matures.
Women with ADHD face the same feelings of being overwhelmed and exhausted as men with ADHD commonly feel. Psychological distress, feelings of inadequacy, low self-esteem, and chronic stress are common. Often, women with ADHD feel that their lives are out of control or in chaos, and daily tasks may seem impossibly huge.