"Based on my counseling clients who struggle with what they describe as overthinking, I can best describe it as the mental equivalent of spinning your wheels. They use a lot of psychic energy going through maddening thought loops, but not ending up any further away from runaway thoughts laden with anxiety. Overthinking involves struggling to make decisions, replaying decisions already made, losing sleep, and magnifying the problems they are facing."
"1. Catch the Loop The first step is awareness. Notice when your thoughts feel like they are in a coercive cycle. That means when you are repeating the same thought, it feels like no resolution and a lack of clarity. As part of this process, work to "name it to tame it." Simply acknowledging that you are in an overthinking loop can often slow it down or even stop it altogether."
Overthinking acts like spinning wheels, consuming psychic energy in repetitive thought loops that increase anxiety and impede progress. It causes decision paralysis, replaying past choices, sleep disruption, and magnified problems. The first step is awareness: notice and name looping thoughts to reduce their intensity. Writing thoughts down externalizes them, restores perspective, and decreases perceived threat. Next, identify what aspects are controllable and focus effort there while distancing from the uncontrollable. The objective is not mental blankness but purposeful redirection of thought toward constructive decisions and positive action to break the cycle.
Read at Psychology Today
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