People with anxiety know the familiar feeling of being stuck in your head with worry and overthinking. These bouts of anxiety often come with intrusive thoughts, rumination, and overanalyzing.
They can keep you feeling trapped. According to Emma McAdam, LMFT, a licensed marriage and family therapist and founder of Therapy in a Nutshell, the way to fix these thoughts is to retrain your brain.
“Your brain secretly believes that overthinking is protecting you,” McAdam said.
The 4 types of overthinking
McAdam explained that there are four different types of overthinking: worry, intrusive thoughts, overplanning or overanalyzing, and rumination. She broke each one down.
Type #1: Worry
McAdam shared that worry is the “fuel” of anxiety disorders. “Worry is where you’re constantly thinking about what could go wrong in the future,” she explained, noting that it contributes to chronic stress fueled by the stress hormones cortisol and adrenaline.
Type #2: Intrusive thoughts
McAdam cited a study that found that 94% of people report having intrusive thoughts—so if you have them, you are not alone.
Examples of intrusive thoughts include:
- What if I hurt someone else?
- What if I do something sexually inappropriate?
- What if I swerve into traffic?
- What if I don’t really love my partner?
- What if I touch some bad germs?
- What if I lose control?
Type #3: Overplanning or overanalyzing
This type of overthinking is the nervous system’s attempt to manage anxiety by controlling outcomes. When the brain is overplanning, as McAdam explained, it can run scenarios in your mind, make lists, rewrite messages, or try to avoid mistakes.
These messages can look like:
- If I say it just right, no one will be upset.
- If I plan this trip perfectly, nothing will go wrong.
- If I analyze enough, I won’t get hurt.
Type #4: Rumination
McAdam defined rumination as “literally chewing on the past.”
It is “where you keep dwelling on your past mistakes, or the wrongs you were wronged. Where you wish you’d done something differently, or taken a different path, or just had the eagles drop you off at Mordor.”
Rumination is also the fuel for “depression, hopelessness, and despair.”
4 easy ways to stop overthinking
Each type of overthinking has a different solution. Here’s how to stop each one, according to McAdam:
#1: How to stop worrying
McAdam explained that when worry arises, the brain does something called “brain math.”
Brain math sends this signal: “‘Phew, all that worrying kept my human alive. I’ve gotta do that again, so that she doesn’t die again,’” said McAdam. “And the cycle of worry just triggers over and over again.”
To stop this, she suggested making a habit of “scheduled worry.”
“You tell your brain when to worry. Every day at a regular time, like 5 p.m., you’re going to sit down for 20 minutes and worry on paper (write it down),” she said. Doing this trains your brain that it’s OK to worry—just at specific times of the day.
To get into a groove with it, McAdam recommended setting an alarm each day at a set time.
#2: How to stop intrusive thoughts
The best way to handle intrusive thoughts is to think of them like an explosive device that needs to be defused. McAdam explained that this is called cognitive defusion.
When an intrusive thought comes to your mind, you tell your brain: “‘Thank you for that thought. Thanks for trying to keep me safe. I’m good.’ You notice it? Name it: ‘That’s an intrusive thought,’” she said.
If it doesn’t go away, the next step is to respond by redirecting your attention to be present in the moment by saying, “Maybe, maybe not.” Redirect your attention back to the present moment.
“There are a few other ways to practice cognitive defusion. Sing the thought in a ridiculous voice, over and over,” she added.
“Imagine the thought as a ‘part’,” said McAdam. “Give it a name. ‘Oh there’s Negative Nancy again,’ or ‘there’s Bob; he’s always worried,’” she recommended.
#3: How to stop overanalyzing and overplanning
McAdam said that for the brain to stop overplanning or overanalyzing, it must shift its focus from control to trust.
“Trust in yourself that you can handle it. You can’t just tell your brain to do this; you have to show your brain that you can handle uncertainty by doing something imperfectly,” she said.
For example, she suggested taking a spontaneous trip without “having every detail figured out,” or “say something silly in a social setting and watch how people don’t actually care.”
These things will retrain your brain to have less anxiety and help you no longer feel the need to overanalyze or overplan.
#4: How to stop rumination
To stop ruminating, McAdam said the goal is to “identify the value, and then take action on it here in the present.”
One example she offered is when rumination comes with regret about a past mistake, break it into two parts: the value and the present-moment action.
Value:
“So what do you really value? A value is something within your control. I value trying hard. I value learning from my mistakes. I value taking responsibility. And the best thing about values is that you can always take action in the present,” McAdam explained.
Present-moment action:
- Fix one small part
- Apologize
- Learn one thing
“By acting on your values, you shift out of rumination toward action here in the present moment,” said McAdam.
