How do you cope with overthinking about almost everything?

35 comments

  2. Social or non social stuff? I find my solution differ.

    With social stuff it’s just more exposure to more people, it’s natural to want answers and it’s natural to not have them all the time when it comes to people (it’d be kinda weird otherwise). Just gotto get used to, to some degree, just letting stuff happen I guess.

    With non social stuff so like an exam, interview I tend to try to just do other things. If it’s outside of my control I actively just do things to forget about it.

  3. Well just right off the bat I’m going to suggest you’re overthinking overthinking.

    Second, find something else to use the brainpower on.

  5. find distractions. lots and lots of distractions.

    tv series, movies, games, hobby, music, porn. anything

  9. ‘A person who thinks all the time has nothing to think about except thoughts. So, he loses touch with reality, and lives in a world of illusions.’ Alan Watts

    to me this made a lot of sense.

    Sometimes you’ve got to just sink into mindlessness.

    If It’s out of your control just leave it. Nothing you can do can make it happen faster or slower or the way you want.

    And odds are the things you’re overthinking about have been overthought before.

    In the end what result does overthinking achieve other than dread and anxiety.

    Sometimes just switching off and letting something envelope you really helps.

  11. I don’t, it really sucks. I feel like I’m constantly on the verge of a panic attack.

  12. Physical exhaustion followed by meditation. The latter part can be considered an advanced continuation of the former also.

  13. There usually is a core issue behind overthinking something. I try to figure that out. Once I get to the bottom of it, I accept it, let it hang out and be comfortable with it rather than resist it. All this usually happens in milliseconds.

    A personal heuristic for me is never act on anything I am overthinking about.

  15. Let it happen. let the thing that you are terrified of happen, and then deal with it. You get resilience not by avoiding problems, but by being able to solve the unexpected

  16. You have to consciously try to stop ruminating. It is the only way. When you notice yourself doing this, you have to go and try to do or think of something else. Eventually you’ll get better at recognizing this early and diverting your train of thought. It’s about practice.

    Also a daily meditation habit will help. It is the best way I’ve found to train yourself to shift focus and let thoughts go.

  18. By being smarter. Can’t over analyze if you know how to analyze properly. Get good scrub.

  19. Something great that my therapist taught me— it’s very easy to get caught in negative thought patterns. It starts with an old thought that doesn’t lend new meaning, and it typically ends with anxiety. For example, it could start with “oh my god, I bought a new car, it’s so expensive and it will take so long to pay it off!” And ends with “I’m such an *idiot*, if I’d just waited a few more months, then [[thing]] would have changed, and I wouldn’t owe this kind of money!!!” which ignores the fact that you’re not clairvoyant, but that’s beside the point.

    Point is, you’ve gone down this thought path before. You know the points you’re going to touch on, and you know that they will hurt.

    So as an exercise— picture the worst movie or tv show that you’ve ever seen. One that you just absolutely slept through because it was so bad, it was bad. Now, imagine you’re out at the Dentist’s office in the waiting room with a good book or your phone and wifi, and that tv show or movie is on the waiting room tv. You’ve seen it. You know you don’t like it. Do you give it your full attention and watch it intensely? Or do you ignore it and let it play in the background while you do other things that you like more?

    Probably the second! And you can do that with negative thoughts patterns, too! When you start down one of those thought spirals, try to recognize it and ask yourself “is this a new thought? Is this a useful thought?” If the answer to both is no, then there’s no reason to go down that spiral— you already know what happens. save yourself some time and anguish and interrupt the thought however you need to. (I verbally say “we don’t need to go down that road, I’ve been there already” to myself)

    At first, you will struggle with this. You’ll get through the negative thoughts, then think, “oh, crud, I was supposed to *not* do that!” That’s fine! It’s part of the process— you’re training yourself to break a bad habit, and that can be tough. Next time, you’ll realize at 99% if the way through a spiral, then 98, etc. Eventually you’ll get better and better at this skill, and it can help to avoid overthinking as much.

  20. Legitimately?

    Philosophy helped me a lot. I think a lot of dominant rational thought we are brought up learning makes us think that we can learn EVERYTHING and account for all variables while making decisions, which leads us to *try* to analyze things from every angle or fixate on them.

    Ya gotta let go of that. Sometimes you have to make a decision and both of the options are bad. Sometimes, bad things happen to you and you couldnt have done anything to prevent them. The key imo is to try to *sail through life*. You can’t really control what the wind or the waves are doing, but you can position yourself to let them carry you in different directions. If you push too hard against the directions they want to take you, thats when I feel like I have most often wrecked.

    All the “it is what it is,” and “god’s plan” stuff is too often used as a crutch to justify people not being proactive at all, but there is a kernel of truth in there. As an Oral Historian, I listen to people tell their life story quite frequently and let me tell you– None of their lives went as they planned them to. Try to nestle into that a little. Be comfortable with the unknown. Working on that has been the thing that has put me at ease most effectively

  22. I love the “10 seconds of bravery “ idea. Mostly for social situations. Also I will sometimes give myself explicit permission to make a mistake. Like when trying something new, or at work when I really just need to get something done and I’m spiraling into anxious thoughts.

  28. sometimes i have to stop myself and tell myself to realize how obscure whT i’m overthinking sounds. and boom it all makes sense. doesn’t work everytime of course.

  32. WTF is wrong with overthinking? It is called literature. Just don’t keep firearms in the house.

  35. Can you do something about it ?

    If no thinking about it is just a waste of energy and Time.

    If yes then do something instead of thinking about it

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