Overthinking

Many people are familiar with the term anxiety disorder (and, in fact, millions of Americans suffer from some sort of anxiety disorder every day), but we tend to overlook a major symptom of anxiety disorders, which is overthinking.
However, there are harmful effects overthinking can have on a person mentally and emotionally.

When overthinking as it pertains to an anxiety disorder, it would be excessive thoughts about something that causes one anxiety, stress, fear, or dread. It’s not just thinking too much about something-it’s obsessing about something so much that it affects one’s ability to function in their life.

If you believe you may suffer from overthinking due to anxiety, you may have found that you’ve experienced one or more of these situations:

– Difficulty following along with and contributing to a conversation because you go over potential responses or statements time and again until the conversation has either ended or the window of opportunity for speaking was lost

– Continually comparing yourself to the people around you and how you measure up to them

– Focusing on worst-case scenarios either involving yourself or the ones you love

– Reliving past failures or mistakes over and over again and you’re unable to move past them

– Worrying about future tasks and/or goals until they feel almost impossible to accomplish

– Reliving a past traumatic experience (such as abuse or the loss of a loved one) leaving you unable to cope with it

– An inability to slow down the racing of vague thoughts, worries or emotions