Anxiety and overthinking are the most frequent mental health issues people experience nowadays. They can make daily life feel stressful, disturb sleep, make it difficult to make decisions, and interfere with relationships. If you are experiencing a cycle of anxiety and thinking too much, don’t panic – there are ways to take back control of your thoughts and feelings. This blog will look at the effects of anxiety and overthinking on mental health, and consider some strategies to manage and reduce both.
Understanding Anxiety and Overthinking
What is Anxiety?
Anxiety refers to the body’s natural response to stress, and it often comes in the form of feeling worried or apprehensive about what’s next. It is normal to feel anxiety every so often, but chronic anxiety can intersect with daily life. When the anxiety starts to become chronic, you may begin experiencing symptoms like excessive worries, restlessness, inability to focus, fatigue, irritability, and sleep problems. Once anxiety becomes chronic and starts to impact daily functioning, it can be defined as an anxiety disorder. If you are someone who wants the symptoms fully managed, then you may want to seek professional treatment for anxiety disorder in New York City to help improve your wellness.
What is Overthinking?
Overthinking is the process of overanalyzing or reflecting on a scenario or situation, which tends to generate unnecessary stress. Overthinking can look like replaying past mistakes over and over in your head, worrying about worst-case scenarios, or feeling paralyzed to make a decision. Common signs of overthinking could look like, replaying or rehearsing a whole conversation or situation in your mind, thinking or worrying about what could go wrong or worst-case scenario, making a decision only to keep thinking about all of the reason not to commit, feeling foggy in your brain or fatigued, checking on other people for reassurance often.
A pattern of overthinking can negatively influence our mental health and therefore it’s good to have some strategies to break that cycle in order to maneuver the thinking towards a more rational mind.
The Impact of Overthinking and Anxiety on Mental Health
Allowing anxiety and overthinking to continue unaddressed may take a considerable toll on mental health and produce other results. Chronic stress is caused by worrying keeps the body in a state of stress too long and leads to burnout. A continuing cascade of negative thinking can result in depression, which is ultimately a state of hopelessness and despair. Further, anxiety and thinking too much can impact sleep, as it becomes difficult to relax and fall asleep, which results in insomnia.
Along with these challenges can impact functionality in daily life and result in lower productivity, as feeling overwhelmed by choices can often result in putting a project off. Finally chronic anxiety affects the mind but it can also impact the body. For example, anxiety may be involved in whatever headaches, gut problems, or even high blood pressure that a person experiences. Clearly, the observation of effects such as these will necessitate taking the steps necessary to manage anxiety and overthinking productively for purposes of wellness.
Practical Strategies to Control Anxiety and Overthinking
1. Practice Mindfulness and Meditation
Mindfulness and meditation can be effective for managing anxiety and overthinking by focusing on the present. Rather than regretting the past and/or worrying about the future, you ground yourself in the present. One can use meditation and deep-breathing exercises to calm the mind and body, while also promoting relaxation and clarity of mind. One mindfulness exercise is to find a quiet, calm place, close your eyes if you wish, and take deep, slow breaths while paying attention to your breathing. If thoughts appear, you want to acknowledge the thought without judgement, and let it pass much like a cloud moves across the sky. If you continue this mindfulness practice regularly, you can help train your mind to be in the present moment, to help relieve stress, and to improve overall well being.
2. Set Time Limits for Overthinking
Assign a specific time of the day for “worrying”—for example, 10 to 15 minutes of thinking about the issues of the day. After the time is over, simply stop worrying about things and move on. This act of providing yourself the opportunity to think about things stops your thinking from intruding on your entire day.
3. Engage in Physical Activity
Exercise is an effective method for coping with anxiety. Exercise releases endorphins, which improve mood and alleviate stress. Healthy snacks are just as good when it comes to clearing your thoughts and raising your energy, but even a brief walk or yoga session can improve your mood or raise your energy level.
4. Practice Deep Breathing Techniques
Deep breathing encourages the body’s relaxation response and can help relieve anxiety. The 4-7-8 technique is a straightforward method: breathe in through your nose for four seconds, hold your breath for a count of seven seconds, and breathe out through your mouth for a count of eight seconds. By practicing this a few times, you can calm your nervous system very quickly.
5. Develop a Healthy Routine
Having a healthy routine provides stability and lessens feelings of anxiety and distress. A daily routine or schedule should involve regular sleep (getting 7-9 hours a night), balanced meals, a little time to relax and pursue hobbies, and regular social interactions with family and friends, as all of these elements help support our health and well-being while creating equilibrium in our lives.
6. Professional Help in NYC
If anxiety or excessive worry is impacting your quality of life, it may be a useful step to explore working with an anxiety therapist in New York City. Therapy is a supportive and confidential place to share your worries and then work with your therapist to come up with a strategy for how you can better cope with what you find challenging. There are treatment options available, such as Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT), which is more behavioral therapy and could offer you and your therapists opportunities to teach you to reframe negative thoughts.
Exposure Therapy is another more behavioral approach, which could mean exposing you to facing fears in small steps. Mindfulness-Based Therapy is a more cognitive based approach, which in a way offers you some strategies for thinking about the present moment. In some situations, medication management, meaning prescribing medication from a psychiatrist is also helpful.
Conclusion
OCD is a complex mental condition, affected by different areas of the brain, neurotransmitters that function improperly.
- Knowing the science behind your OCD is beneficial in understanding why intrusive, unwanted thoughts and compulsive behaviors occur and persist.
- Fortunately, with the proper combination of therapies, including CBT with ERP, medications, such as SSRIs, mindfulness techniques, and support groups, people can learn to manage their OCD and improve their quality of life.
If you are struggling with OCD and looking for the process of managing OCD, finding an experienced OCD specialist in NYC can provide you with effective evidence-based treatment and the tools to live with OCD.
References
- Delzell, Emily. “How to Ease Your Anxiety.” WebMD, 5 April 2023, https://www.webmd.com/mental-health/features/ways-to-reduce-anxiety
- “How To Stop Overthinking: Tips and Coping Strategies.” Cleveland Clinic Health Essentials, 19 May 2022, https://health.clevelandclinic.org/how-to-stop-overthinking
- “Get help with anxiety, fear or panic.” NHS, https://www.nhs.uk/mental-health/feelings-symptoms-behaviours/feelings-and-symptoms/anxiety-fear-panic/
