According to Professor Degges-White, the relationship between overthinking and anxiety might not be as straightforward and clear as it might seem. What's more, overthinking exists on a spectrum: not all overthinkers are alike.
"Overthinking and anxiety have something of a 'chicken and the egg' relationship—if we're prone to anxiety, the more likely we are to engage in overthinking, and the more we overthink something, the more anxious we tend to become," she explained to Bored Panda.
"Overthinking, like a lot of tendencies, is on a spectrum. Some of us overthink things, but still commit to something before the metaphorical bell rings. Others, including those who tend towards obsessive compulsiveness, get so locked into overthinking that they can't move forward."
Professor Degges-White, from Northern Illinois University, told us that overthinking can be a product of performance anxiety, making the wrong choice, or past experience. What's more, it can also be the result of a natural tendency to over-analyze things.
"Perfectionists are definitely overthinkers as they worry about minor flaws and what they can do to avoid them. Perfectionists can get tripped up by their need to achieve perfection and focus on the minor details and be unable to fully commit to something, whether it's turning in a project at school or work or committing to a relationship if they feel it or they or their partner isn't 'perfect.'"
The first step in fighting back against our tendencies to overthink and over-analyze things is to realize that we do, in fact, overthink things. "Once you realize you are overthinking things, it's time to tell yourself that 'enough is enough.' Our minds will go where it's comfortable for them to go—and for whatever reason, our brains seem to enjoy worrying a bit."
#6
Professor Degges-White shared some great tricks to get out of the habit of overthinking:
- "Replace the worries of 'what can go wrong' with thoughts about 'what could go well.' Rather than wasting mental energy on negative thinking—especially when it's cyclical and going nowhere—intentionally remind yourself to focus on the positive possibilities.
- Accept that your best effort is enough and that perfection in most things isn't achievable. And that's okay.
- When trying to make a decision, practice going with the first response that comes to mind. Most of us do know what we want to do, but let our heads get tangled up in knots by overthinking the possibilities—just follow your gut and see what happens.
- Set a time for thinking about a problem. When you contain the "space" for overthinking, you give yourself parameters and lose less time in overthinking and deliberating. Some people begin to stop the overthinking well before the timer goes off—they learn that it's not productive."
Professor Degges-White went in-depth with Bored Panda about overthinking during a previous interview as well.
"Most humans do tend to ruminate on the negative things in life. In fact, one research study indicated that we’d need to hear '5 good things' about ourselves to undo the emotional hold from a single 'negative thing' that happened. It’s called the negative bias effect," she told Bored Panda.
"Part of this comes from anxiety related to avoiding making the same mistake in the future, but the more we concentrate on the past error, the more ‘familiar' the error becomes and the more likely we might be to repeat it. Our brain goes where we train it to go,” she explained.
The professor warned that "if you are too wrapped up in overthinking a situation you may absolutely miss an opportunity." In short, over-analyzing situations can mean that we become blind to the world around us. And that can, in turn, impact our quality of life.
"When we devote all of our mental energy to going through every possible outcome of a decision, there’s a chance that we’re going to talk ourselves out of doing anything, due to the almost magnetic attraction fearful outcomes have with our brains,” she went into detail how overthinking can then lead to us becoming more fearful, more passive.
#15
"Some people are absolutely unable to make a decision, though, because they know—at some level, if not consciously—that by making a decision they have eliminated all other possible pathways,” Professor Degges-White said.
“However, they might fail to realize that by _not_ making a decision, they have actually made a decision—and shut down all potential possible outcomes," she said that there is no such thing as not making a decision. Each action or inaction has consequences. Some of which we might not be aware of.
