Don't tell them to stop overthinking. Telling them to stop overthinking is just going to stress them out, so try to not get frustrated with them if they get lost in a train of thought. Be patient, give them space to work through their feelings when they need it, and enjoy your time with them.
What should you say to an overthinker? Things that can be helpful to say to an overthinker include that you are there for them and you support them. Make sure that you are being truthful, though. An overthinker might not respond well when you tell them something they want to hear.
They seek reassurance
Overthinking is rooted in insecurity. An overthinker wants to know that you still love them. They need to be constantly reassured by their partners in a relationship.
Overthinking is patronizing a person, demeaning their thoughts and punishing them for thinking. There is no authoritative stance on the act of thinking, and there is no acceptable way of telling someone their thoughts are invalid.
Overthinking can be harmful to our emotional health, especially when it's directed at unwanted, spontaneous, negative thoughts, images, or memories. Fortunately, we can learn to curb this unhelpful way of thinking through greater self-awareness and the practice of mental disengagement.
They constantly worry if they feel that they made a mistake or if they hurt someone through word or deed. Overthinkers care too much. They are worried over mistakes or errs often considered trivial by others.
MD. Overthinking in relationships can lead to a myriad of challenges. Essentially, you're living in the future or the past and aren't able to be emotionally available for your partner in the moment. You can find yourself experiencing significant emotional distress because of the anxiety that comes from overthinking.
Worrying is a sort of security blanket for us. It keeps us moving and is a constant part of our conscious. This is also one of the biggest struggles of overthinking everything. We worry about problems that aren't relevant and that may or may not emerge in the future.
Meanwhile, overthinking may be associated with increased stress, anxiety, and depression. Following a traumatic event, it's also common to be hypervigilant — which is when you're on high alert for danger at all times. Some people experience hypervigilance as overthinking about potential signs of trouble.
Simply small step it.
If overthinking becomes a way to procrastinate or to not face the fear of getting out of the comfort zone you're in then small step it. Find just one small or tiny step you can take to move forward. One small action that takes 1-5 minutes. Do that and focus only on that one step until you're done.
People who overlove and overthink are often people who have gone through so much at the hands of others, people who have tried to give their love to someone who took advantage of it, or who did not value it. Because of that, people who overlove and overthink are often people who are scared of getting hurt again.
A relationship becomes hardest for someone who overthinks because all your possible scenarios end in your partner deserting you, cheating on you or planning to kill you in your sleep.
Often overthinking can be the result of feeling strong emotions of fear, panic, anger, excessive worry, etc. Identifying and challenging these feelings and thoughts may be an effective place to start. Two of these effective skills are identifying emotions and checking the facts.
Overthinkers may also be deeply observant, detail-oriented, and wonderfully empathetic — traits that any team or organization would proudly welcome. So if you want to stop overthinking and wield your deep-thinking superpowers for good, read on.
Anxiety and Relationship Problems: Overthinking
Negative, anxious thoughts in relationships cause worries about the relationship, what-ifs, worst-case scenarios, and dread. These manifest as jealousy, anger, distrust, and paranoia. Challenges arise when people act on these thoughts.
Overthinking, negative thoughts and depression
Overthinking is a symptom of many different mental health issues – primarily generalised anxiety disorder (GAD). Many people who are depressed also experience symptoms of anxiety, and vice versa. This means lots of people with depression may overthink situations.
While overthinking itself is not a mental illness, it is associated with conditions including depression, anxiety, eating disorders and substance use disorders. Rumination can be common in people who have chronic pain and chronic illness as well, taking the form of negative thoughts about that pain and healing from it.
A study reported in the Journal of Alzheimer's Disease has confirmed that women overthink more than men do, due to their brains having more activity.
Deep thought is solution-focused. It aims to solve problems and is purposeful. Overthinking, on the other hand, is open-ended, circular and doesn't provide useful insights. For example, being preoccupied with what your colleagues think of you does nothing to move you ahead.