“You will never be free until you free yourself from the prison of your own false thoughts”
Overthinking is one of the most negative habits and it is not only a cause of depression but also- one of its symptoms.
Overthinking creates problems that don’t even exist and it not only takes away happiness from your life but also drains lots of time and energy from your life.
So, let’s find out “How overthinking cause you depression and what is the Solution?”
How Overthinking Cause Depression?
Overthinking is a habit and a person having this habit spends quite a time- every day- on overthinking.
No matter on which thoughts you are overthinking- positive or negative- when you overthink, you get nothing out of it as action is absent from the process of overthinking.
When you overthink positive thoughts, you create positive feelings inside you for a temporary time but if you don’t take action on these positive thoughts then you don’t get any result and in future, this can put you into a guilt loop and can create negative thoughts and feelings inside you.
Also, by overthinking positive thoughts, you have a risk of converting those positive thoughts to negative ones.
For Example: Let’s say, you get a positive thought in your mind like “Let’s read this self-help book, implement it, and improve life”.
If you don’t take action to start reading the book, then overthinking will enter. Now, after the entrance of overthinking three things can happen:
1. You snap yourself out of the overthinking and start reading the book. This is the best case scenerio.
2. You overthink, feel positive for a temporary time, and then delay the book reading altogether. This action can make you feel sad and/ or guilty in the future.
3. You convert your positive thought to negative one like “This book is long and have no picture in it. I will read it tommorow”.
In all these cases, you don’t make use of that positive thought- of reading a book- and waste this positive thought due to overthinking.
On the other hand, when you overthink negative thoughts, you not only create more negative thoughts but also give rise to negative feelings such as sadness and negative actions such as delaying the activity.
Now, if you don’t take action and keep on avoiding things due to your overthinking then negative thoughts and feelings will be created inside your mind.
After this, if you still don’t take any positive action and keep on spending your daily life with this negativity loop of negative thoughts, feelings, and actions; You will go in depression in 10-30 days.
Let me show you a figure to make things much more clear.
The above figure clearly explains how overthinking takes you to depression. You keep on overthinking every day, due to this you fell into negativity loop, and once you spend 10-30 days in this loop, you can go into depression.
So, I hope, you understood “How overthinking cause you depression?” For any doubt, you can comment below.
Now, let’s talk about the solution:-)
How to Stop Overthinking?
I’m going to tell you about some methods and techniques which you can use to bring your overthinking quota to as minimum as possible.
Before starting, I just want to tell you that to implement any of these techniques, you have to first become self-aware of your thoughts, feelings, actions, and life as a whole.
Self-awareness is the first step required to get rid of any habit.
5-Sec Rule
This rule is simple; Be self- aware
Action is an enemy of overthinking and you need to make Action your Best friend if you are serious about defeating overthinking.
So, next time, if any kind of thought comes inside your mind, quickly see whether it is a negative thought or a positive thought.
If it is a negative thought, then don’t entertain it for even 1 sec, and replace it with a positive thought.
On the other hand, if it is a positive thought, decide whether you want to implement it or not in less than 5 sec.
If your decision is to implement that thought, then take action on that thought without worrying about anything else and…
If your Decision is to not implement that thought, then respect your decision and shift your focus to some other thought.
Chunking Technique
Many times you overthink, procrastinate, and delay things as the work in hand is intimidating you because it is quite a big task. In these situations, you can use the chunking technique.
Break your work into small chunks and focus your time and energy on completing only one thing at a time. In this way, the work will not frighten you.
Don’t say “I need to complete this big task”, instead say “I need to complete this small chunk only”. Then, use your energy to complete the first small chunk only.
Take a break after completing each chunk, and then start working on the next chunk.
For Example: Break the work of reading a 250 pages book into 10 chunks of 25 pages or you can even make 50 chunks of 5 pages each. After this, focus on completing only one chunk at a time.
5-Minute Rule
Sometimes, even after creating chunks, the work will intimidate you. In those cases, you can use the 5-Min Rule.
This rule states, “Do a thing which is creating a sense of intimidation inside you for just 5 minutes and most of the times, you will end up in completing the work”
This rule is just awesome and you can also see its usage in your everyday life. For Example: You don’t want to do something but once you do that activity for 5-10 minutes, you do it for quite a long time.
Sometimes, I overthink before writing an article but once I start writing it, I complete the whole article.
So, just start doing what you want to do. This simple action of just starting sets the tone for your work.
Positive Outlook
This method is very important to stop overthinking as many times, you spend quite a time in overthinking just because of your negative outlook towards life.
Now, you have to develop this positive outlook by seeing the positive side of the thing instead of focusing on the negative side.
For Example: After losing a job, instead of thinking that you are a failure, think like you now have a chance to reskill yourself and get a new job or to do something else in life.
After a breakup, don’t think like- your partner has done a break up with you as you are a bad person.
Instead, think like- that person is not compatible with you and now you will enjoy life as a single and focus on your life goals.
Remember, it takes time and effort to develop such a positive outlook but if you remain self-aware and consistent, you can develop this outlook very quickly- depending on the circumstances in your life.
Meditation
Yoga and Meditation have so many benefits and they are very powerful tools, which you can use to improve your mental health.
Meditation makes you more aware of the thoughts present in your mind and overthinking is simply “thinking over thoughts”.
It helps you in controlling the thought patterns of your mind and in replacing the negative thought patterns with positive ones.
If you don’t have a meditation mat, you can buy one from Amazon.in below:
Click Here To Buy Meditation Mat
Running/ Exercise
When you do exercise/ running regularly, you release good mood chemicals such as dopamine and serotonin inside your body.
This activity also makes your body and mind active and remove the lethargy from your body due to which lots of overthinking and procrastination occurs.
So, start giving at least 10-30 minutes to this activity. If you haven’t done running/ exercise from quite a time then start with a 5-min workout and increase time thereafter.
Important Questions
Is Overthinking a mental illness?
Hell No! Overthinking is a problem related to your mental health but as per me, it is not at all a mental illness.
You are not ill if you are overthinking. Every person on this planet overthink; Important thing is to take action and bring your overthinking time to as minimum as possible.
Why does overthinking occurs?
Overthinking occurs when you don’t convert your thoughts to actions and just keep on thinking about a particular thought.
Overthinking enters into the scene when you take too much time in converting your thoughts to action. If you follow 5-sec rule, then overthinking will not even get time to enter in your mind.
Is overthinking genetic?
Overthinking has a genetic factor but it not like you are born as an overthinker.
Due to some genes, your probability of overthinking increases to a small extent but by following the techniques and methods, I have mentioned above, you can bring your overthinking time to a minimum number possible.
Is it easy to Stop Overthinking?
Answer is Hell No!
“Anything Worthy never Comes Easily in Life. You have to put efforts and leave your comfort zone“
It is easy to think and difficult to implement and many people say, ” Hey Kunal, It is easy to say and difficult to do” and my reply to them is ” This line is a universal truth”.
It is easy to say “I want to stop overthinking(It hardly takes
People want a magic pill that can stop their overthinking but reality is there is no such magic pill available in the market.
Many people read lots of articles and watch too many videos on “How to stop overthinking?” but they implement nothing.
Even if they implement, they don’t remain consistent and give up when they don’t see “Expected” results.
You need to have the Patience to achieve anything, but in this mobile age, people are losing their patience, they want instant results.
They don’t want to accept the universal truth of life, “It is difficult to implement and It is easy to say/ wish.”
You don’t have to make the mistakes, these people are making. If you are serious about defeating Overthinking then give it at least 21 days, cause that’s the minimum number of days required to make or break a habit.
Does overthinking cause memory loss?
I don’t think so. Overthinking happens when you think over your thoughts too much. It is not in any way related to memory loss- directly.
While problems that can be caused due to overthinking such as stress, anxiety, and depression can cause you a memory loss; Only by overthinking, you don’t make your memory power worse.
Lesson For You
If you are Determined about defeating overthinking and don’t want her to become your reason behind depression then…
Just implement the techniques, rules, and methods I have explained to you above and you will bring your overthinking time to as minimum as possible but…
Do things with dedication, commitment, consistency, and patience.
Anything worthy in life doesn’t come easily, you could have heard this many times but…
Did you accept this truth? First, Accept this truth of life and then start your process of defeating overthinking.
Remember, sometimes it becomes difficult to take action but only action will give you any result, not only thinking or overthinking.
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