Overthinking is an action of thinking about a particular thought or thing, where you ponder or worry about something too much or for too long. This causes one to get stuck in an endless loop of thoughts and tends to make the thinker more frustrated.

Overthinking triggers excessive worry, making it difficult to make decisions and getting stuck in frustration and confusion. Ultimately, overthinking can reduce sleep quality, disrupt focus, and negatively impact overall mental health.

Type of Overthinking

Overthinking is mainly caused by cognitive distortions. Since the brain is always processing a lot of information, it sometimes looks for shortcuts to reduce our mental load. Cognitive distortion is a biased or distorted mindset in processing information. The presence of an internal filter often leads to feelings of anxiety and negative thoughts about oneself.

The types of overthinking can be seen below, namely:

Black-and-white thinking

This mindset is one type of overthinking due to cognitive distortion that only sees things in black and white. This mindset tends to cause a person to view everything in one-sided terms.

Thinking only of the good or bad side, you may only see things as success or failure, with no middle ground. When you dwell on one thing constantly and feel that it is a failure, it causes unnecessary stress and great disappointment when something does not meet your high standards. 

Disaster mindset

A catastrophic mindset is a type of negative distortion that causes a person to overthink and get stuck in unrealistic worst-case scenario thinking.

This mindset leads to ongoing worry about bad possibilities that haven't actually happened yet. For example, when you think you didn't do well in a job interview, you immediately start overthinking that you'll never get the job. Another example is overthinking that you will develop cancer when you see a lump on your skin.

Overgeneralization

One type of overthinking is overgeneralization. Someone who overgeneralizes tends to make broad general assumptions based on past experiences. They forget that many paths can happen in the future and assume that things "always" happen or "never" happen. As a result, they dwell on past events and worry about things that may never happen.

How to Stop Overthinking at Night

When you're already in your room and getting ready for bed, negative thoughts can come to haunt you and make you worry excessively. Overthinking often leads to anxiety, and stress and causes you to have trouble sleeping. Since it's late at night and you're in your room, it can be difficult to get rid of these thoughts.

To stop overcoming the tendency to overthink at night you can do these things:

• Write down disturbing thoughts before bed so you can empty your mind of the overload
• Distract yourself by thinking of stories or things that may be trivial but will not burden your mind
• Accept the thoughts and realize that there will be things that happen beyond your control.  
• Notice how your emotions and physical response to the thoughts and reassure yourself, "I accept myself as I am"
• Listen to soothing music or nature sounds such as the sound of rain, and the ocean waves sound that create an environment conducive to sleep

If you often struggle with overwhelming thoughts that lead to anxiety, stress, and depression, then you should seek professional help from a psychologist or psychiatrist. Therapy is an effective tool to help you understand and manage various mental health issues.

You can either visit a doctor or if you want a private consultation in the comfort of your home, you can make use of the consultation features that are available in the Ai Care application by downloading the Ai Care application from the App Store or Play Store.

Looking for more tips and tricks for health, first aid, and other home remedies? Click Here!