STOP OVERTHINKING!
Overthinking is an expression of anxiety. Even simple things feel like a big deal, and your body starts to respond. Your heart rate speeds up, and your muscles tense up. You start breathing more quickly and you get lightheaded. All of these physical symptoms are the kinds of symptoms that we evolved to have when we are in trouble. Over the years these reactions kept us alive.
Anxiety sends signals to your lower brain the non-thinking, purely reacting brain to warn us that you are in danger. Then your lower brain reacts to the anxiety by putting us at the ready to fight, flee or freeze, and your upper brain the thinking, and reasoning brain starts to see, then awful things will happen.
Your brain protects you from threats. But the threats we face due to anxiety are more like bad grades, a failed test, or disappointing our parents. None of these will kill you, but your brain thinks these are emergencies. The part of your brain that reacts to your tensions like an exam or a big project.
The fact is, an exam does not put you in danger. Neither does a big project. But it feels like it does!
And your brain puts you in an elevated, alerted physical state. High levels of Adrenaline will start releasing and you get hyper-aware of your surroundings. Basically, on fight mode!
Types of Overthinkers and Types of Overthinking
There are different types of people who tend to overthink things when they are facing challenging situations. They are:
- Perfectionists: They are people who are afraid of failure
- Finishers, or people who have a low tolerance for questions that go unanswered or unfinished work
- Ruminators, or people who overthink and obsess over their mistakes
- Fence-Sitters, or indecisive people
There are also various types of overthinking. Each of these matches up with one of the types of overthinkers listed above. They are:
- Analysis paralysis
- Detective work
- Never-ending brainstorms
- Dithering
It is possible to be more than one type of overthinker. So read on for how to stop overthinking, no matter what type of overthinker you are!
ANALYSIS PARALYSIS
Analysis paralysis is when you are getting stuck on a particular point and finding it difficult to move forward. This happens a lot on exams. It can also happen when you cannot seem to move forward on a paper or project because you cannot figure out where to start.
To combat analysis paralysis on a test, set a time limit: you can brainstorm on an essay question for four to five minutes. Although the number of minutes to be taken depends on how much time you have for the exam. Try to keep it to no more than 5 percent of the time given. Once that time is up, you must start writing.
To deal with analysis paralysis on a paper or project, set a time limit: You get one day for brainstorming, but then you have to think of a way forward and go with it. It is not a surprise that Finishers and Fence-Sitters often are in analysis paralysis.
DETECTIVE WORK
This is when you overthink by trying to figure out exactly what the question is asking and trying to make sure you have not missed anything or doubted yourself. This leads to re-reading a question over and over again and still not being sure if you understand it.
To stop being a detective, you have to limit yourself to one read of a question on a test, and no more than three readings of the instructions for an assignment. Then, you should start working on it.
Perfectionists and Finishers are the main victims of detective work. Perfectionists do it because they are scared of being less than perfect. Finishers do it because they do not want to leave anything unfinished.
NEVER-ENDING BRAINSTORMING
Never-ending brainstorming is when you cannot stop thinking about new ideas. You think maybe this will be a good way to do this assignment but by the time you have gathered your materials or finished the research, you have thought of various ways that seem just as good. You get confused and overwhelmed by all these ideas, and as a result, you may freeze instead of moving forward
The group most likely to end up in a never-ending brainstorm is the Fence-Sitters, and that is not a surprise. If you acknowledge yourself as a person who has never-ending brainstorms, it is time to force yourself to make some decisions.
First, set a time limit on your brainstorming. You can take one day for brainstorming for your project, but that is it. After that, you must choose one path and move forward on it. Secondly, if you cannot pick which path or topic you are going to go with after your one day, try any of these tricks to get yourself on the right track. Try head or tail. YES! I AM NOT KIDDING!
DITHERING
Dithering is when you keep thinking about the possibilities you have, or your past embarrassing situations or mistakes, over and over in your head, and when you do that, you get stuck. You cannot move forward because either there are too many options, or you are stuck on how you have messed up in the past and you want to avoid such situations in the future.
For Ruminators, there are a few options.
Write down all of the things that are in your head, so you can get them out of your head and onto a page, where you can see them. This will help you realize that they are probably not as bad as you think and that you do not have to carry them around in your head now, because they are on paper.
Remember to embrace imperfection. Remember that a finished exam or project is better than overthinking.
CONCLUSION
Whether you are a Ruminator, a Perfectionist, a Fence-Sitter, or a Finisher, there are many ways to stop overthinking. It may seem difficult at first, but allowing yourself to embrace imperfect action, setting time limits on how long you can overthink, and limiting your second-guessing can go a long way to getting rid of your brain’s false alarms.
