Overanalyzing is an easy thing to do. You’re at work, grabbing a cup of coffee, and your boss walks in. Busy, she grabs what she needs and leaves. Sounds like an innocent scenario— heck, we’ve all been too busy to chitchat. But instead of taking it at face value, your mind replays the situation over and over. You tell yourself, “She’s mad at me. I did something wrong. Why did I make that dumb joke in our meeting? I knew she hated me. OMG, am I going to get fired?”
That, in a nutshell, is overanalyzing. “It’s like a constant ticker tape of self-examination, and it’s usually of a negative nature,” says psychiatrist Maureen Sayres Van Niel, M.D., president of the American Psychiatric Association’s Women’s Caucus.
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Now, there’s nothing wrong with taking a closer look at your life. “Analyzing, worry, and anxiety are all natural emotions that everyone feels,” Dr. Van Niel says. But regularly blowing things out of proportion—so much so that it becomes a constant drain on your mental energy—can be detrimental in major ways.
“It can affect your performance at work, alienate the people around you, and contribute to an ongoing sense of low self-esteem,” Dr. Van Niel explains. “It’s a vicious cycle that people struggle to get out of.”
If you find yourself constantly overthinking—be it a relationship, text message, social interaction, or something else—it’s important to have ways to snip that ticker tape. Here’s what experts say may help you stop overanalyzing.
Check for an underlying cause.
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When you can’t stop analyzing a situation over and over in your mind, it could be indicative of an anxiety disorder that you aren’t aware of, Dr. Van Niel says. These conditions are common, affecting nearly 30 percent of adults at some point in their lives, according to the American Psychiatric Association. But because they present themselves in a myriad of ways—and one person often will have different symptoms than another—they can often go undetected. (About 40 percent of those with an anxiety disorder go undiagnosed, Dr. Van Niel adds.)
When someone has a generalized anxiety disorder, they often worry about every detail—even small ones—for days, weeks, even months, Dr. Van Niel says. Physical symptoms, like a cough, can also be blown out of proportion into a form of hypochondria or obsessive compulsive disorder.
The good news is that anxiety disorders can be treatable. “Psychotherapy, cognitive behavior therapy, and medicines like SSRIs, which work to prevent the symptoms; not just treat the result, typically help,” Dr. Van Niel explains.
Move your body.
“If you think about overanalyzing as a habit, then you can break that habit by replacing it with something else,” says Charles Herrick, M.D., chairman of psychiatry at Western Connecticut Health Network. “So, focus on a thing that’s new and unique for you.”
His suggestion: physical activity. “It’s been shown to have incredible anti-depressant and anti-anxiety effects that, when sustained over time, allow you to hopefully dampen the worry that’s driving the over analyzation,” he says. If you can, he recommends group activities over solo missions when possible, like a spinning class, dance, or Pilates. “That really allows people to turn their minds off,” he explains. “You’re kind of replacing your worries with a physical activity that’s also social and engaging. Wanting to be a part of a group, engaged in a common activity together, can be helpful.”
Find your form of meditation.
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Meditation is super trendy, but only because people are finally catching on to the benefits of a regular practice. It can be particularly helpful for those who overanalyze, as that’s an act of taking yourself out of the present moment and thinking either about the past or the future, Dr. Herrick explains. But meditating, or being mindful, does the opposite—it’s an act of trying to live in the moment and take note of what you’re experiencing here and now. So challenging yourself with a regular practice can help mitigate over analyzation, and focus your mind on the reality of what’s happening right now.
Plus, meditation doesn’t have to mean you sit quietly in a corner and close your eyes. It can be any activity that keeps you engaged in what you’re doing, Dr. Herrick says. Whether that’s reading a book for pure pleasure, swimming laps in the pool, or listening to a guided tape is up to you. “It’s this concept of flow, where you’re really trying to lose a sense of yourself in the endeavor that you’re engaged in,” he adds. “It’s that feeling where time almost stops.”
Write your worries down.
Writing exercises can be a helpful way to sort your feelings and get worries out of your system right at the exact moment you’re experiencing them, Dr. Van Niel says. Once you’ve jotted them down in your journal, look at the list. Ask yourself, “Does this really matter?” Doing so can help you regain perspective of the big picture and prevent sweating the small stuff. In the end, many times people end up throwing the list—and their worries—away.
Just…breathe. Seriously.
If you’re headed into a situation that you might overanalyze—like, say, a performance review or a doctor’s appointment—smart breathing techniques can help temper your emotions. Dr. Van Niel recommends the 4-7-8 exercise: “Before you begin, let all the air out of your lungs with a deep exhale. Take a slow breath, inhaling for the count of four—it’s best to count ‘one-thousand-one, one-thousand-two,’ to get the full effect. Once you’ve inhaled, sit still and hold your breath for a count of seven, then slowly exhale to a count of eight.” Repeat four times.
There are an array of other breathing exercises you can choose from to help calm your mind. The important part is that it involves deep breathing, as it’s a quick and easy way to deal with in-the-moment stress, Dr. Van Niel says. “It can even change the chemistry of your body and mind.”
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Source: https://t-tees.com
Category: WHY
