‌Chapter 2: The Dangers Behind Overthinking‌

Control Your Mind and Master Your Feelings

There are some major health risks that can result from overthinking and excessive worrying. When the brain becomes stressed out due to the lack of sleep resulting from the racing thoughts, parts of the brain actually start to decrease in size or change in shape. For

example, the hippocampus is the part of the brain that is responsible for memories and storing short-term data, when you overthink or become

essentially a “worry wart,” this part of your brain shrinks in size. The hippocampus is linked to the amygdala, which is then linked to the

limbic system. The limbic system is responsible for the emotions we feel, our survival instincts, and our long-term memory. When the

hippocampus or any part of the limbic system is affected, our body’s

natural instinctual response system sends false signals to our body that we could be in danger. Due to this process, surges of cortisol get

produced in large amounts throughout our body. Cortisol is the hormone that gives us symptoms of anxiety attacks and PTSD trauma. As we dive deeper into this chapter, I will help you understand in more depth to what these parts of the brain have an effect on.

Overthinking is essentially the inability to get out of your head.

Your negative thoughts keep you up at night, causing insomnia issues.

Your worries keep you tense and stressed which keeps you irritable and promotes drastic mood swings. Stress also leaves you with tension

headaches and makes it so you are unable to focus or concentrate. With that said, areas in your life like your career and parenting skills might suffer. If this type of behavior and thinking pattern goes on for extended periods of time, you may end up suffering from a chronic disorder such

as anxiety, depression, borderline personality disorder, bipolar, etc… The dangers of being an over-thinker are as follows:

Your chances of developing a mental illness increases.

In the Journal of Abnormal Psychology, a study reports that

constantly thinking about your mistakes, failures, and issues can greatly increase your risk of developing a mental health disorder or problem. Pensiveness results in a vicious cycle which can be

extremely hard to break, as it becomes a habit. The cycle is where the more your mental health decreases, the more likely you are to overthink things, which leads you back to more mental health problems.
Problem-solving skills become difficult.

Analysis paralysis is a real thing that, in short, is defined by

literally paralyzing your problem-solving and decision-making skills. People believe that overthinking is actually helping because they are rehashing everything they haven’t thought about, which will stop future problems from arising. However, this is not the case.

The thing about overthinkers is that they never come to a solution for their issues at hand. Rather, they get into this habit of

constantly thinking about the issues which are forefront in their mind but may not be critical issues – such as, what they should

wear (to impress others) and where to go on vacation (and create problems about the places in which they go on vacation to). This creates an analysis paralysis situation, even if the individual doesn’t feel as though they are paralyzed. The bottom line here is

that because there is no solution to the ongoing stressors that the

individual experiences, the constant dwelling makes it difficult for someone to make a decision and stick with it.
Sleep is disrupted.

As previously mentioned, overthinking causes sleep disturbances, and may even turn into a full on insomnia disorder. Worrying all the time, and having the inability to shut your mind off, can cause you to get fewer hours of sleep at night, and can cause you to not get good enough sleep also.
Trying new things seems impossible.

Trying new things seems impossible because rather than just doing it, an overthinker will ‘overthink’ all of the ins and outs of their decision before trying anything. Soon, they will come up

with all of the reasons why they shouldn’t, rather than all of the reasons they should. Eventually, they will look back on all of the opportunities they missed out on, and prepare to do something

new when the chance happens again. However, when the chance

presents itself, the cycle repeats, and then it becomes habitual that opportunities don’t seem to be happening.
Self-doubt becomes prevalent.

Self-doubting thoughts happen because of those cognitive

distortions we talked about in Chapter One. Thinking too much about everything often makes us question and second-guess everything around us. You may feel as though you aren’t making the right choices or that all your decisions will end in bad outcomes. For example, your friend may ask you to help them with a project they were working on, but because you question your

own abilities, you may wonder why it was you they asked help from. Let’s say, you do help your friend and stumble upon one part of their project that seems a little more difficult. Now your

thoughts might be racing about why you should have said no in the first place or you are bad at this, and now your friend is going to be upset with you. Can you figure out which cognitive

distortions this type of thinking is? Remind yourself about the cognitive distortions found in Chapter One – Meet your Opponent, under What is Negative Thinking?.
Decreases your enjoyment with activities.

Overthinking generally keeps you existing in the past or the future. So, when you try to focus on the moment, your thoughts are distracting you from what is going on right now. This takes away from your enjoyment with the things you are trying to do.

For example, if you had just gotten a raise or a promotion, it’s hard to be happy and enjoy the promotion when your mind constantly

spirals around thoughts of why you deserve this promotion.
Can lead to mood disorders like anxiety.

Just like we discussed in Chapter One, overthinking can be a sign of anxiety and vice versa. Overthinking causes anxiety because of the continuous habit to re-evaluate every circumstance. In a way, you are training your brain to think this way, in which it starts to form and create neurons that process and develop hormone changes. This can result in decreased healthy chemicals in the brain, reduced serotonin levels, and create anxiety and other

mood disorders.

Overthinking stems from being a perfectionist, from having low self- esteem, or from life just being too hectic and crazy that there is no time to settle. When you don’t give attention to your brain, your thoughts

spiral out of control because of the very fact that you are trying to avoid them and push them away. If you don’t practice meditation or mindfulness, you may need to seek more help from a professional who

can introduce you to therapies such as dialectical behavior therapy (DBT) and cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT).

The Limbic System

The limbic system was mentioned briefly above, in which we

discussed that the limbic system governs our emotional functioning by sending hormonal responses throughout your body. It consists of three neural areas: the hippocampus, amygdala, and the hypothalamus. The

limbic system is the part of the brain responsible for regulating emotions, stress, anxiety, and other distressing feelings. Also, it takes what we see, and how we interpret situations and turns them into how we respond emotionally to them. The hippocampus and amygdala along with other regions play important roles in helping the limbic system do its job. The amygdala is a small almond-shaped structure in the limbic

system which fires responses from anxiety. The hippocampus is the part of the limbic system where memories form, and then are moved to be

sorted and stored elsewhere by the amygdala and the larger limbic system.

The Hippocampus

During a distressing encounter, the hippocampus is activated and is mainly accountable for memory functions and processing. What the

hippocampus function initially suggests is that past experiences and

memories associated with present experiences can heighten or conduct distressing emotions, leading to anxiety symptoms. The hippocampus,

as mentioned, plays an important role in the limbic system which is responsible for regulating sensations you feel in your body caused by

your emotions. The limbic system is also responsible for memory and how your intuition works.

The hippocampus not only organizes and interprets new memories, but it also connects your experiences (sensations and emotions) to these memories. For example, say you just got promoted in your career, the

hippocampus stores the missed information (surrounding, sights, sounds, and smells) and then if you experience another good thing, like a raise two weeks later, you may be reminded, or have a flashback of

your promotion. Can you remember a time where a sign, phrase, or

smell has triggered a past memory? This is what the hippocampus does.

Brain scientists have found that there is a rear part of the

hippocampus that implements different types of memory. The rear part of the hippocampus processes spatial memories. Spatial memory processing is when someone memorizes the route to different places in a big city or memorizes complex things turning it into photographic memory. Sleep regroups these memories and grows the rear part of the hippocampus which leads to better memory. It is believed that the

hippocampus registers and temporarily stores these spatial and short- term memories then ships them to the long-term memory center of the brain.

When the hippocampus is damaged – due to chronic stress caused by overthinking everything – you may find it difficult to remember things

such as dates, events, names, and putting memories into chronological order. Damage to the left hippocampus affects how you recall verbal information. Damage to the right hippocampus affects the ability to

recall visual information. Damage to the hippocampus means that this part of the brain can actually shrink in size. If it shrinks you have a

higher risk of developing Alzheimer’s disease and significant decreases in memory performance.

The Amygdala

The amygdala is an almond-shaped region of the brain located in the temporal lobe part of the brain. There is one portion of the amygdala on either side of your brain and both are thought to be part of

the limbic system. The amygdala in mainly responsible for processing and perceiving emotions such as sadness, anger, and fear, along with

controlling aggression. It stores long-term memory and works with the hippocampus to process and store memories of experiences and

emotions to be able to recognize future events. For example, say you were in a car accident, the amygdala would process this event and perceive the emotion for cars or driving as fear. So, the next time you drive, or are in a car on the highway (or wherever the accident took place in) you may have heightened emotions of fear and become more alert to your surroundings while in the vehicle. Depending on how big or small your amygdala is, it can increase or decrease your aggressive behaviors, such as acting or not acting on impulses. The bigger your amygdala is the less likely you will have the urge to act on impulsive behaviors; the smaller in size it is, the more likely you are to behave in an aggressive nature.

Damage to the amygdala results in problems with memory

formation and learning, creates fear and sensitivity to emotions, and is associated with a higher risk of depression. Since it is strongly

correlated with the limbic system where hormones are produced, and where temperature and appetite are controlled, any type of amygdala damage will greatly impact your ability to function. For that matter, if any part of the limbic system is damaged, such as the amygdala, you

may experience reduced feelings of hunger satiety, as emotional

responses will have changed. The amygdala and the hippocampus work together to process and store memories. In short, the hippocampus

breaks apart and compartmentalizes perceptions of experiences while the amygdala processes your emotions involving these experiences (people, situations, sensations, and things).

Hypothalamus

The hypothalamus is located between the pituitary gland and the thalamus in the center of the brain. It is responsible for producing

hormones and stimulating sensations in the body. If the hypothalamus is damaged, it can cause mood disorders. The main role of the

‌hypothalamus is to keep the body in homeostasis 1 as much as possible. For example, to keep the body in homeostasis, the hypothalamus sends signals to the brain to let you know that you need more nutrients if you are hungry.

The hypothalamus reacts as a link between the endocrine and

nervous systems to accomplish a homeostatic state. The main functions it plays a role in are:

Body temperature
Thirst
Appetite
Emotions
Sleep routines
Libido
Childbirth
Blood pressure and sugar levels
Balancing bodily liquids
If any of these functions become unbalanced, it is the responsibility of the hypothalamus to regulate or send signals to you so that you can balance these functions. For example, if you are suffering from a fever, the hypothalamus will make the body sweat to try to cool itself down. It also works in the opposite way – such as creating goosebumps and causing you to shiver if you are too cold.

The hypothalamus is also responsible for processing hormones, in which it works with the pituitary gland to send hormones throughout the body. Hormones controlled by the hypothalamus include:
Antidiuretic hormone – increases how much water is absorbed into the blood by the kidneys.
Corticotropin-releasing hormone – this is responsible for regulating metabolism and immune responses.
Gonadotropin-releasing hormone – this keeps the sexual organs in control and working properly.
Oxytocin hormone – oxytocin stimulates a mothers breast milk to work, regulates body temperature, and controls balanced sleep cycles.
Prolactin-controlling hormone – in lactating mothers, it tells the body how much or less milk to produce.
Thyrotropin-releasing hormone – the thyroid is what this hormone is in control of. It releases the hormones that stabilize metabolism, energy, and developmental growth.

If any part of the brain that functions inside the limbic system is

damaged, or not working to its full potential, then your hormones will be out of whack. Also, your emotions will be more challenging to manage, which develops uncontrollable symptoms revolving around

disorders such as anxiety or depression. Overthinking and excessive worrying, created by negative thought patterns, can increase the risk of having these parts of the brain damaged.

How to Reduce Overthinking

Cortisol is a stress hormone and when released into your body drives symptoms of sweating, shaking, feelings of fear, nausea, and other alarming sensations. When you overthink, you are actually causing

unnecessary stress to your system which then stimulates the

hypothalamus to produce excess amounts of cortisol. This is why you have anxiety attacks or become triggered out of what seems to be nowhere. The amygdala and the hippocampus work together to process the experiences you go through into memories. These memories can

lead to triggers later on when you undergo what you have trained your brain to feel as fearful or dangerous. Have you ever just sat there, having fun with your friends, and out of the blue you experience a panic attack? That is because the conversation, or the environment, or even

an odor has triggered the hippocampus to send danger signals to the amygdala, which then activates the hypothalamus to send hormones throughout the body to prepare for the perceived danger. This only

happens when the limbic system is damaged. The cure to this is to stop

overthinking. But how? The next few steps are some broad general guidelines to retrain your brain out of overthinking:

See the bigger picture – When you overthink, you

sometimes overthink about all the tiny details regarding one situation so that the problem seems bigger than it really is. So, train your brain to look at your problem as a whole. For example, say there is a problem in your

relationship and your spouse is ignoring you. You perceive them as avoiding you and then start to unravel all of the

reasons why you aren’t good enough. You spiral out of control and think about if they could be seeing someone else and come up with the worst-case scenario. Stop right there! Instead, look at it as a whole. They may not be ignoring you, they may just have a lot on their minds so

they aren’t focused on you. Ask yourself, are they under a lot of stress? Is this out of character for them? Do they

make time for you on a regular basis? Give yourself and your relationship some credit, why did you get involved to begin with? Try to find solutions to how you can stop this avoidance tactic and talk with them. Look at what is important rather than trying to think about all the small

details that will drive you insane.
Be comfortable with the unknown – One factor that

remains true throughout the course of this book, or just in general life circumstances is that you cannot control everything, nor can you know the future. Overthinkers generally focus on the uncertainty in their lives because they are trying to avoid disasters or solve what cannot be solved. Focus more on what you can control rather than worrying about the unknown events and spinning it into something bigger than what it is. And, what it is, is nothing yet because it is uncertain. An example scenario of this uncertainty that an overthinker tries to control or avoid is

this – you may think ‘what could they have meant when they said (blank).’ Instead of stressing about it, a simple solution is to ask the person to clarify what they meant.

Another example is this – say you went to a job interview and everything went really well. The employer said they would give you a callback and it’s been almost a week, or maybe over a week. Now your mind is spiraling thinking ‘what’s taking them so long?’ ‘Was I not good enough?’

‘Have they chosen someone else?’ Then you obsess over all of the things you could have said, the things you could have changed, and continue to bash yourself because now you think you won’t get it. Stop! First, understand that what is done is done, and cannot be changed. Overthinking and stressing about what could have happened – or what might or might not happen – is only training your brain into unhealthy patterns which can damage the limbic system. Second, understand that the future is always uncertain, and uncertainty isn’t always a negative thing.

Control what you can, and distract your mind from what you can’t. Remember, you can always follow up, so focus on what you are going to say when you call them back.

Also, if you don’t get the job, it doesn’t mean that you didn’t do something right, it just means that this job wasn’t the right fit for you, and you have the opportunity to truly find your calling. In every negative experience, there is a positive, a lesson to learn from and an opportunity to grow.

Tell yourself that it is okay to be uncertain and live your life the way you want because spiraling down won’t help anything.
Observe your negative thoughts – In most cases, people who overthink are already aware of their negative thoughts and how they feel about themselves and the world around them. Instead of acting on your emotional impulses resulting from your negative thoughts, observe the negativity. Be mindful of your negative thinking and see them as just thoughts. Let them come and go as they are going to. For example, if you are having a ‘bad hair day,’ and your thoughts are stressing you because all you can think is ‘I am ugly’ or ‘why do I look like this?’, don’t

feed into these thoughts or label them as good or bad. Just notice them and understand that just because it’s a thought, it doesn’t mean it needs to make you feel bad.

Acknowledge the thought, then shrug it off, and replace it with something better. ‘Just because I am having a bad hair day, does not mean I am definitely ugly or look bad. These days will happen and I am okay with this.’
Find something you can control – This can be anything, but it has to be at least one thing you can control.

Overthinkers are often perfectionists and will go to great

lengths to make something perfect. For example, if you are planning a friends birthday party and everything is going wrong – like people brought the wrong food, or you ran out of money for drinks – ask yourself, ‘what is one thing I can

control right now?’ It may be controlling the guest list, or preparing dinner, or making an important phone call.

Whatever it is, find one thing you can control in a stressful situation to get your mind and thoughts off of the things you can’t control.

For people who are chronic worriers, and excessive thinkers, there

may be some very negative consequences. Looking at the bigger picture, watching your thoughts, accepting what can’t be known, and controlling one thing at a time is the first step to training your brain out of these

unhealthy overthinking patterns.

Chapter Summary

The brain controls every aspect of what you do in your life. From

‘second nature’ things like using the bathroom, eating, and breathing to more complex things like making decisions. If we don’t take care of our physical well-being and our minds, then our brains will start to change, and form different perceptions of false realities.

Overthinking is an unhealthy trait that people develop over time which leads to constant stress and worry. If left unchecked it can even become second nature and habitual. By finding ways to reverse the damage to the limbic system (amygdala, hippocampus, and hypothalamus), you will start to understand that life is a lot easier without the constant unnecessary stress and worry.

In this chapter, we have learned:

The dangers that overthinking can cause.
The disorders that stem from overthinking.
What the limbic system is, and the three regions of the brain that help it do what it needs to do.
How damage to the hippocampus, amygdala, and hypothalamus can result in serious side effects causing mental and physical
health issues.
How to start training your brain to stop overthinking.
In the next chapter, you will learn a more in-depth description of what social anxiety is, and the different kinds of anxiety disorders there are. You will also learn how anxiety can affect your social life and social media, as well as the link between social media addictions and anxiety from overthinking. Finally, we will discuss how technology addictions cause many problems in an individual’s life and whether or not overthinking is the result of the addiction or if the addiction causes your mind to overthink.