Anxiety patterns and overthinking

You might call it anxiety but more spoecifically, it can look like analysis paralysis and the all too well known concept of anxious overthinking. If you have lived this, you understand the constant second guessing that goes on with this kind of anxiety. You are running (often multiple) conversations in your head, trying to get it perfect  before taking any action steps and even when you have over-cooked an idea inside and out a hundred times over, you are still not feeling settled.

Often, on the outside, you look like you are functioning and very often, functioning so well that others would not guess what might be going on inside. Inside- it is all noise, exhaustion and anxiety late at night. Or early hours of the morning. Sometimes both. 

Overthinking like many other seemingly annoying functions tell a deeper story. When you are in the anxiety of overthinking, your system is  scanning for risk, trying to stay ahead of things and ultimately – working hard to try and stay safe. Over time though, this pattern proves to be anything but helpful because it starts to run the show – with you not being able to unwind at all.

So, what do we do with this in therapy? Well, several things and and they frequently may look like this:

• noticing the patterns underneath the anxiety and overthinking 
• working with thoughts that keep you looping and imagining worst case scenarios 
• learning to create space where you don’t have to manage it all on your own
• getting support with designing the exact startegies that feel like you and make a difference with feelings, not just in principle