How to Stop Overthinking

The useful finding here is that overthinking is not one thing, and the amount matters less than the style. Thinking about a problem in abstract, evaluative terms — why am I like this, what does this say about me — reliably leaves people feeling worse and solving problems less well. Thinking about the same problem concretely — what exactly happened, what would I do first — does the opposite in experiments, improving problem solving and reducing the overgeneral, everything-is-like-this quality that goes with low mood. The practical version is almost crude: notice when you are asking "why", and switch to "how". Be honest about the size of it, though. Training people to think concretely reliably reduces rumination, and in the one proper trial against an active comparison it did not beat relaxation training on depression symptoms. Useful, not curative.

Telling someone to stop overthinking is like telling them to stop hearing a noise. The research points somewhere more specific, and more useful.

It is not how much you think about something. It is how.

Two ways of thinking about the same problem

Researchers studying repetitive thought separate it into two modes.

One is abstract and evaluative. It deals in meanings, causes and verdicts. Why am I like this. What does this say about me. Why does this keep happening.

The other is concrete and specific. It deals in events and sequences. What actually happened. What was said. What would I do first.

The same worry can be processed either way, and the difference is not cosmetic. In experiments, people moved into the concrete mode solved social problems better, judged themselves less harshly, and recalled their own past in less blurry, sweeping terms. People moved into the abstract mode did not.

That is the finding the whole thing rests on: the style is doing the damage, not the quantity.

Why “why” is the problem word

It is a reasonable question that reliably produces an unreasonable answer.

Ask why am I like this and the honest answer is unknowable — so your mind fills the gap with something global and unflattering about your character. There is nothing to check and nothing to do, so you ask again.

Ask how did that actually happen and you get a sequence of events. Some of them are specific. One or two might be different next time.

Abstract, keeps you circling	Concrete, moves
Why do I always mess this up?	What exactly did I do, in order?
What’s wrong with me?	What was different about today?
Why can’t I cope like other people?	What would make tomorrow morning easier?
Why do I feel like this?	When did it start, and what was happening then?
Is this going to ruin everything?	What is the first thing I’d have to deal with?

The right-hand column is not more positive. It is more specific, which is a different thing and the part that matters.

What the evidence actually shows

Worth being precise, because this gets oversold.

In favour: experiments reliably show the concrete mode producing better outcomes than the abstract one on problem solving, self-judgement and memory style. A training study in people with low mood found concreteness training reduced symptoms more than both a sham training and a waiting list.

Against overselling it: one proper trial tested concreteness training in people with major depression, against relaxation training rather than against nothing. It reduced rumination and overgeneralising more than relaxation did. It did not reduce depression symptoms more than relaxation did.

Read that carefully, because it cuts both ways. It is good evidence that the technique does the specific thing it claims. It is not evidence that it treats depression better than something much simpler.

The broader picture is similar: interventions aimed at repetitive negative thinking help, by a small to moderate amount, and therapist-led versions do better than self-help ones.

How to practise it

• Catch the question, not the thought. You are unlikely to notice you are ruminating. You can notice that you just asked yourself why.
• Swap in a “what” or a “how”. What exactly happened. How would I start. What would I tell someone else in this position.
• Insist on a next action, even a trivial one. If ten minutes produced no step you could take, you were not solving anything.
• Put a boundary on it. A decision to think it through for fifteen minutes, with a pen, is different from thinking about it all evening.
• Write it down. Writing is naturally more concrete than thinking, because vague sentences look obviously vague on paper.
• Notice the hour. If nearly all of it happens after 11pm, the problem has as much to do with tiredness as with thinking — our guide on intrusive thoughts at night covers why.

What does not work

Trying not to think about it. Suppression requires monitoring whether you are thinking the thought, which is the thought. The rebound effect is real but modest, so this is a poor tool rather than a harmful one.

Seeking reassurance until it settles. It settles briefly, then returns, and the asking gets more frequent. Our guide on googling your symptoms is the same loop in a different costume.

Waiting until you feel clear enough to act. Clarity is usually produced by acting, not before it.

When it is more than a habit

Repetitive negative thinking turns up across anxiety, depression and other conditions. Researchers treat it as something that cuts across diagnoses rather than belonging to any one of them.

It is worth taking to someone if it is eating real hours, keeping you awake most nights, or if it has stopped shifting no matter what you try. Treatments that target it specifically exist — and since the therapist-led versions outperform self-help, not getting far on your own is information rather than failure. Our guide on talking to a doctor covers how to raise it.

Finding out when it happens

The thing worth knowing about your own overthinking is not how bad it is but when it arrives.

For most people it clusters — late evenings, Sunday nights, after particular kinds of day, in the week before a deadline. Clusters are workable in a way that a general tendency is not: you can put a boundary around a known hour.

You will not see the clusters from memory, because the evenings blur together and the bad ones are the memorable ones. A few weeks of a number and a note is enough for the shape to show.

Logging that in a few seconds, as you can in Moodify, makes the pattern visible without relying on recall. A notebook does it too. The useful part is having something concrete to look at — which is, fittingly, the whole point.

Common questions

How do I stop overthinking?

Change the style rather than trying to think less. In experiments, the damaging kind is abstract and evaluative — "why am I like this", "what does this say about me" — while thinking about the same problem concretely improves problem solving and reduces the sense that everything is like this. In practice that means catching a "why" question and replacing it with a "how" or a "what exactly" one.

What is the difference between overthinking and problem solving?

Where it lands. Problem solving produces a next step, even a small or unsatisfying one. Overthinking produces more thinking, and usually a more general conclusion than you started with. A good test is whether ten minutes of it left you with something you could do, or just with a worse opinion of yourself.

Does asking "why" make things worse?

In this specific sense, often yes. "Why do I always do this?" invites an abstract, global answer about your character, which is both unprovable and demoralising. "How did that actually happen?" invites a concrete, specific answer about a situation, which is checkable and sometimes actionable. The research consistently finds the second mode produces better outcomes than the first.

Is overthinking the same as anxiety?

No, though they travel together. Repetitive negative thinking shows up across anxiety, depression and several other conditions, which is why researchers treat it as something that cuts across diagnoses rather than belonging to one. You can overthink without being anxious, and be anxious without much thinking at all — plenty of anxiety is physical first.

Does thought suppression work?

No, and it tends to backfire mildly. Trying not to think something requires checking whether you are thinking it, which is the thought. The rebound effect is real but modest, so suppression is better described as a poor tool than as something harmful.

When is overthinking worth getting help for?

When it is taking real time out of your day, when it is keeping you awake most nights, or when it has stopped responding to anything you try. Treatments that specifically target repetitive thinking exist, and the evidence suggests therapist-led versions work better than self-help ones — which is worth knowing before concluding that you have failed at it.

Sources

• Watkins — Constructive and unconstructive repetitive thought (Psychological Bulletin, 2008)
• Watkins & Taylor — concreteness training for depression, randomised trial (University of Exeter repository)
• Why vs. how: abstract and concrete thinking in anxiety and depression (Toronto Metropolitan University, Clinical Anxiety and Psychopathology Lab)
• US National Institute of Mental Health — health topics

General information, not medical advice. See our editorial policy for how these guides are written and corrected.