Overthinking makes things or decisions or situations in your life seem bigger, more important and more crucial than they actually are. It rarely results in a better decision, a revelation or anything that the wise philosophers may have talked about.
While hard physical labor can wear you out, causing you to collapse on your bed in a sigh of exhaustion, it has been found that overthinking as well can cause your brain to send a signal to your body that it is feeling worn out and needs to take a break.
The Effects of Overthinking
Overthinking can also lead to insomnia, decision fatigue, decision paralysis and being in a continuous state of feeling confused or doubtful about what you are doing in the present time or what you did in the past. The fact is that overthinking was sometimes attributed to the introvert personality type in the past, however, more modern research has concluded that even extroverted people can be ‘overthinkers’ and therefore these traits can apply to everyone around us and not just those who have a knack for introversion.
Recent Research
A recent study by researchers from Pitie-Salpetriere University in Paris, France, have found that when intense cognitive work is performed or prolonged for several hours, then it causes a toxic byproduct which compels the brain to then be willing to perform only ‘low-cost’ actions which are of little consequence and also waiting or resting, rather than actively doing.
A researcher Mathias Pessiglione from the university says, "Influential theories suggest that fatigue is a sort of illusion cooked up by the brain to make us stop whatever we are doing and turn to a more gratifying activity."
"But our findings show that cognitive work results in a true functional alteration -- accumulation of noxious substances -- so fatigue would indeed be a signal that makes us stop working but for a different purpose: to preserve the integrity of brain functioning," he added.
In simple words, too much neural activity may lead to the release of potentially harmful substances in the body, which signals the body to slow down and if this advice is ignored, it often leads to excessive stress and burnout.
Genius or Overthinkers?
You may wonder what happened to those high level visionaries of earlier times like Nikola Tesla, Einstein, Stephen Hawking, Isaac Newton, Copernicus, Galileo or even of our times, be it Bill Gates, Elon Musk or Sundar Pichai, for example, are they running themselves into the ground by too much thought and too many responsibilities to shoulder? How do their brains and other cognitive fluids and functions keep up with their continuous patterns of thought and action?
Then again there are some genius musicians and writers of earlier times and even of our times, which I’m sure you can name a few. Do they always have music playing on in their minds and is that a healthy thing, with the new information we have on this phenomenon?
Ways to Reduce Overthinking
Find out who already knows how to do this? This works when you are faced with a problem you have no immediate answer for. Getting in touch with someone who has been there and done that will give you a huge relief.
Am I learning anything new about this problem by still thinking about it? Ask yourself this question and just stop ruminating on it if the answer is no. If the answer is yes, then immediately implement the solution.
Who can I talk to? Check in with someone who knows you well and narrate the issue to them. Just getting it out of your own head into another well wisher's mind can give you immediate relief.
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