Science explains overthinking.
How to stop that constant loop in your head.
Why? What? How can I fix this? Overthinking is the bain of my existence. It causes millions of people immeasurable stress and anxiety. From an evolutionary standpoint, it is a fantastic process whereby, constant thinking leads to problem-solving. However, it becomes a problem when the loop gets stuck and nothing enters or leaves it. No progress is being made, while your energy is being constantly drained away. Let's dive a bit deeper into that to find our solution.
The battle of chemicals.
Our star players are dopamine, adrenaline. serotonin and cortisol.
Dopamine — the motivator, provides rewards for our actions.
Adrenaline — the hype man who stimulates the sympathetic nervous system, heart rate, and blood pressure increase.
Serotonin — the happy-go-lucky fellow, big mood regulator.
Cortisol — the panic monster, stress, stress, and more stress.
The dopamine encourages the idea of problem-solving, hence starts the loop in hopes to reward the brain. Adrenaline is fired as means of energy, you get hyped when you're trying to solve the problem. Serotonin regulates the thought loop when new possibilities are on the rise. But when…
