Loss of control & overthinking. Issues?

You appear to suffer from Generalized anxiety disorder.It is a life long illness. Consult a psychiatrist asap

rying not to overthink is like trying not to think about a pink crocodile now that I’ve mentioned it. The human mind seems to be unable to process a negative, which means it can’t not think of something you tell it to forget or ignore. The implication of this is that overthinking cannot be solved by self-discipline or trying harder. This is a hard one for the human intellect to wrap itself around, because the intellect works in one direction only: more doing and more thinking. Whatever problem you throw at your intellect, it will always think about it more. But if our aim is to reduce the amount of thinking we have going on, what options do we have? It seems to me there are two general approaches, neither of which require self discipline or trying: You can redirect your mind to something else. When you notice yourself overthinking, distract yourself with something that takes your mind off the overthinking. Note that while this approach is easy to implement, it can easily lead to a coping mechanism that you end up being reliant on (i.e. a bad habit). Find the “mental latch” you can pull that allows you to let go of your thinking. This can take several forms, and you can choose whichever feels right for you: Acceptance - Accept that you are overthinking. Accept that you don’t know what’s going to happen or what to do. Accept that you feel insecure and unsatisfied. If you can’t accept something, accept that you can't accept it. The more you accept your situation, the more easily your excess thinking about it falls away. See it all for what it is: thought - If we feel anxious or insecure, it doesn’t mean that something on the outside caused it. All it means is that we have anxious or insecure thinking. That’s it. The more you see that your entire experience of life made up of nothing but thought, the less sense it will make for you to take it so damn seriously. Be in the now - Overthinking requires the concepts of past and future to happen. If you simply focus on the present moment, overthinking doesn’t have the oxygen it needs to live. You can do this either as a form of mindfulness (just focus on whatever it is you are doing and feeling right now) or a more structured meditation. There are many other forms of this than just these three, but they all point to the same fundamental realisation that the less you identify with your personal troubled thinking, the less sense it will make for you to hold on to it. As you let your thoughts just be, your mind naturally begins to relax. No doing required, just a surrendering to what is. This is a very small framework that I’ve used and seen used to great effect in the lives of other people. 1. Understand the Problem You need to realize that overthinking and repetitive thought patterns is a disease of the mind, which in turn leads to various mental disorders. It also can’t be solved at the level of the mind, you need to transcend the mind. You do this by realizing that: A majority of the thoughts you have on any given day are meaningless/counterproductive Repetitive thought patterns create more insanity Creating a background of awareness The last one is very important. If you self-identify with the thoughts in your head, you will go insane (literally). Until you get a deep understanding that repetitive thoughts do not serve you, you will never be free. All of that background chatter, what does it accomplish. Nothing really. It needs to go. 2. Realize You Are Not Your Mind Those thoughts in your head are not “you”. Those are just thoughts that you have about certain things, probably planted in your head by other people. Someone told you you were ugly, another told you that you were fat, someone else called you stupid. All of these add up. Not too long, you start to believe those things. You start to believe that is your essence. All of these collection of thoughts congeal to make your self-image, also known as your ego. The ego wants to self-perpetuate itself, like a cancer until it convinces itself that it is you. But it is not you. Unless this ego is challenged, it will continue to run your mental landscape. “You” are the awareness seeing those thoughts. If there was no awareness behind those thoughts, it would be impossible to look at yourself through an objective, third-person perspective. 3. Begin Mindfulness and Meditation You step outside of the mind only by observing the mind and you can only do this through some form of contemplation. You do this with no distractions, nothing to create passion or desire in the mind, nothing that will arise judgment. Thoughts will pop up. You will start to think of the most inconsequential things. It is only in this space that you can realize that these randomly generated thoughts hold no power over you. You can begin to see how the mind has its own form of ADD, especially in this current world we live in. Depression, anxiety, self-doubt, narcissism, various mental afflictions of every kind all come from over-identification with the mind and the physical world in general. In this space, you can see how the mind becomes a tool. Once you use it, you put it away. Through this space, you enter the gateway to the Present. 4. Enter Monk Mode Monk mode is a minimalist way of living that focuses on a tight area of concerns in order to pierce the depths of life and and create a mind unencumbered by distractions. Minimalism can be material, meaning few possessions and only essential ones at that. It can also be informational - meaning you only absorb certain pieces of information. Overall, it is a life of discernment. It’s one where you don’t reach out for every shiny thing in sight and use it to distract yourself from your growing anxiety. The goal is to make your life as tight and controlled as possible, even though life will throw its own chaos into the mix. It’s about being solutions-oriented. 5. Focus On Solutions, Not Problems A problem is something that happened in the past. A solution is something that exists in the future. A problem can only meet a solution through the present moment. A problem has already happened. There’s no use replaying the scenario in your head. If you were laid off from your job, it’s ok to feel the initial shock and to process that. It isn’t ok to continue processing that for weeks on end with no action. If you were laid off, how do you find a solution to that? Apply for jobs, go on interviews, and network until you find another job. This is known as “non-attachment” in a contemplative sense. 6. Focus on Flow, Not Drifting Non-attachment leads to flow - where you are going through life like a river. Repetitive and heavy thoughts can be like sandpaper. They’re sticky and when they pile up, they can become dense. When thought flows, it is like water. You ask a girl out and she rejects you. Ouch. Ok. But keep going. You reach a final interview round for a job and they go with another candidate. Tough luck. But keep going. Your car gets into an accident and the front fender is messed up. That sucks. But keep going. You keep flowing until you reach an objective you’ve set for yourself. It may take 1 month or 1 year, you still keep flowing. If you have repetitive thoughts or an addiction of some kind, 9 times out of 10, you will be drifting throughout your day. You won’t be able to be productive and make progress on your goals. You will lack the “cutting through power” that you need to get things done and get on with your life. There are many things in your life that you could have done yesterday, a month ago, a year ago - but you let them pile up. This is what happens when overthinking gets in the way. Hope that helps.

Meditation