ADHD overthinking — what it is and 7 ways to deal with it

If you have attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), you may have racing thoughts, persistent rumination, and a hyper-fixation on minor details. While these traits can fuel curiosity and help you problem-solve, they can also lead to the unhealthy habit of ADHD overthinking. Overthinking can cause anxiety and affect productivity — but there are ways to cope.

In this article, we discuss what ADHD overthinking is and how it can affect you. We also explore its potential risks and offer practical techniques to help deal with its effects. 

If you find yourself grappling with ADHD overthinking, connect with a licensed healthcare provider who specializes in ADHD on Klarity in as little as 24 hours. No insurance needed and no hidden fees.

What is ADHD overthinking?

ADHD overthinking is when you dwell on a topic in a continuous thought loop, ruminating about it enough to interfere with your daily life. You may have trouble focusing on the present moment because you’re stuck in the circle of scenarios running over and over in your head. 

Usually, ADHD overthinking happens when you’re upset about the past or worried about the future. In the first case, overthinking involves replaying the event in your mind, sometimes imagining different outcomes and wishing you’d behaved differently. In the second case, ADHD overthinking may involve imagining various outcomes of an event, both good and bad. 

Overthinking sometimes spur you into action to prepare for the future or resolve a past mistake. Most often, it leaves you feeling paralyzed (possibly with ADHD paralysis) or helpless. Overthinking is rarely productive and can increase stress, cause insomnia, and ultimately is bad for your health.

7 strategies to deal with ADHD overthinking

Managing ADHD overthinking can be challenging, but the rewards are worth the effort. Avoiding overthinking can help you prevent bouts of anxiety and depression and take advantage of the positive side of your neurodivergent talents. 

When you redirect the energy used for ADHD overthinking to more positive thoughts and actions, your intensely-felt emotions and lightning-fast thoughts become assets. For example, if your mind is free from negative self-talk, you have more access to the creativity and problem-solving skills inherent in someone with ADHD. 

Through time, practice, and with patience, you can avoid overthinking by using your keen observation skills and adding enriching habits to your daily life.  

1. Recognizing your ADHD overthinking patterns

Recognize overthinking as soon as it begins. Learn to identify your triggers for overthinking and the patterns your mind draws when you start to spiral. 

Keep a small notebook or memo in your phone tracking moments that trigger your ADHD overthinking and cause you stress. Check the list for patterns to see what sends you into negative thought cycles. 

Common triggers include: 

• Feeling tired or sleep-deprived
• Getting too hungry
• Physical pain, such as headaches or muscle aches
• Feeling sad or lonely
• Mirroring others’ emotions (for example, being around someone who complains a lot)

Once you know what causes you to overthink, you can be more aware of when your mind starts to spiral. For instance, if you’re struggling with negative thoughts and realize you’re hungry, see how you feel after a snack. 

2. Keep a journal

Journaling helps you analyze thinking patterns and more efficiently process unlikely catastrophic scenarios your brain may have conjured up. It gets the negative thoughts out of your head and onto paper, where you can see them as separate from yourself and assess them objectively. Recording entries in a journal that detail overthinking events can be beneficial for evaluating potential triggers. 

Since ADHD can cause thoughts to become cluttered and unruly, writing them down is also a way to organize them. That way, if there is a problem you need to address, you can identify it more easily.

3. Find a healthy distraction

Healthy distractions can help stop your mind from racing and break a cycle of ADHD overthinking. One of the fastest ways to get out of your head is to “get into” your body. Any safe physical activity will do, such as swimming, dancing, hiking, lifting weights, or even going for a walk. Anything that requires dynamic, physical movements should help because exercise releases endorphins — the feel-good hormones that combat stress. 

Be careful though as exercise routines that give you time to think, like running or cycling, may not be distracting enough to prevent overthinking.

Getting creative can also help. Cooking, making art, playing an instrument, or writing poetry or fiction take up focus and produce stress-reducing hormones. Spending time with friends or loved ones is also a good idea, especially if you notice you want to isolate yourself. Your loved ones may even be able to provide an objective point of view and help you process some of your worries.

4. Process your worries

Sometimes the best way to combat overthinking is to confront some things worrying you. Clearing your plate of a few items can lessen the mental load and alleviate stress. 

An effective way to process your worries is to list and evaluate them:  

• Write down everything that’s worrying you, no matter how large or small. Don’t try to list them in any particular order; just get them onto paper or a screen.
• Read through your list and cross off things that aren’t necessarily problems, like folding laundry. You may want to do these things, but nothing terrible will happen if you don’t.
• Circle or highlight time-sensitive things you can take care of right away, like paying a monthly bill that’s coming due or checking the mail. Cross them off as you complete them. 
• Rewrite more pressing problems, like a conflict with a loved one or a broken-down car, on a separate piece of paper. Create a loose timeline and plan for handling these things.

Seeing your problems written out helps you decide how to address them. It can also help you see how few things actually warrant concern. Further, creating a plan for what needs attention helps foster peace of mind.

ADHD can make it difficult to concentrate — asking a trusted friend to sit with you during this activity may make it easier.

5. Practice mindfulness

Mindfulness is a grounding practice that encourages staying present and fully engaged with the current moment. For those grappling with ADHD overthinking, mindfulness can be a lifeline. By focusing on your breath, sensations in your body, or even the sounds around you, mindfulness teaches you to redirect attention away from distressing thoughts and toward the present moment.

Mindfulness practices can range from formal meditation sessions to simple daily habits, such as mindful eating or walking. People can also practice mindfulness by utilizing apps or guided sessions through telehealth platforms, making the practice even more accessible for you to use at home. Engaging in mindfulness regularly can also cultivate a sense of calm and control, allowing those with ADHD to manage overthinking more effectively. 

The consistent practice of mindfulness not only reduces the immediate stress and anxiety associated with overthinking, it also builds resilience that can lead to a more balanced and focused mind. Additionally, it offers an opportunity for you to take a step back, reassess what’s going on, and respond to life’s challenges with a clearer and more composed mindset. 

Whether you practice mindfulness independently or with the support of a mental health professional, mindfulness can be very beneficial for those dealing with ADHD-related overthinking.

6. Speak with a mental health professional

Therapists are trained to know how the mind works and think outside the box. If you’re not sure how to stop ADHD overthinking, a therapist may be able to see patterns in your life or behavior that you don’t. From there, they’ll be able to help you develop techniques to break your overthinking habit. 

Therapy is beneficial if you have ADHD because analysis through conversation can be easier than working through your own thinking patterns — especially if you’re already overthinking.

7. Talk with an ADHD medical specialist 

Since overthinking is often a symptom of ADHD, an ADHD medical specialist should be able to share insights and management techniques specific to your situation. They may prescribe ADHD medication to help manage your symptoms. They may also refer you to a mental health therapist who specializes in neurodivergence. 

Medication in combination with therapy is common for managing ADHD. The medication helps balance your brain chemistry, while therapy provides strategies for responding to and handling your emotions.

Why ADHD overthinking is dangerous

While overthinking can be a natural side-effect of managing a significant life event or problem, ADHD overthinking takes it to the next level. People with ADHD think much faster than those without it. Quick thinking is a valuable skill — it lets you assess and understand situations quickly and come up with solutions on the fly when your mind is alert and clear.

However, fast-moving ADHD minds also experience more negative thoughts than their non-ADHD counterparts. As one negative thought spins into the next, they attract more gloomy thoughts like magnets, pulling in one after another until it’s difficult to see anything but problems. 

This thinking pattern can last days longer, feeding into a nonstop stream of negative self-talk that may shift into more serious problems, such as depression or anxiety.

ADHD overthinking can lead to depression

Continuous spirals of negative thoughts and self-talk that come with ADHD overthinking can make it hard to enjoy things like time with loved ones, favorite activities, or favorite foods. Guilt and shame about the past or dread of the future can become all-consuming, leading to isolation and listlessness because they feel so heavy emotionally. Over time, these feelings can become acute or evolve into other mental health issues, like chronic depression, characterized by feelings of sadness, emptiness, or numbness.  

In addition to a fast-moving mind, someone with ADHD feels emotions intensely and may struggle with emotional regulation. Their brains also have trouble processing dopamine correctly, because they often don’t have enough. Severe depression has been linked to low dopamine in the brain, meaning someone with ADHD may be prone to depression. 

Anxiety can result from ADHD overthinking

ADHD overthinking may lead you to where you can’t stop imagining the worst possible outcome of every situation and force yourself to triage solutions so you feel prepared. But, instead of feeling prepared, you feel more anxious. The emotional cycles of guilt and dread from ADHD overthinking can increase stress levels, which lead to anxiety if left unchecked. 

Symptoms of anxiety include feeling restless, nervous, or panicky, increased heart rate, racing thoughts, a sense something terrible is about to happen, rapid breathing, and a general feeling of tension in the muscles. These symptoms may cause insomnia, body tremors, and anxiety or panic attacks.

Though this can happen to anyone, a person with ADHD may be more susceptible to anxiety because their minds quickly build and analyze scenarios. They can play out dozens of doomsday sequences every few minutes, and because human brains don’t differentiate imagined danger from the real thing, stress responses in the body rise accordingly. 

Find a provider on Klarity for help with ADHD overthinking

On Klarity, find licensed ADHD medical and mental health specialists qualified to evaluate your symptoms and help you develop a personalized treatment plan. You can schedule your first appointment in as little as 24 hours. 

Take the first step toward overcoming ADHD overthinking by making an appointment with an ADHD provider.

Sources

National Library of Medicine, PubMed Central, The association between different sources of distraction and symptoms of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, Jul 2023, https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10421702/