How to Stop Thinking About Something 6 Effective Strategies

Have you ever not been able to stop thinking about something? You’re trying to get to sleep at night, and suddenly a thought enters your brain. It’s a disturbing and anxiety-provoking thought.

Perhaps you can’t stop thinking about a past relationship. Maybe you made a mistake at work today, and you can’t stop thinking about what the consequences of it could be. Or maybe it’s something silly you can’t stop thinking about, almost like having a song stuck in your head.

When you can’t stop thinking about something, it can be greatly distressing. You might feel like your thoughts are going a mile a minute, or find that you can’t focus on anything else. In worst case scenarios, these thoughts could start getting in the way of your daily functioning.

So what does it mean when you can’t stop thinking about something? And how can you stop these thoughts from running circles through your mind?

Here’s an explanation of these types of thoughts, as well as 6 strategies you can use to stop thinking about something.

What does it mean if you can’t stop thinking about something?

Not being able to stop thinking about something is a normal part of life. We’ve all had the experience at least once in our lives when thoughts seemed to get stuck in our minds. It could mean that a situation is causing a lot of stress for you, or that you feel some longing toward a person or situation in your life.

But sometimes, this type of thinking becomes rumination. Rumination is a thinking style that causes people to repeat the same thoughts over and over again. It’s normal to ruminate sometimes about some things. But chronic rumination could be a sign of an underlying mental health condition like anxiety or obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD).

Generalized anxiety disorder^[1] can cause you to have excessive and constant worries about situations that don’t objectively merit them. For example, you could worry about money when you have a good income, or about social rejection even when there’s no evidence that you’re disliked.

Anxiety is a very common mental health condition that affects over 40 million^[2] Americans. It is highly treatable with a combination of therapy, holistic lifestyle changes, and medication.

OCD^[3] can also cause people to ruminate severely. People with OCD experience obsessions, or intrusive and unwanted thoughts. These obsessions can be about anything, but they are always very disturbing to the person experiencing them. People with OCD try to get rid of the obsessions through engaging in rituals called compulsions. But compulsions don’t really work, and the person is plagued by the obsession yet again.

For example, someone with OCD could have the obsession, “I might accidentally run someone over.” No matter what compulsion they do, like avoiding driving or protective rituals, they can’t get the thought out of their head.

This is an extreme version of rumination. If you have OCD, it’s critical to get treatment so your symptoms don’t worsen.

Again, however, ruminating sometimes doesn’t automatically mean that you have anxiety, OCD, or any other mental health condition. If you think you might have one of these disorders, reach out to us for an assessment and diagnosis.