You have likely experienced some form of the late-night mental loop: replaying a terse exchange with a colleague, wondering about a loved one\u2019s subtle shift in tone, or worrying about a symptom you googled.<\/p>\n
Overthinking has become a modern buzzword blamed for wrecking everything from emotional well-being to personal relationships and professional careers.<\/p>\n
More than just \u201cthinking hard\u201d, it is a specific, destructive cognitive trap recognised by neuroscience. Understanding how it works is the first step to switching it off.<\/p>\n
What exactly is overthinking? Isn\u2019t it just thinking hard about a problem?<\/h3>\n
Not quite. Deep thinking is goal-oriented problem-solving. Overthinking, on the other hand, is an aimless loop driven by negative, repetitive thoughts that offer no resolution.<\/p>\n
\u201cOverthinkers go over and over their negative thoughts and feelings, examining them, questioning them, kneading them like dough,\u201d writes the late Yale psychologist Susan Nolen-Hoeksema in Women Who Think Too Much<\/em>, a landmark book on the subject.<\/p>\n Questions lead to more questions, she says, causing negative thoughts to multiply and spread to other areas of our lives.<\/p>\n She says a chain of overthinking might go: \u201c[My husband] was so quiet tonight. He must be getting tired of me. What did I do wrong? Maybe he\u2019s having an affair. My first husband left me, too. I\u2019m just impossible to live with.\u201d<\/p>\n
![\"Psychologist](\"https:\/\/img.i-scmp.com\/cdn-cgi\/image\/fit=contain,width=1024,format=auto\/sites\/default\/files\/d8\/images\/canvas\/2026\/08\/14\/19766c4b-c22a-457c-8929-892b31b04a29_c664fa60.jpg\" "\\"Psychologist")
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