'You become your own worst enemy' - How to stop overthinking before it stops you

702's Gugs Mhlungu spoke to resident clinical psychologist Dr Khosi Jiyane. 

Listen to their conversation below.

From obsessively checking if the stove is off to endless worry about purpose, relationships, or the future, overthinking can creep into our lives in subtle but draining ways.

Jiyane says it's rooted in how our brains are wired for survival.

"...we are wired to minimise, mitigate, prevent, and eliminate threats that may ensue from our environment in its various ways that it can happen and to maximise gains...that is what propels us forward...then that's where the problem comes in. So in as much as it is a necessary and inevitable capacity of this expensive human brain, we can also become our own worst enemy, which like anything overdone, overused, we can then kind of immobilise ourselves which is what we can end up in when we overthink things."

- Dr Khosi Jiyane, clinical psychologist

"...you suffer from mental overload because you're second-guessing everything...you start kind of going into a rabbit hole of darkness where you become imprisoned and end up in a mental labyrinth of sorts that you can't walk out of and end up not doing anything because you have thought to the nth degree in the negative sense and forget the other side as well of possibilities..."

- Dr Khosi Jiyane, clinical psychologist

To stop the cycle, Jiyane shares these helpful tips:

• Pause and reflect on good decisions you’ve made, remind yourself that not everything ends badly.

• Let go of perfection; being "perfectly imperfect" is enough.

• Find a thinking partner, someone to help you talk through decisions.

• Do something physical, like taking a walk, to break the mental loop.

• Distract yourself with a task or activity to give your brain a break.

• Ask yourself, "What’s the worst that could really happen?" and trust that you’ll handle it.

• Take the leap when it’s time.

"...at some point, you have to jump and deal with what will happen."

- Dr Khosi Jiyane, clinical psychologist

Scroll up to listen to the full conversation