Racing Thoughts: How to Prevent Your Mind from Racing

Sometimes, you may experience fast-moving and repetitive thought patterns. Such thoughts can be overwhelming and impact your mental health. The thoughts can focus on a single thing or multiple different thoughts. For instance, you can have racing thoughts in an embarrassing moment or a phobia when facing a financial problem. When these thoughts escalate, they can increase anxiety and uneasiness or cause disrupted concentration

How do you know you have racing thoughts? When your mind is racing, you may feel like you cannot slow down the thoughts or your mind cannot relax. You may also find concentrating or thinking about the worst-case scenarios challenging. It can lead to insomnia when you cannot fall asleep because of the racing thoughts. The following are strategies you can follow to prevent racing thoughts.

Ways to Prevent Racing Thoughts

There are several steps you can take to prevent racing thoughts. Such include;

Therapy

Therapy is an effective solution to preventing racing thoughts. A therapist Bend Oregon, can use cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) to identify the cause of racing thoughts. This type of therapy will help you recognize techniques like deep breathing, using mantras, writing down thoughts, and focusing on one thing at a time.

Focusing on Breathing

Deep breathing, careful breathing, and focusing on counting your breath when exhaling and inhaling can help calm your mind. Such practices force the mind to focus on something else instead of the thoughts. You can reduce anxiety once you have a calming effect on the central nervous system. So, consider calming patterns like box breathing, alternate nostril breaths, diaphragmatic breathing, etc.

Eliminating Stress

Sometimes, you get racing thoughts because of stress. Suppose you habitually go to bed when stressed. In that case, you might often build castles and think hard, resulting in insomnia. Therefore, consider changing the routine if you have difficulty sleeping at night. Try reading a book or a magazine, doing yoga or meditation, or taking a bubble bath before bed. Such activities can help you relax and sleep better.

Trying a Mantra

Choose a mantra and use it often when you find your thoughts racing. A mantra can help take the thought off your mind. Something like “All will be well” can help you keep calm. A mantra helps ease your thoughts and feelings of depression, stress, and fear.

Medication

A doctor can recommend medication to help manage the condition, especially if the racing thoughts come with bipolar episodes and anxiety attacks. The medicines involve antidepressants, antipsychotics, anti-anxiety drugs, and mood stabilizers.

It is essential to call your therapist or doctor if you have racing thoughts regularly and the thoughts are disrupting. Make an appointment when you have the following symptoms alongside racing thoughts.

• Strong irritability
• Depression symptoms
• Anxiety attacks
• Strong compulsions
• Panic attack
• Severe mood shift

The Main Causes of Racing Thoughts

Racing thoughts are a symptom of various conditions. While most are a result of anxiety, other conditions cause racing thoughts, too. Such include:

• Anxiety
• PTSD
• ADHD
• Bipolar disorder
• Obsessive-compulsive disorder
• Agitated depression
• Side effects from medications

Calm You Mind with Effective Therapy 

Therapy can help calm your mind and prevent symptoms triggered by racing thoughts. Your therapist will help you maneuver strategies to cope with stress and devise techniques to help keep a calm mind pattern. Like any other health condition, mental health conditions are easily treatable when caught in advance.