Also known as rumination, overthinking is exactly as it sounds – thinking too much. Overthinking refers to having the same thought repeatedly, like going around a circle with no exit point. People who struggle with overthinking may overthink even the smallest of situations. As a result, these individuals often suffer from an anxiety disorder, which can further perpetuate overthinking. If you are struggling with rumination, here is a list of the best books on overthinking that can help.

Best Books for Overthinking and Anxiety

For overthinkers, life can often feel like rush hour. One thought is interrupted by another until you are going around in turns and circles, struggling to get from point A to point B. These continuous thoughts may also come rapidly and be paired with anxiety, an intense, excessive, and persistent worry.

For chronic overthinkers, this habit can take a heavy toll on their mental health, so much so that mental illness can result. If you are part of this club, below are some of the best books for overthinkers that may help you get out of this.

The Worry Trick: How Your Brain Tricks You into Expecting the Worst and What You Can Do About It by David A Carbonell, PhD

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Many overthinkers struggle with the persistent thought: what if something goes wrong? As a result, simple and innocuous situations spiral into a series of doubts and fear. To help people cope with overthinking and anxiety, psychologist and anxiety expert David Carbonell wrote The Worry Trick.

This book focuses on why worrying tricks us into overthinking and how to break free from this never-ending cycle of overthinking. Using the latest research in Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) and Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT), readers will learn a range of overthinking coping techniques.

Clear Your Mind by Steven Schuster

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Another one of the best books for dealing with overthinking is Clear Your Mind by Steven Schuster. This book focuses on decluttering the mind of distractions and stressors like social media, work demands, family, money, and worries about the future. The book was written based on the premise that living with this much noise can lead to a cluttered mind, which must be decluttered to combat overthinking.

Clear Your Mind aims to teach readers to build constructive habits and to let go of their expectations of others, both good and bad. Although Schuster is not a medical professional, the school of life often teaches us useful and noteworthy lessons.

The Overthinker’s Guide to Love by Kristen Ruth Smith

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Everything else in our life can be going well, but if there is ever an area of life that we tend to overthink, it’s love. As Shakespeare joked, “The course of true love never did run smooth,” and many of us cannot help but overthink the other party’s thoughts and responses.

Especially now that we are in the peak age of technology, being left on ‘read,’ ghosting, and other technology-related behaviors can make finding love much more complicated. Even so, Kristen Ruth Smith does not think love is doomed.

Using wit and real-life experiments in her own quest to find love, Smith writes about the process of finding love and reveals hidden insights into our lives, how to stop overthinking in love, and uncover the fun in dating and romance. In one of the funniest and most insightful books on overthinking, The Overthinker’s Guide to Love offers a beautifully balanced story and hard-won lessons trimmed with data and science.

Reclaim Your Brain by Joseph A. Annibali, M.D.

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Reclaim Your Brain was founded on the idea that renegade thoughts have taken over your brain, and it needs to be reclaimed. Amen Clinic’s Chief Psychiatrist, Dr. Joseph Annibali, offers a series of explanations for how imbalances in the brain can lead to overthinking. By following these techniques, readers can improve their cognition of balance in their mind but also find focus in a chaotic world.

A Manual for Living by Epictetus

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Translated from the original Greek, Epictetus was a well-respected Stoic philosopher who lived in the 1st century CE. His teachings are ageless and can help people struggling with overthinking in many ways. To give you an idea, the book starts with this quote: “Difficulties are things that show a person what they are.”

Epictetus teaches us how to be grateful for everything we have, no matter if it is something we desire or not. He teaches gratitude for our bodies and everything we experience and learn. He also teaches us to balance between not wanting more than what we have and feeding our ambitions by shooting for ambitious goals.

Rewire: Change Your Brain to Break Bad Habits, Overcome Addictions, Conquer Self-Destructive Behavior by Richard O’Connor

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Rewire by Richard O’Connor is one of the books about overthinking that has been a life-changer for many people. Richard O’Connor is a psychologist who has suffered from anxiety his whole life. In this book, he describes what happens in the brain during an anxiety attack and how it creates fear and anxiety. He also writes how it can be rewired to reduce your suffering, create more confidence, and live a better life.

This book also includes worksheets and exercises to help readers change their brains. Even if readers do not have time to do all the exercises, readers will learn a lot about their anxiety and how best to cope with it.

Help for Mental Illness

While these books on overthinking can help you manage your symptoms and develop healthier skills for coping with stress and anxiety, they are not the solution. If you are struggling with your mental health, professional help is the best way to go.

Our residential mental health program in Boca offers treatment for various forms of mental health disorders, including anxiety. We utilize various evidence-based therapy programs – like CBT – to help clients understand their disorders and symptoms and how best to cope with them.