There’s no ‘normal’, I don’t think. Instead, there’s what’s helpful, and what’s not, for you.
Thinking, all by itself, doesn’t need to be a problem at all, unless it’s causing you distress, or causing you to behave in dysfunctional ways.
If it’s causing you distress, then there’s different strategies in different types of therapies that might be helpful - different strokes for different folks.
CBT: this would be a retrospective approach. Looking back at examples over the past day or week of when you noticed that you were overthinking, then pulling that apart. What triggered your overthinking in that moment? What were you thinking about? What happened for you internally and behaviour-wise as a result of those thoughts? What would have be a more helpful response to the over-thinking in that moment?
Mindfulness: practicing noticing. This would be generally (just in this moment, wherever you happen to be, whatever’s going on - just notice how you’re going internally, and also what’s the environment around you like, with non-judgmental curiosity), and then also specifically once you’ve built that mindfulness muscle (noticing yourself over-thinking, then pay attention to what’s going on internally and externally, with non-judgmental curiosity).
DBT: thought-stopping. The DBT approach uses the acronym
STOP. Together with a mindfulness approach, this would involve noticing you’re overthinking, checking in with what’s going on for you, then making a conscious decision about what you want to do next.
ACT: similar to the DBT approach, and also building on mindfulness skills, this approach would involve noticing you’re overthinking (mindfulness), applying some thought-diffusion (
see, for example), and then focusing on value-based action (similar to DBT, but instead of simply choosing ‘what do I want to be doing in this moment’, it focuses on ‘what could I do in this moment that best aligns with my values’, in order to really help make the most those new behaviour patterns).
I’m a pretty cerebral person at the the best of times, so I’ve done a lot of practice over the years with all 3 of these approaches. I’m sure there’s plenty more, but those are the big 3, therapeutically.
Personally, I found the ACT approach most helpful, particularly with helping me out of my depression funk. But I can definitely see why, for people with big emotional responses to stuff, the DBT approach might be more practically useful. And the fact is that CBT is still the therapy backed by the most evidence (by a long way. So, it’s more a case of finding what helps you most.
