Chronic Worry and Overthinking: When Your Mind Won't Let You Rest
You're not overthinking because you're broken. You're overthinking because your mind is trying to keep you safe.
There's a particular kind of exhaustion that comes from a mind that never quite settles. Not the tiredness of a long day, but the tiredness of a mind that runs through every possibility, replays every conversation, and scans for problems even when the day is done.
If you've been told you worry too much, or if you've tried to stop and found that you can't, this page is for you. Not to fix you. But to help you understand what's happening and what might actually help.
What chronic worry actually feels like
Chronic worry doesn't always look the way people expect. It's not always dramatic or visible. Sometimes it's just a steady hum. A background noise that never fully powers down.
You might wake up already thinking. Before your eyes are fully open, your mind is running through the day, anticipating what could go wrong, mentally rehearsing conversations that haven't happened yet. There's no alarm. No crisis. Just a quiet relentlessness.
It can sound like: Did I say the wrong thing yesterday? What if that email was taken the wrong way? What if I forget something important? What if this feeling never goes away?
Some people experience it as racing thoughts. Others describe it more like a slow, circular churn. The same worry, returning again and again, wearing a slightly different mask each time.
You might notice it most at night. When the world gets quiet but your mind doesn't. When you lie in bed replaying the day, scanning for mistakes, or projecting into tomorrow. Trouble sleeping from worry is one of the most common things people describe, and one of the most draining.
The difficult thing about chronic worry is that it can feel like your personality. Like you're just "a worrier." But worry at this level isn't a character trait. It's a pattern. And patterns can be understood.
The loop
Here's the part that makes chronic worry so hard to interrupt. It feels productive.
When your mind is scanning for problems, it feels like you're doing something useful. Like if you think about it long enough, you'll finally land on the answer. You'll feel prepared. You'll feel safe.
But the safety never comes. Because worry isn't actually solving anything. It's looping. It circles the same territory without arriving anywhere. And the more you loop, the more your nervous system stays activated, which makes the next loop feel even more urgent.
This is the cycle. Worry creates tension. Tension signals your body that something is wrong. Your body responds by sending more worry. And so it continues.
It's not a thinking problem in the way most people assume. It's a nervous system pattern. Your mind is doing what it learned to do in response to uncertainty or threat. The issue isn't that you're thinking too much. It's that your system has gotten stuck in a mode that was designed to be temporary.
For many people, this loop is closely connected to high-functioning anxiety. The overthinking becomes part of how they manage life, plan ahead, and stay in control. It works, until it doesn't.
The issue isn't that you're thinking too much. It's that your system has gotten stuck in a mode that was designed to be temporary.
Worry vs problem-solving
One of the most helpful distinctions you can make is between worry and genuine problem-solving. They can feel similar on the surface, but they operate very differently.
Worry vs Problem-Solving
Problem-solving:
Has a direction. You identify a specific issue, consider options, and move toward action. It usually has a beginning, a middle, and some kind of resolution, even if the resolution is deciding to wait.
Worry:
Doesn't move forward. It circles. It replays. It asks "what if" without ever settling on an answer. It generates more questions than solutions. And it tends to expand rather than narrow. One worry leads to another, which leads to another, until you're carrying the weight of problems that may never exist.
You might notice this in small moments. Standing in a grocery store, unable to decide what to make for dinner because every option triggers a chain of considerations. Or sitting at your desk, rereading the same paragraph of an email because you can't tell if the tone is right. Decision fatigue and analysis paralysis aren't personality flaws. They're signs that your worry system is running louder than your decision-making system.
If you've ever finished a worry spiral and realized you're no closer to a solution than when you started, that's the difference. Problem-solving leaves you lighter. Worry leaves you tired.
Worry vs intuition
This is a question that comes up often, and it deserves careful attention. Because sometimes what feels like worry is actually intuition. And sometimes what feels like intuition is actually anxiety wearing a convincing mask.
Intuition tends to arrive quietly. It's a knowing that doesn't need evidence. It settles in the body as a calm clarity, even when the message is uncomfortable. It usually points you in a direction without spiraling.
Worry, on the other hand, tends to be louder. More urgent. More repetitive. It doesn't settle. It escalates. It generates scenarios rather than direction. And it's often accompanied by physical tension, not calm.
The tricky part is that both can feel important. Both can feel like they're trying to protect you. But intuition usually asks you to act. Worry usually asks you to keep thinking.
Learning to tell the difference is part of the work we do in therapy. Not by dismissing either one, but by getting curious about how each shows up in your body and what each is asking of you. Over time, you can learn to trust the signal and quiet the noise.
How chronic worry lives in the body
Chronic worry isn't just a mental experience. It's physical. Deeply physical.
When your mind is constantly scanning for threat, your nervous system stays in a state of low-grade activation. Your fight or flight response doesn't fully switch off. And over time, that takes a toll.
You might notice it as stomach tension that doesn't seem connected to anything you ate. Chest tightness that your doctor can't explain. Jaw clenching, especially at night. Headaches that come and go with stress. A general restlessness or inability to sit still. Or a fatigue that feels bone-deep, even when you haven't done anything physically demanding.
These aren't random symptoms. They're your body responding to a mind that hasn't settled. The worry keeps the system activated. The activation keeps the body tense. And the tension feeds more worry.
This is why approaches that only address thoughts often fall short. If the body is still holding the pattern, the mind will keep returning to it. Working with both, the mind and the body, is what makes the difference. It's also why chronic worry often shows up alongside experiences like burnout, health anxiety, or ongoing stress that doesn't resolve.
How therapy helps with chronic worry and overthinking
Therapy for chronic worry isn't about learning to stop thinking. It's about understanding why your mind is working this hard and what it needs in order to ease.
In individual therapy, we don't start by trying to fix the worry. We start by understanding it. What triggers it. What it sounds like. Where it lives in your body. What it's been protecting you from.
From there, we can begin to work with the pattern rather than against it. This might include learning to notice when the loop has started, before it gains momentum. Exploring what your nervous system is responding to, even when there's no obvious threat. Building the capacity to sit with uncertainty without needing to resolve it immediately. And gently creating space between a thought and the automatic response it usually triggers.
This isn't about willpower. It's about giving your system something it hasn't had, which is often safety, steadiness, and the experience of being met without judgment.
Over time, the volume turns down. Not because you've forced it, but because your system has learned it doesn't need to stay on alert all the time.
Leanne offers both in-person sessions in Kitchener-Waterloo and virtual therapy across Ontario.
Trauma-informed, somatic, and relational
Leanne works with chronic worry and overthinking from a trauma-informed, somatic, and relational perspective. What that means in practice is that we don't just talk about your thoughts. We also pay attention to what's happening in your body, in your relationships, and in the patterns that run beneath the surface.
Many people with chronic worry have spent years trying to manage it from the top down. Challenging thoughts. Journaling. Breathing exercises. And those tools aren't wrong, but they're often incomplete. If the nervous system is still in a state of activation, the worry will keep returning.
Leanne's approach works with the body alongside the mind. We pay attention to where tension is held. We notice what happens in the room when certain topics come up. We track the moments when your system shifts from settled to activated, and we explore what it needs in those moments.
This kind of work isn't rushed. It's paced to respect your system. And it's built on the idea that you don't need to fight your mind into submission. You need to understand what it's asking for.
Frequently Asked Questions
It is completely normal to have questions before reaching out.
Chronic worry is the most common feature of generalized anxiety disorder, but you don't need a formal diagnosis to experience it or to benefit from therapy. If worry is a constant presence in your life and it's affecting your sleep, your energy, or your ability to be present, that's worth exploring.
Because worry isn't a choice. It's a pattern that your nervous system has learned, often in response to early experiences of uncertainty, pressure, or emotional stress. Telling yourself to stop worrying is a bit like telling your heart to stop beating faster when you're startled. The response is automatic. Therapy helps you work with that response rather than against it.
Yes. Chronic worry keeps your nervous system activated, which can lead to muscle tension, digestive issues, headaches, chest tightness, jaw pain, and fatigue. These are real symptoms with a real cause. They're your body responding to a mind that hasn't been able to settle.
Not all therapy approaches work the same way with chronic worry. If your previous experience focused mostly on thought patterns without addressing what's happening in the body and the nervous system, it may have felt incomplete. Leanne's approach integrates somatic awareness and relational depth, which often reaches the layers that talk therapy alone doesn't touch.
It depends on the person and the depth of the pattern. Some people notice meaningful shifts within a few months. Others choose to stay longer to work with the roots of the worry. There's no set timeline, and we check in regularly about pacing and progress.
Yes. Virtual therapy is available across Ontario. Many people find that online sessions work well for this kind of reflective, conversational work. In-person sessions are also available in Kitchener-Waterloo.
Your mind has been working overtime. It's okay to let something else hold the weight
You've been carrying this for a long time. The replaying, the scanning, the low hum of "what if" that follows you into every quiet moment. You've managed it well enough that most people around you probably have no idea.
But you know. And that knowing is enough to start.
If you're ready to explore what's underneath the worry, you can book a free consultation. It's a conversation, not a commitment. Just space to talk about what you've been noticing and what might help.
And if you're not ready for that yet, you can start with the free guide, Softening the Edge. It's a quiet place to begin.