Too Much Problem Solving and an Anxious Mind

The Hidden Danger of Too Much Problem Solving

Our minds are constantly active, forming relationships between our experiences—external and internal—in practically infinite combinations. This relation-making, connection-making ability leads directly to our problem-solving prowess. We can decide whether things are good or bad, compare different states, and evaluate past, present, and future scenarios all day long.

The problem? Too much problem solving can trap you in cycles of overthinking and anxiety. You know you’re caught in too much problem solving when you start hearing words like “anxious,” “overthinking,” “obsessed,” or the ever-popular “control freak.” When someone tells you they must know everything and can’t tolerate uncertainty, you’re watching that problem-solving machinery in overdrive, jumping completely off the rails.

If you’re feeling perpetually anxious, falling victim to overthinking, or hyper-fixated on problems that probably aren’t even real problems, you’re likely experiencing too much problem solving. Your relation-making, connection-making, problem-solving machine has now become the problem itself.

How Too Much Problem Solving Backfires

Here’s what happens with too much problem solving: We try to control, fix, know, and be certain about things outside our control, and when we inevitably fail, we’re left feeling bad. Since we don’t like feeling bad, our problem-solving minds get tired of trying to fix external things and turn their attention inward. Suddenly, those bad feelings become problems to figure out and solve.

This is the core issue with too much problem solving—it never knows when to stop.

When this happens, all that meaning-making, connection-making, problem-solving machinery gets brought to bear on your own thoughts, emotions, and bodily sensations. Remember, bodily sensations are supposed to come with disturbing thoughts and emotions—but we don’t like that. And what do our minds do with things we don’t like? They try to figure them out and fix them.

The Exhausting Cycle of Too Much Problem Solving

Too much problem solving creates a spectacular failure cycle—and I mean literally spectacular. It’s quite a spectacle to watch. People caught in too much problem solving will spend all night long, all day long, for days on end, furiously reading and researching to find certainty about things that have no certainty. They try to know the unknowable.

When you’re trapped in too much problem solving, you’ll spend countless hours in anxiety forums discussing how bad it feels to feel bad. You’ll seek constant reassurance from friends, family, or experts, hoping for magic answers. You’ll try dietary changes, spend money on supplements, or chase techniques promised to squash bad feelings or create good ones.

The worst part about too much problem solving? When your mind tries to solve itself and fails, it keeps trying, driving you into exhaustion, discouragement, and loss of hope.

Understanding the Process: CAS and Experiential Avoidance

In metacognitive therapy, we call this the Cognitive Attentional Syndrome (CAS). Pay attention to that word “attention”—it matters. The CAS demands that all your attention be given to your internal experiences. You’re having thoughts you don’t like, emotions you don’t like, physical sensations you find distressing or terrifying. The CAS tells you to pay very close attention to them all the time, to figure them out, find a way away from them, or crush them entirely.

In Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT), we have a related concept called experiential avoidance—going to great lengths to get away from, avoid, or escape internal experiences like thoughts, emotions, and bodily sensations. While avoidance might help you feel better in the moment, it comes at a high cost: restricted, shrinking, highly controlled, rigidly lived lives.

The Generalization Problem

Your mind’s ability to form connections also leads to fear generalization. You might start with anxiety about one difficult coworker, but quickly your mind makes relationships between that work situation and all work situations. Soon you’re anxious at work, anxious thinking about work, and anxious just considering that you have to go to work Monday morning.

This is both the blessing and curse of our connection-making minds. In recovery, this works to our advantage, but when we’re sliding down the rabbit hole, it definitely works against us.

Breaking Free from Too Much Problem Solving

So what can we do when too much problem solving takes over and makes everything worse? While I can’t solve your anxiety in a podcast episode, we can look at some basic principles that may help you recognize when you’re caught in cycles of too much problem solving.

The shift away from too much problem solving starts with words you hear around here all the time: mindfulness, tolerance, willful tolerance, surrender, acceptance, floating. They all point to the same thing—paying attention differently.

You might think you need to solve death or turn off your fear of death—that’s too much problem solving talking. But if I were your therapist, I wouldn’t be terribly interested in death at all, even though that’s your presenting concern. I’d be more interested in helping you recognize when you’re engaging in too much problem solving and shifting your focus to the process rather than the content.

Escaping the Too Much Problem Solving Trap

Let me give you a concrete example of how to recognize and shift away from too much problem solving. Initially, someone caught in too much problem solving might get triggered into fear of death and respond frantically: “What was that podcast where the doctor said we could be immortal if we unlock biological secrets? What supplements did he mention? Is it true? Can I solve the problem of death?”

They’re terrified and engaging in too much problem solving, trying to solve their internal terror by grappling with the content of death and immortality.

But after recognizing their pattern of too much problem solving and working on change, that same person might respond differently: “I’m in the same situation right now—highly triggered and uncomfortable—that every other human being experiences. I guess it’s okay to feel this because we all do. It’s a shared experience. When I engage in too much problem solving about this, it brings me to dark places and I feel worse. So what are my options here?”

Can you see the shift away from too much problem solving? Can you see the change over time?

Moving Toward What Matters

You may think you need to solve problems like death, heart attacks, unknowability, or the harm your OCD tells you that you might do to loved ones (which you absolutely won’t do). This is too much problem solving in action. You may feel like you need to solve these internal problems—thoughts, emotions, beliefs, images, bodily sensations.

But what you really want to cultivate is the ability to recognize when you’re caught in too much problem solving, because it’s leading you places it doesn’t belong and won’t help you. We’re trying to cultivate kind observation of too much problem solving in action. Once we can do that, we can shift into values-driven mode—acting in ways that align with what you truly value, even though you’re afraid and uncomfortable.

Hey, wait a minute. That sounds a lot like psychological flexibility, doesn’t it?

Practical Steps to Stop Too Much Problem Solving

Here’s a general principle you can start with the next time you find yourself highly triggered, agitated, frustrated, anxious, frantic, or terrified and caught in too much problem solving:

Recognize when you’re engaging in too much problem solving. This may be your mind turning its problem-solving mechanisms on itself, trying to solve your own internal experiences—which it will be unable to do.

Understand that while too much problem solving seems to make sense, it isn’t always useful and doesn’t belong here.

Acknowledge that life is triggering and difficult enough without making it harder by engaging in too much problem solving about things that aren’t meant to be solved.

Your thoughts, emotions, ideas, and bodily sensations are experiences to have. They are not things to figure out or problems to solve.

If you can observe too much problem solving in action—watching that machine work, watching those problem-solving gears turn at high speed even though you know they’re not going anywhere—then you might have the opportunity to respond differently.

Maybe take a second to stop and deflate that balloon, relax your body even though you don’t want to. Maybe thank your mind for trying to protect you—it’s doing the best it can with the resources it has.

Then decide what makes more sense: continuing to engage in too much problem solving, trying to solve things inside you that have proven unsolvable, or taking action toward things that would make your life more meaningful while you still feel afraid, uncomfortable, and triggered.

This is a difficult path, but there are real benefits if you decide to recognize and shift away from too much problem solving. Be nice to yourself. Be kind, be patient. Moving away from too much problem solving is a big shift and it’s going to take time.

Links Of Interest

• My Substack
• Find my “Practical Mindfulness for Anxiety Recovery” Groups
• My Panic Attacks Explained Workshop
• My Agoraphobia Explained Workshop
• My Panic and Agoraphobia Recovery Guidebook
• Follow me on Instagram
• My YouTube Channel
• Disordered – With Josh Fletcher

Disclaimer: The Anxious Truth is not therapy or a replacement for therapy. Listening to The Anxious Truth does not create a therapeutic relationship between you and the host or guests of the podcast. Information here is provided for psychoeducational purposes. As always, when you have questions about your own well-being, please consult your mental health and/or medical care providers. If you are having a mental health crisis, always reach out immediately for in-person help.