Crazy Thoughts Anxiety Symptoms
Crazy, Weird, Unusual, Bizarre, Off-kilter, Outlandish, Out-of-character, and Disturbing Thoughts are common symptoms of anxiety and stress.
“Crazy Thoughts” are common for most anxiety disorders, including anxiety and panic attacks.
This article explains the relationship between anxiety and “crazy thoughts” symptoms.
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The crazy thoughts anxiety symptoms are often described as:
- Thoughts that seem odd, bizarre, and crazy. Because these thoughts seem so unusual, you might think you are on the verge of losing your mind or going insane.
- Thoughts that seem out of the ordinary, unsettling, and unusual.
- Thoughts that are disturbing and out of character. These thoughts can seem unwanted yet persistent.
- Disturbing thoughts you wish you didn’t have and then can’t stop thinking about them and their implications.
- Thoughts that seem wrong, upsetting, and frightening because they are so uncharacteristic of you.
- Thoughts that seem off-kilter, strange, outlandish, freaky, off the wall, and unsettling.
- These thoughts can include images, words, impressions, or melodies that randomly pop in and out of your mind.
- They can include any subject or topic.
Examples include:
- Having unusual and off kilter thoughts about your health, sanity, self-worth, loved ones, family, friends, co-workers, etc.
- Having strange thoughts about existential, reality, or spiritual matters.
- Having offbeat thoughts about sexual matters.
- You can experience crazy thoughts about any subject or topic.
Because these crazy thoughts can seem so unusual, you may think you are on the verge of losing your mind, going crazy, or going insane.
You might experience just a few thoughts that seem crazy, many crazy thoughts in brief episodes, or experience crazy thoughts all the time. The types of crazy thoughts can change from one type to many different types over the course of time.
This symptom can:
- Occur occasionally, frequently, or persistently.
- Precede, accompany, or follow an escalation of other anxiety symptoms or occur by itself.
- Precede, accompany, or follow a period of nervousness, anxiety, fear, and stress, or occur "out of the blue" for no reason.
- Range in intensity from mild, to moderate, to severe.
- Come in waves where it’s strong one moment and eases off the next.
- Occur for a while, subside, and then return for no reason.
- Change from day to day, moment to moment, or remain as a constant background during your struggle with anxiety disorder.
This symptom can seem more noticeable when undistracted, resting, trying to sleep, or waking up.
All the above combinations and variations are common.
Many people experience an increase in the crazy thoughts when fatigued or due to a lack of sleep.
To see if anxiety might be playing a role in your symptoms, rate your level of anxiety using our free one-minute instant results Anxiety Test, Anxiety Disorder Test or Hyperstimulation Test.
The higher the rating, the more likely it could be contributing to your anxiety symptoms, including having crazy thoughts.
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What causes the crazy thoughts anxiety symptoms?
Medical Advisory
Talk to your doctor about all new, changing, persistent, and returning symptoms as some medical conditions and medications can cause anxiety-like symptoms.
1. The Stress Response
Anxious behavior, such as worry, activates the stress response. The stress response secretes stress hormones into the bloodstream, where they travel to specific locations to immediately prepare the body for emergency action – to fight or flee.
This survival reaction is often referred to as the Fight or Flight Response.[1][2]
Some of the stress response changes include:
- Quickly converts the body’s energy reserves into “fuel” (blood sugar) to provide an instant boost of energy.
- Increases heart rate, respiration, and metabolism due to the boost in energy.
- Stimulates the nervous system, increasing nervous system activity to be more sensitive and reactive to danger.
- Increases activity in the amygdala (thought to be the brain’s fear center) and reduces activity in the prefrontal cortex (the rationalization area if the brain).
For complete information about the many body-wide changes, visit “The Stress Response” article.
The change in brain function causes a heightened sense of urgency and danger, and a reduced ability to rationalize because it’s safer to take immediate action to fight with or run away from danger than it is to stop and think about it before taking action.
This change in brain function can increase thoughts of danger, doom, and uncertainty, while at the same time, making it more difficult to dismiss them. It can also cause an increase in odd, off-kilter, bizarre, and out-of-character thoughts, also making them appear more serious and real.
This change can persist for as long as the stress response is active.
2. Hyperstimulation
When stress responses occur infrequently, the body can recover relatively quickly from the physiological, psychological, and emotional changes caused by the stress response.
However, when stress responses occur too frequently, such as from overly anxious behavior, the body can’t completely recover. Incomplete recovery can lead to a state of semi-stress-response readiness, which we call “stress-response hyperstimulation” since stress hormones are powerful stimulants.
Hyperstimulation is also often referred to as “hyperarousal,” “HPA axis dysfunction,” or “nervous system dysregulation.”[3][4]
Visit our “Hyperstimulation” article for more information about the many ways hyperstimulation can affect the body.
Hyperstimulation can cause the changes of an active stress response even though a stress response hasn’t been activated. Having “crazy, outlandish, bizarre, odd, and out-of-character thoughts” is a common symptom of hyperstimulation (chronic stress).
Furthermore, hyperstimulation can profoundly affect the nervous system, homeostasis, and hormone regulation, causing them to act erratically[5][6][7], also causing “crazy, outlandish, bizarre, odd, and out-of-character thoughts and feelings.”
Hyperstimulation can also impair memory and cognition, alter brain connectivity, increase inflammation, affect neurotransmitter levels, such as serotonin, dopamine, GABA, and glutamate, and impair neuroplasticity, all affecting our thoughts and how we respond to them.
Even so, despite FEELING like you are about to lose your mind, lose control, or go crazy, you won’t. The worst that can happen is that you become afraid. There is NO link between being anxious and losing your mind.
When you experience these types of thoughts, remember that these are just a consequence of hyperstimulation (chronic stress) and nothing more. Again, there is no bridge between being anxious and going insane!
Remember that you are always in control of your thinking and actions, even though you have fleeting thoughts that seem odd. Just because you have thoughts that seem odd, bizarre, and crazy doesn't mean you are going insane.
Just like any anxiety symptom, we don't have to react to unusual and “crazy thoughts” with fear, as they are merely a consequence of hyperstimulation (chronic stress) and nothing more, no matter how "bizarre” your thoughts might seem.
Moreover, when the body becomes hyperstimulated, it can present symptoms of any type, number, severity, duration, frequency, and at any time. As long as the body is even slightly hyperstimulated, it can present symptoms, including these.
Nevertheless, even though this symptom can seem odd, ALL anxiety symptoms subside when we eliminate hyperstimulation, including this one. Therefore, despite its bizarre nature, this symptom needn't be a cause for concern. It will subside when the body has recovered from hyperstimulation.
Also, keep in mind that everyone experiences odd and bizarre thoughts from time to time. This is a normal part of the human experience. People who aren't anxious quickly dismiss and forget about them, whereas anxious people worry about them. That’s one difference.
Another difference is that these types of thoughts can seem more significant and threatening when the brain is hyperstimulated. That’s a second difference.
Despite these differences, we can still eliminate this symptom and our reaction to it. We don’t have to struggle with “crazy thoughts” long-term.
3. Behavior
The “Crazy Thoughts” symptom can also be a result of overthinking, overanalyzing, and worrying. Sometimes, we can overthink, overanalyze, and worry so much that we conjure up possibilities that seem odd, bizarre, and even scary.
Furthermore, common underlying factors such as catastrophizing, magical thinking, worrying about existential matters, and difficulty with reality testing can create this symptom.
When brain functioning isn’t adversely affected by hyperstimulation, we generally dismiss these types of thoughts as being irrational, unimportant, and unworthy of further exploration.
However, when the brain’s fear center (amygdala and others) is hyperactive due to hyperstimulation, it can make these types of thoughts seem rational, important, worthy of entertaining, and a real threat to our sanity and well-being.
4. Other Factors
Other factors can create stress and cause anxiety-like symptoms, as well as aggravate existing anxiety symptoms, including:
- Medication
- Recreational drugs
- Stimulants
- Sleep deprivation
- Fatigue
- Hyper and hypoventilation
- Low blood sugar
- Nutritional deficiencies
- Dehydration
- Hormone changes
- Pain
Select the relevant link for more information.
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How to get rid of the crazy thoughts anxiety symptoms?
When “crazy thoughts” are caused by other factors, addressing the appropriate factor(s) will eliminate this symptom.
When this anxiety symptom is caused by unhealthy behavior, addressing your underlying factors will eliminate this symptom.
When this anxiety symptom is caused by apprehensive behavior and the accompanying stress response changes, calming yourself will bring an end to the active stress response and its changes. As your body recovers from the active stress response, this anxiety symptom will subside.
Keep in mind that it can take the body up to 20 minutes or more to recover from a major stress response. This is normal and shouldn’t be a cause for concern.
When this symptom is caused by hyperstimulation, eliminating hyperstimulation will end this anxiety symptom.
You can reduce and eliminate hyperstimulation by:
- Containing anxious behavior.
- Reducing stress.
- Regular deep relaxation.
- Relaxed diaphragmatic breathing.
- Regular light to moderate exercise.
- Getting regular good sleep.
- Eating a healthy diet of whole and natural foods.
- Avoiding stimulants.
- Passively-accepting your symptoms until they subside.
- Being patient as your body recovers.
Visit our “60 Natural Ways To Reduce Stress” article for more ways to reduce stress.
As the body recovers from hyperstimulation, it stops sending symptoms of hyperstimulation, including this one.
However, eliminating hyperstimulation can take much longer than most people expect, causing symptoms to persist.
As long as the body is hyperstimulated, even to a mild degree, it can present symptoms of any type, number, intensity, duration, frequency, and at any time, including “crazy thoughts” symptoms.
Even so, since this symptom is a common symptom of stress (acute and chronic), including anxiety-caused stress, it's harmless and needn't be a cause for concern. It will subside when unhealthy stress has been eliminated and the body has had sufficient time to recover and stabilize. Therefore, there is no reason to worry about anxiety-caused “crazy thoughts.”
Therapy
Unidentified and unaddressed underlying factors cause issues with anxiety, including many of the behaviors that can contribute to this symptom. As such, they are the primary reason why anxiety symptoms persist.[8][9][10]
Addressing your underlying factors (Level Two recovery) is most important if you want lasting success.
Addressing Level Two recovery can help you:
- Contain anxious behavior.
- Become unafraid of anxiety symptoms and the strong feelings of anxiety.
- End anxiety symptoms.
- Successfully address the underlying factors that so often cause issues with anxiety.
- End what can feel like out-of-control worry.
All our recommended anxiety therapists have had anxiety disorder and overcame it. Their personal experience with anxiety disorder and their Master's Degree and above professional training gives them insight other therapists don't have.
If you want to achieve lasting success over anxiety disorder, any one of our recommended therapists would be a good choice.
Working with an experienced anxiety disorder therapist is the most effective way to treat anxiety disorder.
In many cases, working with an experienced therapist is the only way to overcome stubborn anxiety. It’s also a vital component to overcoming fears that often become established because of this symptom and the concern about mental health.
Prevalence
In an online poll we conducted, 89 percent of respondents said they had “crazy thoughts” symptoms due to their anxiety.
For more information, Recovery Support members can read these sections about dealing with “Crazy Thoughts” symptoms:
- “Dealing with the Crazy Thoughts” in Chapter 6.
- “Is My Brain Trying To Make Me Crazy” – in Chapter 12.
- “Crazy Thoughts About Friends And Family” – in Chapter 12.
Common Anxiety Symptoms
Additional Resources
- For a comprehensive list of Anxiety Disorders Symptoms Signs, Types, Causes, Diagnosis, and Treatment.
- Anxiety and panic attacks symptoms can be powerful experiences. Find out what they are and how to stop them.
- How to stop an anxiety attack and panic.
- Free online anxiety tests to screen for anxiety. Two minute tests with instant results. Such as:
- Anxiety 101 is a summarized description of anxiety, anxiety disorder, and how to overcome it.
Return to our anxiety disorders signs and symptoms page.
anxietycentre.com: Information, support, and therapy for anxiety disorder and its symptoms, including the anxiety symptom crazy thoughts.
1. “Understanding The Stress Response.” Harvard Health, 3 April 2024.
2. Godoy, Livea, et al. "A Comprehensive Overview on Stress Neurobiology: Basic Concepts and Clinical Implications." Frontiers In Behavioral Neuroscience, 3, July 2018.
3. Teixeira, Renata Roland, et al. “Chronic Stress Induces a Hyporeactivity of the Autonomic Nervous System in Response to Acute Mental Stressor and Impairs Cognitive Performance in Business Executives.” Current Neurology and Neuroscience Reports., U.S. National Library of Medicine, 2015.
4. Yaribeygi, Habib, et al. “The Impact of Stress on Body Function: A Review.” EXCLI Journal, Leibniz Research Centre for Working Environment and Human Factors, 2017.
5. Elbers, Jorina, et al. "Wired for Threat: Clinical Features of Nervous System Dysregulation in 80 Children." Pediatric Neurology, Dec 2018.
6. Marks, David. "Dyshomeostasis, obesity, addiction and chronic stress." Health Psychology Open, Jan 2016,
7. Nicolaides, Nicolas, et al. "Stress, the stress system and the role of glucocorticoids." Neuroimmunomodulation, 2015,
8. Hofmann, Stefan G., et al. “The Efficacy of Cognitive Behavioral Therapy: A Review of Meta-Analyses.” Cognitive Therapy and Research, U.S. National Library of Medicine, 1 Oct. 2012.
9. Leichsenring, Falk. “Is Cognitive Behavioral Therapy the Gold Standard for Psychotherapy?” JAMA, American Medical Association, 10 Oct. 2017.
10. DISCLAIMER: Because each body is somewhat chemically unique, and because each person will have a unique mix of symptoms and underlying factors, recovery results may vary. Variances can occur for many reasons, including due to the severity of the condition, the ability of the person to apply the recovery concepts, and the commitment to making behavioral change.