Racing thoughts anxiety symptoms
Racing thoughts and racing mind, such as feeling like your mind is going a million miles an hour, thoughts that come nonstop, feeling like you can’t control the speed of your thoughts, feeling like your mind is wired, and having so many thoughts that your mind is pulling you in all kinds of directions at the same time, is a common symptom experienced by many anxiety disorder sufferers. Discover what it feels like, what causes them, and how to get rid of them.
Racing thoughts are common anxiety disorder symptoms, including generalized anxiety disorder, social anxiety disorder, panic disorder, and others.
This article explains the relationship between anxiety and racing thoughts.
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The Racing Thoughts / Racing Mind anxiety symptoms are often described as:
The racing thoughts anxiety symptoms common descriptions:
- Your mind is racing and it seems as if there is nothing you can do to stop it.
- Your mind is racing so fast that you have a million thoughts a minute.
- Your mind is racing so much that you can’t focus on any one thing.
- Your brain feels like it is wired with electricity and, as a result, your thoughts are racing a million miles an hour.
- Your thoughts are racing so fast you can’t stop them.
- You have a million ideas all at once.
- Your racing mind never shuts off.
- It feels like your mind is pulling you in several directions at once.
- The moment you think of one thought another thought replaces it faster than you can finish the first one.
- You have a million thoughts happening all at the same time.
- You have so many thoughts happening all at once that you can’t focus on anything.
- You have so many thoughts happening all at once that your head feels like it is about to explode.
- Your thoughts are racing so much that you feel dizzy at times.
- It feels like your head is spinning because your thoughts are racing so much.
- It feels as if your head is about to explode because of how fast your thoughts are racing.
And much more.
Racing thoughts 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" and for no reason.
- Range in intensity from slight, to moderate, to severe.
- Come in waves where it’s strong one moment and eases off or subsides the next.
- Occur for a while, subside, 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.
Racing thoughts anxiety symptoms can seem more disconcerting when undistracted or when trying to rest or go to sleep.
The racing thoughts anxiety symptoms can also feel stronger upon waking up in the middle of the night. They can also feel very strong first thing in the morning after waking up and shortly after waking up from a nap.
All the above combinations and variations are common.
To see if anxiety might be playing a role in your anxiety 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 Racing Thoughts anxiety symptoms.
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What causes racing 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.
There are six main causes of anxiety-related racing thoughts:
1. Active stress response
When we think we are in danger (apprehensive behavior, worry, fear, anxiety, etc.), the body activates the stress response (also referred to as the emergency response). The stress response causes the body to secrete stress hormones into the bloodstream where they travel to targeted locations to bring about immediate changes that enhance the body's ability to deal with a threat - to either fight with or flee from it - which is the reason the stress response is often referred to as the fight or flight response.[1][2]
In addition to the many effects stress hormones have on the body, they also stimulate the body. This stimulation effect also affects the nervous system, which includes the brain.
Research has found that stress hormones cause an increase in activity in certain parts of the brain. This increased activity can cause an increase in thought generation. Increased thought generation is typically experienced as racing thoughts.
Consequently, racing thoughts can last as long as the body is experiencing an active stress response. Once the active stress response ends, the body’s stimulation diminishes and along with it, the increase in thought generation. Racing thoughts subside as the active stress response ends and the body returns to its normal level of stimulation.
For more information about the many changes stress responses cause, Recovery Support members can read the section entitled “Hyperstimulation And Its Effects” in Chapter 14.
2. Stress-response hyperstimulation
When the body isn’t overly stressed and/or stimulated, the activity level in the brain is normal. This results in a normal level of thought generation.
But when the body becomes overly stressed (stress-response hyperstimulated), such as from overly apprehensive behavior, brain activity can increase and remain increased as long as the body is hyperstimulated.[3][4] This can cause the increase in thought generation to persist. As long as the body is even slightly hyperstimulated, we can experience racing thoughts as a consequence.
Again for more detailed information, Recovery Support members can read the section entitled “Hyperstimulation And Its Effects” in Chapter 14.
3. Stimulants
Since stimulation can cause an increase in thought generation, indulging in stimulants, such as caffeine or recreational drugs that have a stimulating effect, can cause racing thoughts.
Similar to the stress response, the more stimulated the body becomes from indulging in stimulants, the more likely it is that you will have racing thoughts.
4. Poor sleep
A lack of sleep is another cause of racing thoughts. When our sleep is cut short, the body tries to compensate for feeling tired by increasing cortisol production. Cortisol is the body’s most powerful stress hormone.
The less sleep you get, the more cortisol the body produces. Cortisol is a stimulant. As cortisol production increases, so does the body’s level of stimulation. As stimulation increases, so can thought generation, which can be experienced as racing thoughts.
5. Medication
Some medications and remedies, such as prescription, over-the-counter, herbal, etc., can cause adverse reactions. These adverse reactions can stimulate the body and cause racing thoughts. This is especially true for combinations of medications and/or remedies.
If you are experiencing racing thoughts, you may want to talk with your doctor and pharmacist to see if your medications, or combinations thereof, could be causing your racing thoughts.
6. Behavior
Many anxious people have developed a habit of doing everything quickly. Their actions, mannerisms, activity levels, walking, talking, and so on, are all done in a hurry. In fact, the pace of their lives is often so fast most others have difficulty keeping up.
This fast-pace stems from fast thinking. As their pace increases, so does the body’s level of stimulation - the body produces stress hormones to meet the demand of our activity.
This type of behavior and the body’s level of stimulation become a habit over time. Consequently, the faster they go, the more stimulated the body becomes, with one fueling the other. If they don’t make time to balance their high activity with rest, it’s often not long before hyperstimulation occurs.
Having a habit of doing everything quickly is another cause of increased stimulation, which can cause racing thoughts.
Increase in stimulation can cause an increase in thought generation.
7. Other Factors
Other factors can cause and contribute to racing thoughts, including:
- Recreational drugs
- 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 racing mind anxiety symptoms?
When racing thoughts is caused by stimulants, poor sleep, medication, behavior, or other factors, addressing the cause should eliminate racing thoughts…in time.
When this symptom is caused or aggravated by other factors, addressing those factors can reduce and eliminate it.
When this symptom is caused by anxious behavior and active stress response, calming yourself down will end the stress response and its changes. As your body recovers from the active stress response, this anxiety symptom should subside.
Keep in mind it can take up to 20 minutes or more for the body to recover from a major stress response. But this is normal and shouldn’t be a cause for concern.
When hyperstimulation (chronic stress) causes racing thoughts, eliminating hyperstimulation will end this anxiety symptom.
You can eliminate hyperstimulation by:
- Reducing stress.
- Containing anxious behavior (since anxiety creates stress).
- Regular deep relaxation.
- Avoiding stimulants.
- Regular light to moderate exercise.
- Eating a healthy diet of whole and natural foods.
- 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.
Recovery Support members can view chapters 5, 6, 7, 14 and more for more detailed information about recovering from hyperstimulation and anxiety disorder.
As the body recovers from hyperstimulation, it stops sending symptoms, including this one.
Symptoms of chronic stress subside as the body regains its normal, non-hyperstimulated health.
However, eliminating hyperstimulation can take much longer than most people think, causing symptoms to linger longer than expected.
As long as the body is even slightly hyperstimulated, it can present symptoms of any type, number, intensity, duration, frequency, and at any time, including this one.
Even so, since racing thoughts is a common symptom of stress, 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. Therefore, there is no reason to worry about it.
Anxiety symptoms often linger because:
- The body is still being stressed (from stressful circumstances or anxious behavior).
- Your stress hasn't diminished enough or for long enough.
- Your body hasn't completed its recovery work.
Addressing the reason for lingering symptoms will allow the body to recover.
Most often, lingering anxiety symptoms ONLY remain because of the above reasons. They AREN'T a sign of a medical problem. This is especially true if you have had your symptoms evaluated by your doctor and they have been solely attributed to anxiety or stress.
Chronic anxiety symptoms subside when hyperstimulation is eliminated. As the body recovers and stabilizes, all chronic anxiety symptoms will slowly diminish and eventually disappear.
Since worrying and becoming upset about anxiety symptoms stress the body, these behaviors can interfere with recovery.
Passively accepting your symptoms – allowing them to persist without reacting to, resisting, worrying about, or fighting them – while doing your recovery work will cause their cessation in time.
Acceptance, practice, and patience are key to recovery.
Keep in mind that it can take a long time for the body to recover from hyperstimulation. It's best to faithfully work at your recovery despite the lack of apparent progress.
However, if you persevere with your recovery work, you will succeed.
You also have to do your recovery work FIRST before your body can recover. The cumulative effects of your recovery work will produce results down the road. And the body's stimulation has to diminish before symptoms can subside.
- Reducing stress.
- Increasing rest.
- Faithfully practicing your recovery strategies.
- Passively accepting your symptoms.
- Containing anxious behavior.
- Being patient.
These will bring results in time.
When you do the right work, the body has to recover!
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Therapy
Unidentified and unaddressed underlying factors cause issues with anxiety. As such, they are the primary reason why anxiety symptoms persist.[5][6][7]
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, especially if you have persistent symptoms and difficulty containing anxious behavior, such as worry.
In many cases, working with an experienced therapist is the only way to overcome stubborn anxiety.
Frequently Asked Questions About Racing Thoughts
Are anxiety and stress-caused racing thoughts harmful?
No. Anxiety and stress-caused racing thoughts aren’t harmful. They indicate anxious behavior, elevated stress, or habituated behavior. They will subside when you address the specific cause or causes.
However, they can also be caused by other factors, such as medication, recreational drugs, sleep deprivation, and others. Review the information about for more information about each.
Are anxiety-related racing thoughts a sign of serious mental illness?
No, anxiety-related racing thoughts are NOT a sign of serious mental illness. They are caused by anxious behavior, elevated stress, or habituated behavior. They will subside when you address the specific cause or causes.
However, they can also be caused by other factors, such as medication, recreational drugs, sleep deprivation, and others. Review the information about for more information about each.
Will I always have racing thoughts?
Anxiety-related racing thoughts are caused by anxious behavior, elevated stress, or habituated behavior. They will subside when you address the specific cause or causes.
Therefore, no. You won’t always have anxiety-related anxious thoughts. When you address the cause of racing thoughts, you’ll eliminate them in time. You can experience a calmer mind.
However, they can also be caused by other factors, such as medication, recreational drugs, sleep deprivation, and others. Review the information about for more information about each.
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Video
Play the clip below for Jim Folk's commentary about the Racing Thoughts anxiety symptoms. Jim Folk is the president of anxietycentre.com.
Racing Thoughts are common symptoms of elevated stress, including the stress overly apprehensive behavior can cause. Jim Folk experienced almost all anxiety symptoms during his 12 year struggle with anxiety disorder.
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 Racing Thoughts anxiety symptoms.
1. Selye, H. (1956). The stress of life. New York, NY, US: McGraw-Hill.
2. Folk, Jim and Folk, Marilyn. “The Stress Response And Anxiety Symptoms.” anxietycentre.com, August 2019.
3. Hannibal, Kara E., and Mark D. Bishop. “Chronic Stress, Cortisol Dysfunction, and Pain: A Psychoneuroendocrine Rationale for Stress Management in Pain Rehabilitation.” Advances in Pediatrics., U.S. National Library of Medicine, Dec. 2014.
4. Justice, Nicholas J., et al. “Posttraumatic Stress Disorder-Like Induction Elevates β-Amyloid Levels, Which Directly Activates Corticotropin-Releasing Factor Neurons to Exacerbate Stress Responses.” Journal of Neuroscience, Society for Neuroscience, 11 Feb. 2015.
5. 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.
6. Leichsenring, Falk. “Is Cognitive Behavioral Therapy the Gold Standard for Psychotherapy?” JAMA, American Medical Association, 10 Oct. 2017.
7. 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.