Friday (18/6) Faculty of Psychology UGM and Center for Public Mental Health (CPMH) held an Online Lecture event: “Overthinking and mental health”. This event is a series of online lectures regularly held by CPMH with various themes on mental health and is open to the public.
This event takes place from 09.00 WIB to 11.00 WIB. There were 190 people who attended this event.
The presenters of this event are two psychologists from UGM. The first speaker was Nurul Kusuma Hidayati M.Psi., Psikolog, leader and manager at CPMH who is also active as a psychologist in the Psychology Consultation Unit (UKP) of the Faculty of Psychology UGM and at the Gadjah Mada Medical Center (GMC) UGM. While the second speaker is Wirdatul Anisa, M.Psi., Psikolog, an active researcher at CPMH who is also active as a psychologist at the Psychology Consulting Unit (UKP) of the Faculty of Psychology UGM and at the Badan Kepegawaian Pendidikan dan Pelatihan (BKPP) of Sleman Regency.
In the first session, the speaker started by explaining the definition of overthinking. The right definition provides an initial picture of how overthinking should be addressed and at the same time distinguishes it from healthy thinking. It is hoped that participants will be able to detect when overthinking occurs.
“One of the most important things is that we become more aware of our thoughts, (so that we are aware) when we do overthinking,” explained Nurul.
Furthermore, Anisa explained that there are two forms of overthinking, namely rumination and worry. Ruminations are thoughts that are caused by something that has already happened, while worry is thoughts that are caused by something that has not happened. Both are actually beneficial if done proportionally and vice versa will be detrimental if the levels are excessive.
“So whether rumination or worrying is actually a form of thinking process that is carried out continuously and fixated on negative things,” said Anisa.
Furthermore, the speaker also explained about the relationship between thoughts, feelings and behavior in relation to overthinking. Rumination and worry are also associated with depression and also increase negative affect.
“So if negative affect is feelings that tend to be negative and then lower positive feelings,” explained Anisa.
The presenter also advised the participants not to pour out their hearts on social media because that would not solve the problem. Responses from social media users that are not as expected will lead to further overthinking. Therefore, the speaker emphasized on the participants not to be reluctant to come to a psychologist if they had problems in order to get professional treatment.
“You don’t have to wait until it gets really bad. If you feel uncomfortable, you want to immediately need help to manage overthinking. Well, feel free to come to a psychologist, “explained Nurul.
In the last session, the speaker gave several intervention strategies to reduce overthinking. Some of them are progressive relaxation, moving the body and getting closer to other people. Another strategy is cognitive restructuring, namely recording, challenging, and looking for alternatives to overthinking that occurs.