The Cleveland Clinic has a good guide on “overthinking,” which is often associated with generalized anxiety disorder, obsessive compulsive disorder, and other mood disorders.
I’d recommend reading it because it has lots of good definitions, examples, and how-to’s.
As you know, one of this site’s purposes is to understand how our experience of Christianity can be influenced by our mood disorders.
And remember: the mood disorder comes before its effect on our Christianity.
Don’t let the “spiritual depression” crowd deceive you into thinking otherwise.
The scientific evidence is overwhelming that our mental health is a medical condition.
Now, going back to the Cleveland Clinic’s guide.
Let’s take some examples of “overthinking” and “destructive thought patterns” and how they might apply to our Christianity.
First, “Catastrophizing”.
Cleveland Clinic: “This is when you imagine a worst-case scenario as the inevitable outcome of the situation you’re worried about.”
We can catastrophize about anything in life. Job, health, family, relationships.
And that includes our spiritual life.
For example, we imagine the worst-case scenario anytime something spiritual comes up.
Here are some examples of spiritual catastrophizing.
“I can’t possibly be a Christian because I don’t even…”
“I can’t possibly be a Christian because I did this…”
“God can forgive others for that, but he can never forgive me.”
“I’ve exhausted God’s patience, his love. There’s no hope for me and God.”
In each of these cases, the destructive thought patterns of catastrophizing that often come with generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) deeply hurts our relationship with God.
Jesus says “no way!” to every single one of those examples of spiritual catastrophizing.
“When we are faithless, he remains faithful.”
Then there’s Paul, in that wonderful Romans 5: “Just as sin ruled over all people and brought them to death, now God’s wonderful grace rules instead, giving us right standing with God and resulting in eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.”
There’s a new ruler on the throne, and it ain’t the law.
It’s forgiveness and love, and when you enter its court, that love will always touch you on the shoulder to bless you.
Of course, the maddening thing is that you and I know this, and we still catastrophize about it.
But my hunch is that, if you catastrophize about spirituality, you do so about a lot of things.
And that catastrophizing has no bearing in reality. It exists in a mind that lies to us about the reality of things.
Second, the Cleveland Clinic points to “All-or-Nothing Thinking.”
For example, the clinic notes the way we can all-or-nothing overthink our work.
We’re either about to be fired, or we’re top dog.
There’s no in-between.
Unfortunately, we often “all-or-nothing” think our Christianity.
For example, we have a few good months of being loving, kind, avoiding temptation, all that, and we imagine (though we’d never publicly say so ) God saying, “Now there’s a man after my own heart.”
And unfortunately, church can be a particularly toxic environment for worsening this type of thinking.
Because so many churches want to turn you into an all-or-nothing Christian.
You’re either in good standing with the church, or bad standing. And it all depends on performance.
That, perhaps, is the most tragic kind of church of all. It’s the one that trumpets the perfect church family, the perfect elders, the perfect all that.
And so, if we’re prone to the deceit of all-or-nothing thinking, these churches make it even worse by actually affirming an all-or-nothing message.
So lets say we have a few good months (or as Christians call it “seasons”), but then inevitably have a few bad months and remember, “Oh…. yeah. Maybe I’m not David. Maybe I’m Saul. Occasionally, I seem like a Christian, but in the end, I’m just a hateful, unregenerate, no-good fraud.”
This see-saw is unbelievably common among those with anxiety disorders — this “all-or-nothing” thinking pattern regarding our Christianity.
I’m sometimes so discouraged by myself I feel like giving up.
Or I’m so encouraged by myself I’m ready to write an epistle.
But here’s the clutch thing, the thing that shows it’s not a spiritual issue.
My life is sort of fueled by that all-or-nothing thinking.
Maybe yours, as well.
You either feel like you’re the best husband or worst husband, the best dad or worst dad, the best employee or about to be fired.
And that’s because “all-or-nothing thinking” is a common manifestation of “overthinking.”
It has nothing to do with your spirituality, but nevertheless, infects it.
The third destructive thinking pattern the Cleveland Clinic notes is “Overgeneralizing,” which is when we “experience a setback or failure and generalize that event across all situations…..we may wrongly assume that things have – and will always – go wrong for us.”
So let’s say you sin, which we do pretty much 24/7.
But let’s say you commit one of the “big sins.”
If you overgeneralize, you’re prone to think, “That’s it. I’m always going to be an adulterer. That’s just who I am. I will always be like this, and there’s no hope.”
Perhaps Peter thought that way.
He denied Christ, and it seemed that Jesus had to talk him out of overgeneralizing. To convince him that he wasn’t destined to a life of fear. To convince him that he’d be the pillar of the church.
So those are the three overthinking traps the Cleveland Clinic discusses: catastrophizing, all-or-nothing thinking, and overgeneralizing.
Now while the Cleveland Clinic obviously doesn’t offer ways for you to counteract overthinking your spirituality, we have to remember: the problem lies in overthinking. It doesn’t lie in our spirituality.
The root of the problem doesn’t lie in your overthinking Christianity, it lies in overthinking, everything, period.
So you address the root.
And that’s why I suggest going to psychologists of any philosophical persuasion (athiest, agnostic, Christian, Muslim, anything) because they will help address the root of the problem of overthinking.
That’s because they understand the human mind.
They’re not pastors, they’re medical practitioners, and this is a medical beast we’re dealing with.
Do we doubt a surgeon or dentist who’s not a Christian?
Why would we doubt a mental health professional who doesn’t identify as one?
I haven’t had a single, long-term therapist who identifies as Christian, and yet, they’ve each had amazing insights on what’s going on in my mind and helped me profoundly.
I’ve never returned from therapy, thinking, “Wow, they really pumped a lot of godless stuff in me.”
Please don’t believe that lie coming from the Christian traditionalists.
It’s a lie that’s kept so many from treatment — a lie that’s sent so many into the arms of practitioners of “Biblical counseling” who know very little about or disregard science, reject the notion that we have a medical condition, and anecdotally, often do more harm than good.
So if you struggle with overthinking your Christianity, talk to your doctor about medical treatment.
And so…
Find a psychiatrist here.
Find a therapist here.
