How can I stop thinking so much??

In My Humble Opinion
1

Any suggestions on how I can stop thinking so much? For almost all of my waking hours, my mind is flying along thinking about stuff like:

string theory, quantum mechanics, physics, astrophysics, chemistry, mathematics, logic, programming, fractals, random number generation, algorithms, probability, evolution, cellular automata, nanotech, religion, spirituality, philosophy…

It’s like I have equations and theoretical concepts floating around in my head all the time. While I suppose it is somewhat comforting to know that I understand all of this stuff, it’s very frustrating when I can’t stop thinking about it. At times I feel that since this is all I can think about, then obviously that is what I should pursue with my life.

However, sometimes I wish I didn’t understand all this stuff. At times I wish that I could just not have my mind on overdrive. Admittedly, a lot of the concepts I come up with are incorrect, but it’s the actual thought process that annoys me. Sometimes I wish I was just kind of, well, dumb.

It’s very frustrating, because even though I know all this stuff, I don’t want to do anything with it. And yet, I feel like I have some sort of obligation to do so. It’s like I have this cross to bear, where I feel like I should be doing something with it. But I think that I would much prefer to be a dumb carpenter than have all these thoughts floating around.

I don’t know if seeing a psychologist would help, because I fear that they would say something like “Oh, you’re an autistic savant” or “Oh, you’re an uber-genius”, and that be some other weight on my shoulders I would have to deal with. If I went to a psychologist… I would want them to just make me dumb.

2

Fatdave (if I may), off the bat it seems like you’ve diagnosed the problem yourself and are merely seeking affirmation. Not many people could empathise with you in your situation - you just have to put that down to the price of genius with all the rest of the stuff you detail above.

The answer fortunately is very simple. You should get off your butt and move into Great Debates - if your cranium will squeeze in the door. There’s a lot of folk there that would benefit from your knowledge - and just between the two of us - one or two who could use being brought down a peg or two by someone who really knows his stuff. No names, no pack-drill, but I think someone of your calibre will dig my meaning.

3

Suggestion:

Buy a cell phone: you find yourself talking absolute gibberish to any and everybody.

4

  1. Take a lot of drugs and drink a lot of booze, keeping yourself in an altered stupor that prevents you from thinking too deeply about anything. If you want to go the legal route, go to a psychologist and claim to have any number of mental woes. I’m sure they can dope you up real good.

  2. Channel your thoughts into something worthwhile. Study science/philosophy/math seriously, and use your constant thinking to benefit the world. And I don’t mean just people on a relatively insignificant Internet forum. Change the world through science, or inspire people through writing or art.

I do know where you come from. My brain never shuts up either; I spend every waking moment thinking about something and sometimes I wish I could make it all go away. I don’t think it’s a product of intelligence only, since I know a lot of people who are just as smart or way smarter than me who know how to kick back and have fun without their thoughts bothering them all the time. I think what we have is instead a kind of overactive intelligence that’s displayed by people who are more intelligent than the “common man,” but less intelligent than real geniuses. After all, if we were really smart, we’d have figured out how to shut our brains up, right? Real geniuses have no problems channeling their intelligence or shutting it off sometimes; it’s people who are just slightly above average that have all the problems. This is of course all just theory that I’ve come up with through my many hours of thinking, but I think I’d be a lot better off if my IQ was either twenty points lower or twenty points higher.

It’s a gift and a curse. Either find some way to use it or at least live with it, or invest in some heavy tranquilizers. It’s really your call. I’m still not sure about which path I’m going to take.

5

Go see a psychiatrist. You may have an axiety disorder – one symptom of GAD (generalized anxiety disorder) is a racing, overactive mind. Do you worry a lot and have trouble sleeping?

I’ve been on a tranquilizer (clonazepam) for GAD for the last two years and it’s made life enjoyable for the first time since I was a kid. I’m still an intelligent, productive person with many interests and hobbies – I just don’t think everything into the ground anymore and I can actually sit back and relax when I feel like it.

I can also fall asleep at night, which is nice.

6

How can you stop thinking so much? Hoo boy! I’m restraining myself. There are a couple of groups you could join, but I won’t tell you what they are. Nope.

7

I learned how to shut my brain up along time ago, that is nothing; it is the above average people in continuity eror’s theory that we need a support group for. God, I resent not being super genius and I loathe not being average. Ambitions are what is holding me back, really - I’m just your normal person who absolutely loves to learn about science and math without creating his own…
When is the first meeting?

8

Well, if you’re not toting your cross right now, we could use the wood for a barbecue. Sounds to me like you need to get over yourself: what do you want, pity? Or just affirmation that you are indeed a polymath and yours is a high and lonely destiny? If so, I think you’ve come to the wrong shop.

9

eh, i’m somewhat the same way. Not every waking moment. Usually when i’m doing something mildly stimulating.

Anyway, do what I do.

Play Freecell. I challenge you to beat my newly acquired record. 66 wins in a row!

10

I agree with harmonix.
My mind is always buzzing. Freecell tends to focus you a lot. I was only on 25 wins in a row before I got reformatted :frowning: Damn you harmonix!
The problem is, that after you stop playing, all you think about is all the moves you could do if you were playing freecell! Or at least that’s how it is with me.
Or maybe you could spend more time giving the horse you rode in on more care and attention. I imagine it must do a lot of riding.

11

Sounds like adult ADD to me. I take meds for it when it gets so bad I can’t sleep.

I can’t say that I find myself thinking of quantum physics and such :wink: But you know what you know. I am a voracious consumer of information, so my mind goes off in other areas.

I’d be willing to bet this happens to more people than they realise - I didn’t even know I had a “problem” until I was being counselled for something else - but ended up being related. I don’t take my medication steadily or anything, since I just don’t let it bother me. I’ve lived this way for this long, and I’m alive… just a little tired.

Do you stutter/stammer by any chance?

Also, this might sound a little cheesy, but I learned to meditate. It helps to “quiet the mind”. It doesn’t go blank or anything, but it does slow things down a little. I think the Freecell idea is really the same thing - give your mind a bone to chew on, something to focus on for a while. The meditation helps with breathing, though, and I’ve had less anxiety attacks since learning.

12

I second the meditation route. I am currently working on recovery from an anxiety disorder, and anxiety does indeed involve obsessive thinking. Meditation helps me quiet my mind (what Buddhists call the “Monkey mind”) and take control of my thoughts. Frankly, I would recommend meditation for most North Americans. Most of us need to stop and take a mental breather every day.

13

I’d be interested in hearing in what way you “understand all of this stuff”.

Do you even have a graduate-student level of understanding of any ONE of those things?

Since you “know all this stuff”, you surely have published in leading journals in at least a few of these fields.

Perhaps, you could focus your mind, by actually contributing to one of these many fields you listed.

14

Go to the bookstore. Buy a copy of ‘Driven to Distraction’ (in the Self-help section). Read it. Heed its words.

See a pshrink as needed. (They are fun to visit. They are all nuts.)

15

Ignore my previous post.

I realize now that a year ago you were a humanities major.

Of course you know string theory, quantum mechanics, physics, astrophysics, chemistry, mathematics, logic, programming, fractals, random number generation, algorithms, probability, evolution, cellular automata, nanotech, religion, spirituality, and philosophy.

My bad.

Forget a shrink. Finish college. Go to grad school and when you are actually asked to understand one of these subjects, you should find you’re able to concentrate on something.

16

Get over yourself, Trunk. FatDave’s not saying that he’s got a degree in each of those fields, or that he could write a paper on any one of them- but he obviously understands them enough to think about them. Do you even have that?

I can talk physics and quantum mechanics, knowledgeably, with my brother-in-law (who is currently employed as a physicist, after graduating from MIT), and often do. Does this mean I’m an expert? No- my BIL is. I’m just a layman with a bit more knowledge about it than most laymen. And I, too, often lay awake at night thinking about QM. It’s kind of a hobby.

I also read biology books for fun.

What did I study in college, you ask?

About a year of art.

So don’t be a jerk.

17

Yeah, excuuuuse me for calling out a guy with the gall to list “quantum mechanics, string theory, and astrophysics” and saying

“I understand all this stuff”

and

“I know all this stuff, and it’s a cross to bear”

and

“I fear going to a pschologist because he’ll just say, ‘you’re an uber-genius’”.

Especially when there are those of us who have studied some of those things for 15 years, have advanced degrees in some of them and still feel like we’re in the infancy of understanding them.

This guy not only doesn’t understand any of those things. He doesn’t understand that he doesn’t understand them, and THAT indicates a severe lack of self-inspection and a severe glut of self-importance.

That OP was nothing more than a thinly veiled boast, and not a very good one at that.

18

See a shrink.

It could be mania.
(the subject matter or quality of the thought doesn’t matter)

If so, it takes about 25 minutes for 600mgs of gabapentin to quiet that chattering mind and let you get on with your life

see a shrink and get a scrip

19

Well, considering I also said that I was afraid of them saying I was autistic, I don’t think I was trying to boast.

Anyway, while I do have a grad level understanding of these topics, the problem is that I don’t WANT to. I don’t want to feel obligated to write books, be a professor or join a thinktank. People are saying that if I know all this stuff, then I should contribute back to society. But, I just don’t want to.

People on this board (and on another board) have suggested meditation… it’s something I’ve always been meaning to work on, but have never had the motivation. So, I guess we shall see…

20

Never thought I’d say this, but, like Trunk, I’m having a hard time working up a whole lot of sympathy. Your knowledge and brainy uber-geniusness is a “cross to bear?” Honestly, I would love to be that intelligent. Hell, I’ve got a masters in linguistics, and I still have problems thinking of myself as any smarter than a six-year-old! In fact, the more education I get, the more convinced I am that knowing more stuff doesn’t make me smarter - it just means that I know more stuff, not that I can necessarily process it better than a kid could.

Anyway, have you ever thought of keeping a journal? I’ve found that, whenever my thoughts are rocketing around in my head, writing helps me get them out and at least focus on one at a time. Or perhaps you just need to get out more or meditate. Perhaps you should see a shrink who would provide you with better advice than we ever could, and who could help you direct your thoughts in the way that works best for you. Whatever you do, I wish you luck in finding what works best for you.