What Are the Best Ways to Stop Overthinking and Reduce Anxiety?

What if I said the wrong thing? How will I ever finish the assignment in time? Why aren't they responding to my text?
Thoughts like these make us human, says Julie Pike, a clinical psychologist in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. “That’s what the brain is designed to do – to think our way out of problems and away from predators,” she explains.
Sometimes, though, those thoughts can spin out beyond our control, leading us to play out different scenarios and often catastrophize, adds Sophie Lazarus, a psychologist at the Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center and a clinical assistant professor in the department of psychiatry and behavioral health at the Ohio State University College of Medicine in Columbus.
“As strange as it sounds, in the short term, this overthinking can give us a false sense of relief or the illusion of control," she explains. "However, in the long term, this habit can have real costs to our well-being and engagement in our lives."
What Are the Best Ways to Stop Overthinking and Reduce Anxiety?