When knowing "too much" gets in the way of recovery

What to do when we are overwhelmed with recovery concepts

Hello there!

Today, I want to share what helped me when I felt overwhelmed by all the concepts and ideas surrounding the recovery process.

Have you ever felt like you know too much about recovery? Have you over-educated yourself to the point where it no longer feels helpful? Are you stuck constantly watching and rewatching recovery content, only to feel more confused the more you consume? Are you simultaneously reading multiple books on insomnia and anxiety recovery, trying to make it all work right now? Is your social media feed saturated with “overcoming anxiety” content?

If so, you’re probably tired of it, and I really understand that.

This happened to me, too – several times, in fact. I dove too deep into the education part of recovery, and it started to feel like I couldn’t recover because I knew too much. I began questioning everything: “Am I doing acceptance right? Have I truly befriended wakefulness? Am I sitting with my anxiety enough?” Ugh, so much overthinking! Everywhere I looked, I saw a potential sleep effort: “If I watch these TV series, is that a sleep effort? Hm, it probably is, so I won’t watch it... Wait, now not watching it feels like an effort too!”

It felt like my brain had taken all the education and turned it into one massive problem-solving loop. In those moments, I wished I could just forget everything I’d learned.

If this sounds relatable, I have some good news: we can overcome this predicament. The “solution” is simple: we can stop watching, reading, or listening to sleep recovery content. At least for a while. We can take a break – whether it’s for a few days, a few weeks, or even months. We won’t miss anything important.

In that gap, without new incoming information, our brains have the space to sort things out, find clarity, and perceive new experiences outside the “recovery paradigm.” This kind of detox won’t slow down recovery – if anything, it can facilitate it. A break like that can help us recognize which ideas have been helpful, which haven’t, and allows us to decide which ones to keep and which to let go of.

During my own detox periods, I unfollowed most of the social media accounts about anxiety recovery, put down the books I was reading on the topic, and sought out content on completely unrelated topics. I focused on other things I found interesting. And what do you know? Within a few days, my mental state started to clear up. The overthinking began to fade.

Detoxing from recovery/anxiety content doesn’t have to go on forever. When things feel clearer and we feel more grounded, we can return to it and pick up where we left off.

What do you think about this idea? I’d love to hear your thoughts!

Take care,

Ali

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