“Quit thinking so much.”
“You’re overanalyzing the situation.”
“Stop worrying about stuff that hasn’t happened yet.”
“It’s not your problem. It’s their problem.”
Does any of this sound familiar? If it does, you might be an overthinker. And if you are, you understand how incredibly stressful it can be.
Overthinkers will find meaning in everything. They will also find meaning where there is nothing. I once told someone that what they didn’t say mattered as much as what they did say because if they didn’t just come right out and tell me what was on their mind, I would think about what they didn’t say for hours and come to my own conclusions.
Overthinkers have conversations in their heads that are just as real as the conversations that they have in real life. Does it seem like I am mad at you? I might actually be. And it could be over a conversation that we didn’t even have!
Overthinkers will get stuck on a decision that might have to be made at some point in the future and will toil over what is the right thing to do. They will take into account every possible variation and outcome for every decision they might make. Then they will often be so paralyzed by this that they just don’t make any decision until some external force makes the decision for them.
Overthinkers are not only highly aware of their thoughts, but they also spend a lot of time trying to understand the causes and meaning of their thoughts. — Psychology Today
This is me today.
I am overthinking about my daughter’s living situation (she made some bad choices), my living situation (I am having a hard time making any kind of decision), my work (again, too many options and I can never decide what to do), money (kind of related to the previously mentioned work), eating (should I eat now? later? what should I eat? I forgot to take my meds so maybe I should eat now and take them all…or should I eat now and take some and then eat again later and split the meds up? maybe I should go back to keto? etc.), and so on.
I thought maybe if I threw some of it out there into the universe, I could get it out of my head and just focus on the editing I need to do right now. We’ll see if that works.
Psychology Today suggests these things:
- Know your triggers (decisions, people, life)
- Be aware of overthinking (yup, overthinking overdrive at the moment)
- Fully embrace its futility (ok, you’re right — this is just getting me further behind)
- Disengage (you mean just stop. LOL. Ok — maybe editing will distract me)