You will come across people in your life who overthink everything, from decisions, to their actions, to their friend’s actions. You love these people, but sometimes they drive you crazy! You just want to move past the subject being overthought and continue into the next activity. Maybe you are an over thinker and are going to read through this list thinking “Oh my goodness does this describe me? Perhaps I am an overthinker. Or maybe I’m not?...” Some people aren’t fully over thinkers but tend to overthink certain situations way too much. You tend to overthink when:
1) A friend doesn’t respond to your text but you see they posted on Facebook and you wonder if they still love you.
2) Your boyfriend tells you to pick a restaurant for the dinner date and it takes you all afternoon to decide.
3) It is cold in the morning but hot later in the day and you can’t decide to wear a dress or jeans.
4) Your test includes a multiple choice question and all the choices look correct.
5) You feel too un-social to get food with friends but wonder what they would think if you didn’t go.
6) A friend texts you “a book”-long message and you have to spend a day figuring out what to respond.
7) You always buy one color of clothing and you want to buy different colors but you consider all the options where those colors just don’t work and end up buying the original color again.
8) You wonder whether you should have a healthy snack or eat some popcorn instead.
9) You try to edit your school paper and change one sentence three times before ending with the original sentence.
10) The refrigerator is overflowing with your favorite foods and you get overwhelmed trying to decide to what to eat.
11) You are taking a test and you change your test answers multiple times when you should have just stuck with your initial instinct.
12) You wake up and stand in front of your closet forever trying to decide what to wear.
13) You are just too tired to function and every decision takes too much effort.
14) You want to try a new hairstyle and you think it won’t look good on you.
15) You overthink your overthinking.
16) You try to come up with a witty comment in conversation but think it might be too weird.
17) You look through all the coupon adds for a grocery item, trying to find the best deal, but you can’t make up your mind on which coupon to use.
18) You try to decide which shoes go with your outfit for the day.
19) You have to decide anything ever.
20) You can’t decide whether to go to the gym or not because of traffic and rain and every single factor.
When it comes to overthinking, how many people can relate to items on this list? I know I can relate to a few of them. Remember though, how much benefit do you actually gain from overthinking a situation? Most often the answer is going to be none.
