To keep it simple, overthinking is the process of looking deeply into a situation that does not need it. Anyone that knows me knows that I am for sure an over thinker. With that being said, it took me a lot of time to write this article. One, because I thought about it a lot. Two, because I’m thinking about if you all will like it. So here we go, I’ll just start before I decide not to.
My mind never stops.
People often assume overthinking things is a choice, but it’s not that easy. When I worry about something it takes over my mind in a matter of seconds. It comes like a wave and I cannot control it. People often say "your brain words too fast" and I could see how that makes sense because it seems like my brain never slows down. The truth is, usually when I over think the problem is that my brain just works harder than it needs to. When I tell my mind to stop, it reminds me of all the reasons I can’t.
It drains my energy.
Sometimes I think of my overthinking as a battery drainer. Like when your phone is at 100 percent, but then you have too many apps open at once and all of a sudden it drops down to 70 percent? That’s what it feels like but in my body. Every problem is an app taking up space and wasting energy. Whether I’m up at 2 a.m. losing sleep over an interview I’m worried about the next day or just relaxing on the couch worried about love, it’s tiring. Over thinking can take a toll on my mood and energy very quickly.
It adds to necessary stress.
Being a full-time college student and working over 30 hours a week is something I would like to call average stress. Necessary stress. You can’t avoid stress like that. When you’re an over-thinker on top of necessary stress it never ends well. My mind loves to add the unnecessary. As if I don’t have enough to worry about, even receiving a text that says "sure" can turn into a worry-fest. I can come up with 5,000 ways the sender could have meant that text when in reality it had one simple meaning. The fact that evaluating a text can last two days -- weird, right? This is just a very light example, but see like I told you. Very unnecessary.
I'm always worried what others think of me.
On top of thinking about myself and what’s going on in my brain I’m constantly thinking about what’s going on in everyone else’s too. Whether people like me enough, whether I’m pretty enough, or if the sentence I just said sounded stupid to them. Sometimes, I have to snap back to reality and tell myself who really cares. That method occasionally works but most of the time my brain will snap right back at me and say “You care, Ari.” I’m one of those people who will remember something you said to me 10 years ago that made me feel bad about myself, even if it wasn’t meant to. I personally think I have wasted so much time on thinking about others.
My mind is like no other. It takes some time to get used to me and how my brain works. I gave light examples, but in my life overthinking surrounds me all the time, in every scenario. It makes simple decisions turn into scary ones and hours of time wasted worrying feel like minutes. Surprisingly, there is one perk. I do not only overthink the bad, I over think the good too. I have so many blessings in my life. I have a wonderful family, all who inspire me in their own ways. I have best friends that I do not deserve. I have their wonderful families. I go to a great school and am on my way to becoming a social worker so that I can change the world. Sometimes these things are the last items that I over think. I can’t change that I am an over thinker. So if I can’t change it I might as well rearrange it. I think my blessings are a great first choice to think about a bit little too much.
