We all know one. The friend that freaks out every time they have a minor headache. The friend that has an essay due at midnight but spends hours agonizing over how exactly to interpret the prompt. The friend that cannot, for the life of them, decide where they want to go for dinner. The classic over-thinker. Here is what it's like to be one of those people who overthink everything.
1. Decisions: Ah, decision making. A necessary evil in our busy, deadline based, daily lives. For most people, a decision such as what to make for breakfast is rather simple. "Well, do I have time to fry an egg, or should I just settle on cereal? I think cereal," is an example of what a normal human being's thought process is like. But for an over-thinker, on the other hand, the process is quite chaotic: "Well, I really want eggs, but now that I'm thinking about it, I had eggs yesterday. So maybe I should try something different today? No. I want eggs. But maybe I'm craving something sweet." This inner debate can go on for about 15 minutes, or until the over thinker has a mental breakdown and ends up having to leave the kitchen.
2. A slight cold: For an over-thinker, something as mundane as a stuffy nose can be catastrophic. I remember at one point during my first semester, I had a cold for, what seemed like, months. Any normal person would probably assume it was allergies or, due to the close quarters of the dorms, nothing serious, and would go away on its own with the help of some Mucinex DM. But no, not for me. From an over thinker's viewpoint, the cold could mean a number of things: a serious infection (oh my god, am I dying?!? It's meningitis), a brain tumor, a rare virus (it's Ebola), or something I am going to have to live with for the rest of my life. None of these possible outcomes were logical, of course, but for an over-thinker, worrying is what we do best. We don't care if it doesn't make sense. WE DON'T CARE. I've already Googled all of the symptoms and WebMD says I'm dying. It's happening.
3. When something goes wrong: For example, failing a class, something I'm sure many of us are familiar with (I know I am), can be debilitating for an over thinker such as myself. When I failed astronomy first semester, I had a bit of an identity crisis. It didn't matter that astronomy had absolutely nothing to do with my major or future career path, or that I could retake the class with "course forgiveness," but when I saw that D- on my transcript, my mind immediately went for the worst. "Oh my god, I'm going to be homeless and begging for food under a freeway overpass forever. This class will be the death of me and all things good in my future. I will never succeed. This is all wrong. I will never get a degree. It's over. This is the end." True story. Oh, and don't ever tell an over-thinker to "calm down" -- it's just not a good idea for either parties involved.
So, there you have it: a few struggles that come along with being a chronic over-thinker such as myself.
It's true that over-thinkers are usually the causes of their own issues. We stress and worry to the point where our tiny struggles leave us feeling like the entire universe is plotting against us. There is hope for my fellow over thinkers, however. Sometimes, we just need to remind ourselves that nothing is permanent and that things are usually not as bad as they seem in our head. Take a long nap, start a new Netflix series, go for a walk. But don't ever, ever, Google your symptoms if you're sick. I promise it won't end well.
