6 Signs You Might Be Overthinking It
You’re probably stressed right now.
There are a lot of thoughts swirling in your mind. A lot of negative emotions, like fear, shame, or regret. You might be wondering if you are overthinking — and wondering whether it is okay to let these thoughts go.
Here are six signs you probably are.
I am speaking from experience and years of therapy on these matters, but I am not a therapist myself. If your thoughts are highly pervasive and intrusive, I recommend seeking professional help.
1: The thought begins with “What if”
Overthinking feasts off of thoughts of uncertainty.
In therapy, we refer to these as types of obsessive thoughts. These are thoughts that start with an idea — a plausibility — that something terrible might have happened or will happen. It is an uncertain thought, one that questions the possibility of something terrible, and it can be identified by its central tenet: the “What if.”
Some examples are:
· “What if I said something stupid?”
· “What if my friend hates me?”
· “What if I am the only one?”
These thoughts are always about uncertainty, and they are often biproducts of overthinking.
2: You are stuck in a never-ending cycle
Overthinking has no end.
No matter how many times you spin the needle, it always comes pointing towards that extreme conclusion that something is wrong. A sign that you are overthinking is, therefore, that you are churning and ruminating so much that it never ends. That no amount of time, energy, or proof of the opposite conclusion seems to put a stop to the cycle.
It no longer becomes a single thought, but an endless spiral.
3: The most logical conclusions seem implausible
Anxious thoughts do not respond to logic.
Rumination is driven by feelings — and feelings cannot be manipulated. When you are stuck in a never-ending cycle, things that might have made sense in another situation becomes almost impossible to wrap your mind around. This can be a sign that you are allowing your negative thoughts to take more control of you than they should.
Logical conclusions are difficult to internalize, after all, when your emotions run the show.
4: You give more precedence to one conclusion over another
People overthink because they want to unveil some kind of truth.
They want to be certain of whether their ideas and thoughts and feelings have precedence. Despite this, most people never really let go of their conclusions, weighing it heavier than the other potential conclusions — no matter how many other possibilities there are. This makes the process of overthinking things more unfair and unbalanced.
Ironically, seeking certainty only leads to more uncertainty.
5: It takes up a lot of mental space
Overthinking is literally over-thinking.
You spend way too much time and energy on these thoughts, until it becomes difficult to stop. You keep on manipulating or pushing down the thoughts or feelings in an attempt to control them. But instead, they keep coming back to distract and worry you without end.
Matters that have too much negative presence like this tend to be the ones we overthink.
6: You are unsure of whether you are overthinking or being rational
All uncertainty is uncertainty.
Even when you are unsure about whether you are overthinking or not, you are displaying the very thing that overthinking feasts on: uncertainty. That matter is yet another question of “What if”, after all. And it will not go away if you continue to twist and turn it around.
So, I implore you to consider:
What if you are, in the end, overthinking it all?
