Lifestyle

The Daily Struggles People Who Overthink Everything Know All Too Well

by Unwritten
Milles Studio

"There is nothing in this world that can trouble you as much as your own thoughts."

I cannot emphasize how true these words are. We don't realize how much we let our own thoughts ruin our relationships and our lives. Overthinking has neither a diagnosis nor a cure, but once you become prey to it, it will take a lot of effort and willpower to not let it devastate your wellbeing.

Overthinking in its simplest form is  excessive thinking about a problem while losing focus on the bigger picture. In short, it leads to creating problems that aren't actually there in the first place. The following are 10 struggles that only those who overthink everything will understand.

1. You do more planning than acting.

We tend to plan a lot of things in our heads but end up executing very few of them. Rather than spending so much time on the planning, we need to spend some time on execution as well.

2. Worry is simultaneously our enemy and best friend.

Worrying is a sort of security blanket for us. It keeps us moving and is a constant part of our conscious.

This is also one of the biggest struggles of overthinking everything. We worry about problems that aren't relevant and that may or may not emerge in the future.

3. The idea of happiness frightens us.

We are so used to focusing on the negatives and the problems that excess happiness makes us uneasy. It gives us the feeling that something wrong is coming our way or that we are going to screw this up in one way or another.

It's not that we don't want to be happy, we just feel like we are forgetting something major when we are.

4. Relationships are hard for us to sustain.

We tend to drive our partners away thanks to our excessive analyses. It takes a very strong person to put up with us and that's only if they really want to be with us in the first place.

A part of that aforementioned worrying is constant doubt, and unfortunately that doubt comes into our relationships.

5. We come across as insecure.

Since we make a mountain out of a molehill in our minds, we need constant reassurance on things. This makes us come across as insecure and needy even though we aren't.

6. Sleep does not come easy when our minds are constantly racing.

Bedtime is when our mind works overtime. We can sit and analyze the world's problems at that hour.

Due to this reason we have a difficult time sleeping, thereby ruining our mood the following day. We also overthink the fact that we aren't sleeping which throws us into a terrible cycle.

7. We keep replaying incidents in our heads.

We somehow have this feeling that the more we replay incidents in our heads, the more clarity we will get on the matter.

We feel like we will remember some detail previously forgotten which will help us feel better about ourselves.

Unfortunately, the opposite happens and we fall deeper into the overthinking pit. And don't even get me started on embarrassing moments of the past. We can think about those for decades.

8. We lose the present whilst worrying about the past and the future.

We are so concerned with how to fix something in the past or how to make our future better that we end up losing our present in the process. We can never live in the moment because before we come out of our overthinking zone, the present has slipped out of our hands like sand.

9. We are never sure about anything.

Sometimes you just know whether it is about a person or a thing. However, an over thinker will force themselves to think otherwise and create self-doubt. Even when we are absolutely sure about something, we can convince ourselves otherwise.

10. We just can't let things go.

The only way to be happy is to not let your mind overtake your life and to be able to let things go.

We all make mistakes in life and life isn't always rosy and nice. However, it is very difficult for us to actually let things go and accept the right and wrong without trying to fix the situation.

What we need to realize is that we need to make a choice and it's time we make it right away. We get one life and we need to live it to the fullest rather than worry about problems that may or may not be there in the first place.

So whenever you have the urge to overthink, remind yourself that overthinking ruins you.

It ruins the situation, twists things around, makes you worry and makes everything much worse than it actually is. Have some faith, it will only get better from here on.

This article was originally published by Tanzeela Sareea via Unwritten.