What if I didn’t act like that? But I did.
What if we could still be friends? But we are not.
What if I had chosen the other school? But I didn’t.
What if something else happened that day? But it did not.
These questions take over our minds without even realizing it. We are constantly thinking about potential scenarios and situations we might fall into every day, at school, at home, at work EVERYWHERE. The interesting part is that most of the times, we get anxious and emotional, pressured that we almost forget it’s only in our minds and none of these is real. But, why all this?
Everything can lead to overthinking, ‘’what if …’’, and it’s the most normal thing we can do because how can we process a situation without analyzing it? The term ‘’overthink’’ refers to analyzing every tiny detail about a problem, then making up possible scenarios accompanied with stress and fear about their potential results. It’s quite interesting how starting from one point, overthinking can lead us to something completely different and usually far from the reality. This way, without even realizing it, we suddenly appear always stressed and anxious about things that they probably won’t happen at all.
It seems like overthinking a situation is a very common way for many people to understand and make decisions. However, overthinking is not always a good thing to do, especially when we let ourselves be influenced by other factors. This could probably mean that letting our emotions get in the way does not often help us make decisions. For example, the daily pressure from work or school combined with the million thoughts and emotions in our heads are usually the ones that lead us to a conclusion. By acting like this, it goes either ways: a completely failure, which can lead to hurtful consequences, and a really good success which is an important personal win. But considering all these, is it actually worth the risk?
The answer is no for most people but even if we consider these facts, why are we still repeating the same process when we come across a problem? The simplest explanation is because our brains can’t actually control it by itself. We are the ones who have to ‘’train’’ our minds into less overthinking daily. No one can teach us, no one can change the way we process things expect from ourselves. There is not a certain procedure we can follow to achieve that, the only thing we can do is train our minds through everyday situations. For instance, when we catch ourselves emotionally pressured or overwhelmed when we are ready to decide about something crucial, we can apply relaxing methods, or when we tend to overthinking we should try to make ourselves return to reality and keep our thoughts away from our decisions.
Besides all this, overthinking can also be a good thing sometimes. Overthinking can actually help us reach a conclusion or remember a certain detail when it does not come with tons of emotions and exaggeration. Other times overthinking can be quite productive, since we can come up with great ideas and considering every possible aspect we are able to decide wisely. As long as we are capable to stop our emotions from turning against us, this way of thinking can actually be really effective and helpful in many situations.
All things considered, as a person who overthinks, I believe that analyzing every situation can be really stressful, but when we finally learn how to stop it from acting against us, it can also have a very creative and pleasant aspect.
Ηλιάνα Κουσκουρίδου, Γ1