Over the years, I have realized that I am one of those people who overthinks everything. It has been a struggle to deal with my entire life, because the smallest things that didn't mean anything to anyone else could ruin my day because it won't leave my head. The hardest part about overthinking is that it really affects how I feel, and a feeling is not something I can just "get rid of" or "stop thinking about."

The biggest part of overthinking is wracking your brain until every possible scenario has been played out. While I commend my overthinking for helping me be an articulate person, it has also been a harmful detriment that has held me back from a lot of happiness. There is your rationale and there are your feelings. You think a lot, you already know that you're probably overthinking, but then you overthink about the fact that you're overthinking something and everything becomes all too overwhelming.

When you get that feeling, that pit in your stomach, that makes you unable to focus on anything else, it's frustrating. You know you are probably overreacting, you know that there is probably nothing wrong, but the anxious feeling that won't leave your body forces the subject to stay in your brain. It sits in there and confuses you until you want to burst, and it hurts your relationships because your mind is constantly wandering to other places.

While being an over thinker has had its setbacks, here is why I appreciate it:

When something happens that everyone is thinking about, I'm usually 10 steps ahead. My brain is so used to finding every possible situation that it works fast, and things that other people would have never thought of were the first thing on my mind.

When I have something I need to say, I can find a way to say it in the best possible way for other people to understand. By constantly putting myself in their shoes and thinking of the way I would want things said to me, I have been able to articulate and express the things I need to say as accurately as anyone could.

I don't forget about anything. I remember things like dates, small details, the weather outside, what someone was wearing, because it's the only thing that has been on my mind. Those have been annoying traits, but those have also helped me a lot when needing to think back about a certain time or place and remember things that may have slipped past other people.

Being an over thinker is hard because you're constantly running a million things through your head at once, but it has been a helpful way for me to learn more about myself and other people by paying attention to detail and engaging with everything that happens to me. For this, I can appreciate it, even though I hate it during the bad times.