Imagine this situation: You're at a party and your crush is there as well. They don't know that you like them and you want to go over and ask them out. But as soon as you have a good opportunity to talk to them, a little voice pops into your head. "What if they reject you? What if they laugh? What if they say yes, but then change their mind? What if? What if? What it?" Before you know it, your window of opportunity has closed.
This scenario is a great example of that one thing we all know and don't love, overthinking. For a good chunk of us overthinking is something that only happens for bigger situations. Situations like a big test, asking out a crush, going in for a big interview, basically anything that could potentially have a big impact on our future. But for those of us with anxiety, which ever form that may be, overthinking happens on a daily basis for all things, big or small. Big things like taking a final have the usual overthinking but somehow worse. Instead of just thinking that we'll fail we go to the extreme and think that we'll forget everything and fail so bad that people will regret thinking that we were ever smart. These situations that are already important and all around have most people on edge turns into something that could lead to an anxiety attack from overthinking about it for too long.
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Then there are the small things that get these negative and nagging thoughts. A small thing could be something as simple as asking for a sauce or a refill at a restaurant. This task is so simple because it only requires one small sentence but it becomes the worst thing ever. Any time the waiter/waitress comes back to check on the table we don't ask them for the thing we need. We think that they'll judge us for wanting extra sauce or wanting to drink more soda. We worry that our voice will crack and end up embarrassing us in front of the waiter and everyone at the table. The simplest of things get blown out of proportion and make us not act.
Even though we know and realize that these thoughts are ridiculous, we still continue to overthink and let it run our lives. We could be at a store alone and if there's a group of teenagers and they start laughing we think that they're laughing at us. They are most likely laughing at a stupid joke or a funny picture on Facebook but we automatically go to the worst thought. When someone is late we start to panic and think that something horrible has happened. What if they got in a car accident and died? Or they fell down their stairs and hurt themselves? Or what if they decided they don't want to hang out and ditched me? Although they probably are just stuck in traffic and can't text or call, we think the most outrageous things to explain their lateness.
Although I, and many others, would like to have the constant barrage of negative and ridiculous thoughts, it's something that would take years to tackle. As long as we have friends and family to confide in, overthinking won't become who we are but just another thing that's apart of having having anxiety.
