Overthinking things

Post Reply New Topic

Overthinking things is the one thing that makes me think I really should see a therapist. I really struggle to control it and many times I find myself unable to sleep due to overstocking something that happened at work. It happens several times a week I get caught up in my own thoughts and just can't stop myself until I finally move onto something else.

Now that i think about it, my posts would be like three times as long as they normally are if i didn't over think them

For me, overthinking causes intense anxiety, until it reaches a point where I don't even know why I'm getting so anxious.

I overthink lots of things that dont cause me problems.
But it is problematic when I start overthinking social interractions...where I have gone wrong, what I said, what I could have said, if I was wrong, if they were wrong and how to resolve the issue, and of course, these thoughts often lead to my feeling myself to be hopeless and defective, and anxious and angry at myself, until I hit a point I just explode outwards, basically.

I think about every dollar I give to my boss when I take it from customers. I think about every window in every house where I work. I think about every word and what can be done it with. Words have almost lost meaning to me because of how much I over analyze things. It's what keeps me from being able to socialize. Even right now I'm think about how it might have to do with how autistic's working memory seems to be in overload without having the capacity to turn all of the useless information we take in into long term memory. Another of my theories I'm doomed to overthink.

how does one not overthink? meditation or recreational drug use

I constantly overthink everything, especially things that are going to happen, like social interactions that are going to happen, and what I'm going to do everyday. I drive myself up a wall thinking about possible scenarios... Maybe that has something to do with our ingenuity

My mom always says that a lot of things I think/worry about, are things NTs don't even notice or consider when interacting with others, and that I need to stop stressing myself out over stuff that "Doesn't Matter" (to NTs anyway)

I also try to plan everything out well in advance, but my family (W/ the exception of my possibly aspie dad) Will NOT plan anything, or even think about anything more than a few hours in advance, or a day if I'm lucky.

I constantly over think things!

Lets say this has SOME (may be few) advantages:

I am the person who always has the right tools in her purse, for example- a lighter even though I dont smoke, first aid supplies, safety pins, etc. It is very handy when someone needs something and I am prepared!

I can plan very nice outings and decide the most efficient route for doing a series of errands, if I am given preparation time to figure it out and prepare.

I can make recipes work with alternate or different ingredients if we are out of something, and do not have to stick to the recipe because I can think of how the flavors and textures will work together in a dish (although I prefer to have a recipe to start with so that I know where to begin).

Those are all I can think of at the moment but I know my brain will chew on this for the rest of the day and I may come up with more!

You're right. NT therapists don't get our issues at all.

Throughout my life I've had to write pages and pages of notes to myself to work through deep conflicts and emotional things or even just weird concepts I wanna explore how I feel about them, I run through several notepads a month, thankfully I have a tablet now so can do my scrawling on there, I can get consumed by overthinking for hours a day and days a month and months a year... I don't even realize I overthink but I really do get tangled in thinking but it's better than not thinking or burying my head in the sand on deep issues even though that'd be easier. And yeah, simple thoughts are rare for me, I can see an old person hobbling along and I'll think about them for ages, or a bird pecking at a nut or a plane crossing the sky or a cloud that is painted a certain way by the sun's interaction... I like those ones cause they don't hassle me like the deeper thoughtsnares.

Overthinking can be maladaptive.

I overthink too much also

Obsessive compulsive overthinker here and I seem to have passed that personality feature onto my offspring.
I find this beneficial though. I analyze social interactions, work mistakes, etc. that have occurred or imagine situations that haven't aocurred and analyze the possibilities. It's therapeutic to me as I may, and often do, eventually discover something that escaped my notice in the original interaction.
The analysis process is very much like meditation to me if I can indulge in it with little outside distraction. I find one of the best times is when I am driving long distances on easy routes that don't require extreme attention. I can never do it in busy traffic. I am very fortunate to have a job that often involves long distance drives in semi remote areas and I love it. I turn off the radio and travel in silence when I want to think and sometimes do this for a few hours. It feels great!
On the occasions when my thoughts are spinning and I can't indulge in mediatation it is very stressful.
Getting high is a quick and fabulous way to get into a meditative state that leads to tremendous self discovery.