Overthinking, Obsessing, and the Real Reason You Can’t Stop Thinking About It

Now let's talk about how to stop overthinking.

I always love to start by just defining the terms.

So when we talk about overthinking, what are we talking about? I think honestly, a lot of us have just normalized this, like overthinking is the way we live.

And so to stop and call it overthinking might even feel a little strange.

But see if any of this sounds familiar.

Overthinking is like when you rehearse a conversation 40 times before you have it or 40 times after you've had it, thinking about all the things you could have, would have, should have said.

Overthinking looks like standing in front of the mirror, doing a mental inventory of everything wrong before you walk out the door, just so you're prepared.

You're prepared.

If anyone says anything, you know what's coming.

Overthinking looks like Googling your symptoms at 1am.

Or it looks like rereading a text five or even 50 times, looking for hidden meaning.

Overthinking could just be hyper fixating on something that may not be all that important in the scheme of your life, but somehow to you in that particular day, that moment, that season, it is all you can think about.

It's like a computer virus in your brain and all you can see is the issue, the challenge, the problem.

All you can spin around is how to solve it or how it should be solved.

You see, I have an embarrassing confession to make.

A few weeks ago, I got stuck here, like totally and completely could not sleep at night for three days, stuck.

And the topic, it's so embarrassing.

I really don't even want to share with you what it was.

had nothing to do with my body or body image.

It was a kid's issue around high school gym class, okay? I will spare you the details lest I get caught up in arguing my case again, but just let me summarize by saying that I felt like I spotted an injustice and I couldn't stop reeling over it.

Like I said, I lost a few nights of sleep.

I read emails that I sent like 100 times after I sent them.

I could not get my heart rate to come down.

I just stayed keyed up trying to solve something for one of my kids related to gym class.

Now, oh goodness, that's like embarrassing.