A Deep Spiral
A Deep Spiral I’ve been an overthinker for all the time I can remember. Overthinking can start from the smallest of things, perhaps you start to think about how you said hi to someone but they didn’t reply. This can end up spiraling into thinking if you did something wrong, did you come off as awkward, or if the other person is upset with you. Before you realize it, your mind has built a narrative based on one incoherent interaction. The word overthinking has been used very commonly lately as if it's immature or insensitive- something needing to be fixed. However, from the lens of psychology and cognitive science, it's not the person’s fault or a flaw in the ability to think but it's a flaw in regulation. Psychologists describe this process as rumination, a pattern of repetitive thinking that focuses on uncertainty and perceived mistakes instead of solutions. What makes this really hard to stop is that you don’t realize when you end up going into this black hole of think...