The Overthinking Oddity
A cursory Google search will tell you that anxiety is your body’s response to stress and overthinking a mere side effect or symptom — a statement that may seem astute for your average reader but churlish for someone with the disorder.
An entire disorder watered down more than a tall glass of squash for easy understanding or lack thereof. Of the many things that one has learned to normalize in our modern world, awareness about patient dealing with people with such mental health issues haven’t seem to have made the list yet and is still viewed with notoriety instead of reciprocating kindness.
A generation of sufferers focusing too much on the optics of being imperfect social preachers but never owning up to their faults or working on their flaws. WE are a generation obsessed with the idea of positive change yet never having the will or courage to work out the kinks in ourselves and instead choose to live oblivious lives blanketed in hypocrisy; an opinion easily elucidated with the lopsidedness in the number of social media advocates for mental health versus the people who actually follow what they preach.
Within this community that balances itself of social chaos, blurring the lines between fake and real, lies my troupe — a troupe of anxious overthinkers; barely noticeable unless they personally choose to make themselves seen. We’re a passive bunch, with voices that we prefer not to be heard not because of a paucity of worthwhile contributions but because we’re often bogged down simply by existing; jumping from one worst-case scenario to another, shacked often by self-hate or fear.
One may now scoff and think of trivializing it, much like we all have at one point I’m sure, but riddle me this: does any human being wish to remain submerged in a cesspool of agony?
Do we all make multiple edits to a simple text message before sending them out because we wish to get the tone right so as to not sound offensive or hurt anyone’s feelings?
Do we all feel the crippling fear when the lack of response from someone close sets in as abandonment?
Do you all carry the silent hurt from callous words tossed around in close circles despite us actively wanting to not feel the pain?
Do we all fear idleness the same because we worry about the demons our mind conjures?
Do we all beg for reassurance and feel instant shame and humiliation?
Are we all crushed by guilt while opening up to someone?
Have we all faced abandonment and behavioral brutality from our loved ones?
Are we all REALLY built the same?
Dealing with anxiety feels like being trapped in a room with a faulty smoke detector, where you feel the weight of an invisible guillotine, ready to go irrespective of any decisions you make. In an ocean of thoughts, overthinking will be the anchor tied to your heel.
“Can you save a drowning person at sea?”, “Is it not the person’s fault in the least?” “Should they not have dealt better?”
These questions might remain unresolved in the never-ending scheme of life but,
being ‘stuck at sea’ myself for years, kindness, compassion, sensitivity, and empathy have helped much like a straw to a drowning man. An expected counterargument to this is often “you cannot always expect sensitivity from the world out there”, we agree, yet think “can we really not? Even from our close circles?”
What may read to many as a glorification of the toxic and attention-seeking behaviour, may read like a sanative to others.
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