4 disadvantages of overthinking, and its negative effects.

A series of negative effects that overthinking can bring to our lives.

Imagine you have to make an important decision in your life: what career to study, where to buy a house, end a relationship, have children or not. What is your attitude towards this decision making? Are you one of those who think about it for a few days and then venture out hoping for the best? Or maybe you are one of those who spend months analyzing, gathering information, asking questions, reflecting and spending sleepless nights before announcing your final choice?

Although we have been taught to exercise restraint before making decisions, falling into the extreme is not always a good thing and and the disadvantages of overthinking can come crashing down on us, leaving usleaving us lulled into inaction.

Disadvantages of overthinking

Being analytical and reflective is helpful in decision making. People with these characteristics usually have the quality of visualizing different possible scenarios; but when these qualities become excessive the disadvantages of overthinking become present. These are the main ones.

1. Anguish

Overthinking leads to an accumulation of worries. After a new thought, a new anguish will appear.. However, these thoughts and anxieties are only in the imaginary, they are possible circumstances that will occur if X or Y happens but they do not yet exist in reality and yet they have already generated fear for what could happen.

Prospecting all possible scenarios around a situation can be useful and helps to glimpse the outlook and take action accordingly. The problem is that each situation can generate a worry that becomes overwhelming.

2. Excessive concern about the future

Should I choose to study medicine or law? If I choose medicine, I have to consider that I will spend many years in school and may end up not finding a job and be alone because I will not have had time to spend with friends and meet someone to marry; or I may become a successful doctor and make a lot of money, but then I will have to think about moving to another city and maybe that will take me away from my loved ones. If on the other hand I am inclined to study law, it could happen that I could get involved in dangerous matters while practicing my career or I could do social work and help people in need, but then I will not have money to survive and have a family.

In the end, it is very likely that one will have to decide for one career or the other, but having imagined all that can happen has already permeated the mood, filling us with doubts and worries.. Even if one chooses a different profession, there will still be doubts and fears that are overstated because of having spent too much time thinking about what might happen.

For this reason, all the worries that are generated during the exhaustive analysis of a situation give shape to one of the disadvantages of overthinking that people with these characteristics may face: the difficulty to put a limit to forecasts.

3. Falling into inaction or "paralysis by analysis".

As we have seen, there are decisions that have a "shelf life". There comes a time when a choice has to be made. When a person who thinks too much is faced with that moment, it may be that he or she will lean toward one option of the many that he or she thought of, and even with doubt or fear or tormenting himself or herself as to whether it will be the best choice, in the end he or she will have made a determination.

But there are situations that do not require a specific date or time to act. There is no external social pressure, and even if there is, somehow it can be postponed.. Even situations in which it is precisely analyzed whether it should be carried out or not. In these cases the decision making can be extended as infinite scenarios and worries and anguish about what might happen appear.

It is in this inaction that creative, family and professional projects are truncated.. That business that excites us but we are not sure it will work, we leave it suspended as a hypothesis, and we get lost in vague ideas that we think and think without getting anywhere. The trip we have been dreaming of for years but we don't know if we will be able to make it. Moving to that city or country that always makes us look forward to and where we have been offered a job but we are not sure if we will be able to adapt...

While action must be accompanied by reflection, we must be very careful not to fall into the pitfalls of overthinking that leave us paralyzed and without taking action.

For these reasons we must understand that the establishment of plans is only one phase of the process, and stopping there too long can bring us more frustration and anguish than the satisfaction of giving action to our thoughts to give way to learning and experience that gives us to carry out our plans.

4. Perfectionism and exacerbated self-demandingness

It is also good to recognize that overthinking is also good. It is useful for the planning phase of any project, it is enriching in the debate of ideas, in the structuring of critical thinking, the analysis of proposals... Obviously, in the elaboration of hypotheses and research and in everyday life itself, having a broad overview of possible scenarios is helpful in decision making.

The problem with overthinking is when this is combined with fear, perfectionism and self-demandingness, leaving us unable toThe problem with overthinking is when it combines with fear, perfectionism and self-demand, leaving us unable to make a choice and procrastinating for no reason other than "I'm still thinking about it" because there is no date that will lead us to a result. In addition, excessive perfectionism can significantly damage self-esteem.

Bibliographical references:

• Hewitt, J.P. (2009). Oxford Handbook of Positive Psychology. Oxford University Press.