Overthinking is an epidemic. Like a plague, it takes hold of its victims and eats away at them from the inside out. It clouds their minds, judgment and destroys any semblance of happiness their already overworked minds could muster. It rots away at their brain and keeps them in a perpetual state of paralysis.

Stripped down to its most basic strain, it occupies their thoughts with only one idea over and over and over again. It distracts them from the present with trivial thoughts of the future and past, glazing over their eyes and producing a life-like corpse

The symptoms of overthinking include neuroses, obsession and the inability to make a decision. It causes your stress levels to rise and your blood pressure to soar. So why do it? Why succumb to this invisible, yet very present disease? Why let yourself live in this state of perpetual uncertainty?

Unfortunately, those plagued with the disease are so used to living with it, they’ve given up hope on finding a cure. They’re used to spending hours upon hours wondering, pondering and obsessing over insignificant details and trivialities.

They’re used to being constantly on edge, never comfortable with their own decisions. They want to be like the healthy, those lucky ones who get to roam free, unburdened from the constant questioning that keeps them bedridden and distracted, but the disease has progressed too far.

While we may never find a cure for overthinking, there are ways to hamper some of the symptoms. While we can’t cure every worry and every ailing thought, we can try to provide some relief for the myriad of cases.

Whether you carry the strain that overthinks love, work or maybe both (poor souls), there are ways to work on ridding the symptoms one by one, processing each thought until it’s no longer an exhausting hindrance.

These are some prescriptions for the common 13 thoughts people with the overthinking disease are tired of worrying about:

1. The fact that they’re not living their lives fully enough

What does living fully mean? Is there a guide book that tells you what you should have by this age? Unfortunately (or fortunately), there’s no recipe for a full life; it’s all personal preference and family secrets.

Your life will be full when you decide it is and no one can tell you you made it wrong.
2. That they are unstable in their relationship

What’s the point of being in a relationship if you’re going to fret about it the whole time? You were worried you’d never be in one and now you’re worried you’re not in the right one.

If you keep overthinking it, you’re going to think your way to the end of it.
3. The fact that they are nowhere near where they thought they’d be at this age

By spending all your time worrying about where you should be right now, you’re wasting the time it should take you to get there.

You are where you need to be and if you don’t like it, work on changing it rather than wallowing in it.
4. Finding love before it’s too late

Love isn’t something you can hunt down. It’s something that must come to you. Worrying about it only sends out signals to your prey of your desire to strike them down and makes the chase that much harder.

Like that missing pair of socks, only once you’ve stopped worrying about finding it will you start to see them all around you.
5. Settling with the wrong person

There’s really no overthinking love. You know when you have it and you know when it’s a lie. If you stopped overthinking it, you might be able to see it more clearly.
6. Regretting past decisions

The past is like a box filled with tax returns and receipts from 20 years ago; you don’t need it and you’re just keeping it there because, like my mother, you’re neurotic.

All you’re really doing, however, is filling up the attic with flammable goods and weighing down the structure of the house. Let go of the past, it’s a dust collector that will never be worth anything in the future.
7. Making enough money

If you’re not making enough money, that’s good, you’re making something else: character. Unlike those making their dream salary by 20, you’re gaining something they never will.

Because character is something that builds from struggle and learning to live without your desired income is a labor all people should experience. If you’re constantly worried about making more money, you’ll never learn to enjoy it once you do.
8. Whether or not they’re liked

Public perception is like a mirror… it reflects backwards. Many times the people you think are your toughest critics are the ones who admire or enjoy you the most.

People don’t wear their emotions on their sleeves, and if they’re spending any time with you at all, it means they see something about you they like. Stop worrying about your reflection because it just makes you seem vain.
9. If their family is happy

Your family isn’t a collective unit dependent on you for their common happiness. Your mother, father, sister, brother are their own people. They need to find their own ways and work on getting their own happiness.

Not to mention, how can you possibly work on making sure they’re happy when you can’t stop overthinking your own happiness.
10. If they’re going to get hurt

The capacity to love also comes with the capacity to hurt. We are doomed to feel pain throughout our lives, but that pain opens us up to a greater understanding of love and real happiness. Stop worrying about whether you’re going to get hurt and worry more about how you’re going to turn that hurt into something worthy of the pain.
11. Is this photo Instagram worthy?

Social media sites have been the induced fever alongside the already painful symptoms of overthinking. Is there anything worse for an overthinker than social media?

It’s just another outlet to overanalyze, worrying about filters, likes and friend requests at an exhausting rate. The best thing an overthinker can do in terms of social media is delete it all, every last neurotic trace of it.
12. Their mortality

It’s hard to get into mortality without sounding like a whiney character from a Woody Allen film, but as Boris in “Love and Death” so eloquently put it, “there are worst things in life than death.” And one of those things is wasting life worrying about it.

What’s the point in living if you’re so consumed with dying? Death will take you when it’s time and accepting that you’re susceptible to its wrath will make your time here that much more bearable .
13. Their best friend’s allegiance

Friendships are the last thing that need overanalysis. They are supposed to be the respite from your over-active mind, providing relief from the fight you can’t stop having with yourself.

Overthinking them is just a way to turn friends into awkward and confused enemies.

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