Who is a sinner and who is a saint? Two polar aspects of being human. On one side we have someone who knows nothing but evil. Is cruel and someone we dread, on the opposite side of the spectrum, we have an imagery of a person who is more or less “divine”. Someone full of wisdom, knowledge and will always continue to do the right thing, an angel of sorts. But how do we decide, who a person is? Is it their actions? Thoughts? Societal position? Or something they do at night before drifting off to sleep?

Overthinking or Analysis paralysis, is when a person spends way too long, over analysing everything, which can range from life altering decisions to things as minuscule as the breakfast they’ll have the next morning. People can also have a varied “degrees” of overthinking which usually ranges from overthinking a couple of times in a week to being paralyzed while making important decisions and as a result, coming to no conclusion and missing out on a lot of opportunities.  

Sometimes overthinking can lead to a loss of observation and shifts your focus from the larger things in life. It can make you not acknowledge the endless possibilities and instead force you to look and spend your day thinking and analysing situations that may not even be nearly as impactful and this leads to a lot of wasted potential.

In a discussion with an anonymous source on their personal experience with overthinking, they described it as “a defensive mechanism”. In their words, “When you live in a household with parents that are OCD about everything and can be quite sensitive, it starts to make you think a lot more, probably to cope with the ever-increasing stress”. Further, the source explained why overthinking has also been beneficial to them. “I would say that being an overthinker is often accompanied by higher levels of empathy and reflectiveness. It also tends to help you become someone who is future oriented, which is a good trait when it comes to your career”

But that is just the pretty side of the underlying monster. Overthinking can lead to trust issues and insecurities if the overthinker is in a relationship. They can end up believing that an issue is bigger than it actually is, which is usually because they misinterpreted their partner’s actions. Too much of overthinking might even make someone avoidant of challenges and taking risks, which may impede on their ability to form meaningful relationships or achieve social goals.

In an interview with another source, they explained why they overthink. “I am pretty sure, I didn’t choose to overthink, but it chose me. I suffer from OCD and it’s not like most people expect it to be. Sometimes, I just HAVE to wash my hands 5 times, because if I don’t, my mind will convince me that someone I love, will pass away. And it’s not only things as small as washing my hands, it transfers onto obsessively thinking about that one incident that happened 2 years ago. I know that I always doubt my academics, or my achievements, I have felt like I didn’t deserve any of what I have, an “imposter syndrome” if you may. I have an obsession to make my family proud, and I always question if I am doing that. When I say “always”, I mean it. The issue is, I don’t have a clue WHY I want to make them proud; I just do. It’s just sad and depressing. It eats up a lot of my mental space and makes me tired on a ridiculous level. I wish I could stop it, but I just can’t seem to.”

All of the people who I’ve interviewed are teenagers. Humans that are just like you and me. But they continue to live with this unnecessary habit. Causing both pain and focus. Well, I was told to answer the question of whether overthinking makes you a sinner or saint, but I can’t do that. Not now, probably never. Because its not an objective question, it never was. Is obsessively thinking about your future, your end goal, a sin? Is over analysing your partners action a good and noble deed? We can never answer these questions because this “obsession” isn’t chosen by a person, it is inflicted onto them, it is not their fault, they are not the cause, and therefore, it doesn’t make you a sinner OR a saint. It makes you valid. It makes you able to analysis. It makes you wonderful. It makes you human.

-Jahnavi Dhir. 2021