Overthinking: These are the 6 most common types of brooding

psychology
These are the 6 most common types of brooding – how many are you?

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Brooding is not the same as brooding. You can read here which different types are most common. How many do you find yourself in?

As beautiful and valuable as it is that we can think: When our thoughts slip away, we can no longer find peace and in the end only lead to nowhere, that’s stupid. Many people have already got lost in their mind labyrinth, after all, there are plenty of intersections at which you can turn wrong. In order to regain orientation and free yourself from the brooding trap, it can be helpful to know what types of brooding and wrong turns there are. The following six are particularly common.

Six typical brooding traps – do you know them all?

1. Brooding over the past

Having a memory and being able to recall events from the past is in itself positive. However, this gift occasionally leads some people to get lost in their past. From “what would have happened if …” to “why did I just …” – once in the carousel of thoughts of the past, it can be very difficult to get out of the car. But in order to arrive in the present and do something, it is necessary.

2. Captain Future

And another function of our thinking that is practical in itself and which can become a brooding trap: our ability to plan the future. Thinking about tomorrow is useful because, for example, we don’t spend all of our savings today on signed Mick Jagger underpants. But to worry now about how to organize all of our to-dos next week, or to worry about things that will happen in the future possibly enter could, doesn’t help us cope with what is currently important or what will be important. The Captain Future Brood Trap is particularly nasty because, to some extent, it is important to think about our future in order to make good decisions in the present. However, if we exceed this level and fall into the trap, we are usually so overwhelmed and trapped that we make bad decisions. Or none at all.

3. Think for others

Another very widespread brooding variant: Try to use the power of your own thoughts to reveal what is going on in other people’s minds. Especially when it has to do with themselves, some people are willing to invest a lot of energy in brooding such as: “What do you think XY thinks of me?”, “Should I have phrased my statement differently or should have kept it to myself?” “,” Why doesn’t XY answer my message? “. Much can be clarified in a flash with a simple, open question. However, some people prefer to think about it for a long time. So as not to find an answer in the end.

4. FOBO

FOBO stands for Fear of Better Options and describes the fear of not making the optimal decision. And this fear is a typical trigger for brooding attacks. If possible, play through all the available options in your head and think through all your ifs and buts to be sure that you choose the right one – that may be the goal of FOBO pondering, but it is unattainable. We can never consider everything. And when we try, we often lose sight of what actually offers us the best basis for decision-making: our intuition.

5. World-changing questions

Why is the world so unjust? Can a country survive at all if it is ruled by a conservative party for 20 years? Why do some restaurants (in the US) still serve their food on disposable plates? Questions about questions that we could think about endlessly – without having the slightest effect. But the temptation is simply too great, which is why some people keep falling into the world-shattering question trap. If they did not do this, they could achieve so much in matters that concern them and their loved ones.

6. Lost in interpretation

Our brain has a strong need for clarity, we would like to always understand and classify everything (which, by the way, also explains the brooding over the world-shaking questions). Sometimes this need leads some people to see meanings in things, events, actions, or statements that are not there – or look for those meanings. Is XY trying to tell me something by saying that he doesn’t answer me until the evening? How did I deserve to have it raining now as I ride my bike home? Such thoughts can easily become spirals. That don’t bring us anything except maybe a worm and dizziness.

Sources used: Simplicable.com, thedepressionproject.com

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Brigitte

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