The Tendency to Over-analyse
Do you have a tendency to over-analyse?
That is to say, do you sometimes find yourself turning over different possibilities or different interpretations of a situation endlessly?
Problems with Too Much Analysis
If you do have such a tendency, then potential problems can be:
- excessive anxiety
- indecision
- self-doubt
- bottled up feelings
- self-recrimination
- misjudgment of others.
One Approach to Over Analysis
If you find yourself in a situation where you know you are tempted to over-analyse and that is unlikely to be beneficial or to produce a helpful solution, then you might want to try the following:
- Select one main negative argument/option or interpretation and remind yourself what that is.
- Then remind yourself of what you see as the main positive counter argument to that negative view.
- Then don't analyse any more. Either just hold the two main counter arguments in your head, or else choose to act if there seems to be something sensible you can then do to improve the situation.
Example of this Approach to Over-Analysis
Suppose you are worried about whether you have offended someone by your behaviour.
You might use the above approach to over-analysis as follows, by saying to yourself:
'She may have been offended by me saying I didn't want to meet up on Friday, because she seemed to go silent after that [Main negative argument].
'On the other hand, she's never been offended in this kind of situation before, so she may just have gone silent because she was thinking about something else' [Main positive counter argument].
Having summarised the two main sides of your internal argument in this way, stop analyzing at that point. Either decide to do something (such as ask her if you offended her) or else decide to let it go and focus on something else.
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