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Hey, sometimes overthinking can be a good thing!
Yes, it can also be annoying and drive your friends and family members up the wall, but when you get that little victory once in a while because you were prepared, you save the day!
What situation were you prepared for because you’re an over-thinker?
Here’s what folks on AskReddit had to say.
1. Got it covered.
“I carry some of just about everything, in my purse. We were at a beach, during off season, and a kid wiped out. I
had everything needed, to clean, and bandage him up.
I carried that stuff, (renewing when it got old), for almost 20 years before actually needing it.”
2. Get comfortable.
“I keep a change of clothes in my car at all times and a wool blanket in case my car breaks down or I’m stuck in undrivable conditions.
Sure enough, about 11 years ago it snowed juuuust heavily enough that my pavement princess of a car couldn’t drive safely in it and I was too far away from town to turn back, so I pulled over and waited out the snow in comfort (I had snacks and water remaining from the trip I was still on at the time) until the street sweepers came through.”
3. Don’t panic.
“My company was in shambles financially and was laying off (bit before Coronavirus).
I kinda sensed my number will come soon, so I applied for masters degree. I got laid off and 2 weeks later I had my acceptance letter for a masters degree.
Saved me the panic of finding a job in a post corona economy in 2020.”
4. You never know.
“In college I was on my university’s equestrian team. I’d been riding long enough to know that anything that can go wrong, will go wrong at a horse show, especially if you’re not prepared for it.
My car was always full of gear, and I was always poked fun at for it, but I saved so many team mates butts. Your crop broke? I got you. I always carried two. Got horse slobber all over your show coat? I got you. I always carried two extra pairs of show pants and there was at least one show where both of them were needed.
Then there was also the situation where the billets broke ( a strap that helps hold the saddle on) on one of the horse’s saddles and it was either a dressage saddle or mine. We made it work with mine.
Who brings their own saddle to an away horse show? I do because you never know what you’re gonna need.”
5. Fear of not being prepared.
“Growing up, my dad really instilled the fear of not being prepared in my head. If you have ever watched Freaks and Geeks, the dad at the dinner table recounting someone he knew who d**d as a result of their actions was a pretty spot on impression.
It extended beyond “don’t run with scissors” to, “don’t carry things on your lap when you’re in a car or you’ll be cut in half”, “walk opposite of traffic so if someone tries to kidnap you, you can kick their door in and run away”.
I instinctively catalogue items when entering a room based on what would be a good weapon, and have had to familiarize myself with preserving evidence. The last one is what came in handy.
Unfortunately, one of the worst case scenarios befell our family two years ago. My oldest daughter disclosed that she had been m**ested by my then FIL. I went into full auto-pilot here: took my daughter to a safe room, had family pick up my dog and youngest daughter, made sure she didn’t wash her hands. When she had to use the restroom, I asked her not to wipe. We didn’t change her clothes, we didn’t have her brush her teeth.
The DNA evidence they were able to collect off of her put him in prison and will keep him there.
Surprisingly, this has helped my overthinking. We all are getting a lot of therapy now and I’ve started to learn that it’s ok to not be for everything. Sometimes life sucks, and most of the time it’s completely out of our control.”
6. Already readjusted.
“My ex boyfriend of 3 years and I were seemingly totally fine, but he was just not texting back at his usual speed for a few days.
Any normal person would say “oh he’s just busy with work”, but I went straight to he’s clearly going to break up with me. Well, after 4 days of slow texts back, he breaks up with me.
I was completely prepared, had my ice cream in the freezer, chocolate in the fridge, tissues and lavender oil in the bedside drawer and bath bombs at the ready in the bathroom. I was so prepared that I didn’t even really need all of that though, because I had already readjusted to the mentality of having been broken up with.
That was my quickest bounce back from a relationship ever, 2 days and I was fine.”
7. Sticky icky icky.
“I hid a few grams of weed once.
I knew my adhd stoner brain would forget about it and sometimes it can be hard to come by if it’s dry.
My husband called the idea stupid and it wouldn’t come in handy.
Guess who ran out of weed a month later and couldn’t find any more, then suddenly remembered our secret little stash? This guy.
Kept us going until we could find some more and now my husband never gives me c**p when I hide things.”
8. That’s random.
“I slipped on the ice and shattered my femur.
Luckily I stuck my phone in my pocket before I took the garbage out for the explicit reason of “what if I slip on the ice and break my femur?”.”
9. Trust your gut.
“Overthinker here.
Dealing with a very corrupt local police force here in Orange County California, I thought of this far-fetched scenario where the police officers tried to raid my offices with a SWAT team over building code violations, so I installed a DVR system and just waited, I thought it was so far fetched that I never bothered to tell any of my colleagues what I was doing out of fear that they would laugh at me.
3 days after it was installed, 12 tactical units came in and busted down the door, they were laughing the whole time. All caught in glorious high definition video. It made local news even. Of course their claims were baseless and a fairly large civil suit was launched against the city. Trust your gut…”
10. Jeez…
“I saved 2 voicemail messages from my mentally ill father, who was coached by the woman who controlled him and financially abused him for 15 years to tell me never to call him again.
Her voice can be heard telling him what to say and he repeats her words verbatim. He passed away in 2019, but now those messages are the ‘slam dunk’ in the 400 pages of evidence I’ve collected to not only stop her collecting life insurance, but also demand she repay some of the tens of thousands in “unconscionable procurement.”
I’ll be giving the whole pile of evidence to her local police because there is no way my father was her only victim.”
11. Good move.
“I occasionally fear someone is following me when I’m driving. One night I leaned on my horn for someone who cut me off.
When I turned into a neighborhood to drop off my friend I noticed the same car behind me. Instead of stopping at her house to drop her off I drove past and did a circle around the block to see if they’d follow, which they did.
That turned into us being chased by them for about 30 minutes which is another story altogether.
I don’t want to think about what would have happened if I assumed it was another car from that neighborhood and stopped when I got to my friends house.”
12. Pandemic life.
“The pandemic.
I had been watching the news and new there was a virus spreading that was freaking officials out way more than normal. The day they announced a case in my county I made a trip to the store to stock up on the essentials like booze, food, and TP.
The lines were moderate but not at panic levels. A week later they announced the lockdown. Thankfully I had bought enough to last me 2.5 months without needing to leave my place.”
13. Have to be careful.
“Riding a motorcycle.
I always assume every car around me is going to wildly pull out in front of me or swerve into my lane. multiple times these assumptions have saved my life.
I’m a pretty crazy over thinker and a lot of times it’s needless worry.
But I feel like sometimes it prepares me for something that DOES actually happen.”
Have you ever found yourself in a situation like this?
If so, please tell us about it in the comments.
Thanks a lot!
