Overthinking

I need help stopping my compulsive thoughts and worrying

Today was just too much. While doing coding, I couldn’t understand one code logic and my brain got completely stuck. I felt like screaming loudly but didn’t want anyone to hear me. Then the milkman brought the milk, so I thought I’ll boil the milk and make some green tea, maybe I’ll feel better. The sugar I was going to use had ants in it a few days ago. I had kept it in sunlight and the ants ran away. Now every day I take out just the amount of sugar I need and lightly clean it, just checking if there’s a dead ant or not. But today I brought the sugar into the light to clean it and ended up just cleaning and cleaning. I saw tiny black dots and started picking them out. When I looked closely at one of them, I felt like it was ant droppings. Then I started cleaning it deeply, probably spent half an hour just cleaning four spoons of sugar. I kept thinking I should just throw it all away. I even imagined myself throwing it away multiple times. My mind was so disturbed but I controlled myself thinking all my effort will be wasted. Then I thought—if one day I’m alone in a jungle, and there’s a dog eating a dead animal, or a dog eating another dead dog, and I haven’t eaten in days—will I try to scare the dog and eat the dead animal? Yes, I would have to. And what if there’s no water to clean it? Still, I would have to eat it out of helplessness. So after all this, I finally relaxed a bit and put the sugar into the milk. And decided that tomorrow I’ll buy new, clean sugar from the shop. I don’t know what all this is... Is this overthinking or am I becoming mentally ill?

Hey everyone, I just wanted to share something I’ve been struggling with, especially around making decisions. It’s really hard for me to feel confident in the choices I make, even when I know what the right thing is. I constantly find myself needing validation from others—whether it’s about something small or something really important. For example, at my job, I might know exactly what I’m doing and have done it right a bunch of times, but I still feel the need to double-check with someone or ask if it’s okay. It’s like this fear kicks in, and I start imagining worst-case scenarios—like what if I mess up and someone gets hurt, and then I get blamed or even end up in jail or prison. I know that sounds extreme, but these thoughts just come automatically, and they feel so real in the moment. This has been going on for maybe a year or two now. Even outside of work, the same thing happens. Like recently, I’ve been trying to figure out a gym schedule—my girlfriend wants to go with me, and I’m trying to plan the times and make it all work. But instead of just choosing what works best for me, I overthink it. I go back and forth in my head, and I ask other people what they think, even though deep down I know this is something I should be deciding for myself. It’s my life, but I still need that reassurance from others, and I don’t really know why. It’s exhausting to always doubt myself and to feel like one wrong choice could lead to something terrible. I’m trying to work through it, but I just wanted to put it out there and see if anyone else deals with this or has advice. Thanks for reading.