The Paralysis of Perfection: Overthinking Anxiety

Overthinking Disorder

The paralysis of perfection: overthinking anxiety is difficult to stop. Who doesn’t overthink things sometimes! But when you do it all the time and you add anxiety into the mixture, that spells disaster (or panic attacks).

Once you start, it’s hard to stop. The anxiety fuels the fire. There are several different types of anxiety, such as, driving anxiety, agoraphobia and phone anxiety.

I will be talking about these three in this post.

Driving Anxiety

The paralysis of perfection: overthinking anxiety happens when I’m driving. Everybody gets a little nervous sometimes when they get behind the wheel.

When you get driving anxiety, you have full blown panic attacks just thinking about it.

If you get behind the wheel (if you make that far), you freeze. You literally are paralyzed.

You’re frozen in time. Good luck trying to get out of the vehicle. Then, your whole body starts shaking.

You find it hard to breath. You think you’re going to die because you’re suffocating.

How many who deal with daily anxiety have experienced driving anxiety? Better yet, how is driving anxiety ruining your life?

You used to be happy and driving was second nature. Now, you can’t even think about it. You spend more and more time at home because you can’t get behind the wheel.

I have gotten to the point where I literally throw myself into the car (first step) before I really have time to make up excuses of why I can’t drive.

Before I know it, I’m backing out of the driveway (second step). Yes, I get extremely nervous and I am afraid of what the other drivers will do, but I try to focus on just myself.

My therapist told me last week that a lot of her patients don’t drive anymore because of the anxiety.

Agoraphobia

The paralysis of perfection: overthinking anxiety happens in social situations.

Common situations or places that people with agoraphobia will avoid include leaving home alone, being in crowds or open spaces.

Also traveling in public transportation, or being in enclosed spaces, such as elevators or movie theaters.

I can’t stand being close to somebody and not being able to get out of the situation right away, hence an elevator.

You can feel the panic rising up in you and you pray that you don’t make an ass out of yourself. Just going to the store is traumatic to me.

I force myself to go because I don’t want to be influenced by anxiety the rest of my life.

Some people who don’t experience constant anxiety say “well, can’t you just ignore it”? Not that easy! This sounds irrational, but I get anxious when I have to take a shower.

Because of the Parkinson’s, I’m not to steady on my feet, so I feel like I’m going to fall. Additionally, the shower is in a small bathtub (enclosed spaces).

I absolutely hate social situations. I’m a shy person by nature, so I don’t like social gatherings very much.

Try having anxiety on top of that. It spells disaster. I just stay home in my bedroom, typing away.

If I need to go to the store, I do it when I have an appointment that day.

At any rate, I go because I’m already out of my comfort zone (bedroom).

Phone Anxiety

The paralysis of perfection: overthinking anxiety happens when I’m talking on the phone.

An individual experiences intense fear or anxiety related to making or receiving phone calls.

This can result in avoidance behaviors, such as not answering the phone or not making important calls.

People with phone anxiety will experience a range of physical and emotional symptoms when faced with the prospect of making or receiving a phone call.

These symptoms will include sweating, heart palpitations, trembling, and difficulty thinking or speaking clearly.

I solved that problem, I don’t answer my phone unless it comes as somebody that I know. Consequently, nobody can really get in touch with me, but it’s nice and quiet that way.

Anxiety And Anger

The paralysis of perfection: overthinking anxiety with anger. When I was diagnosed with Parkinson’s Disease a few years back, I thought hell, what else can God put on my plate.

Besides having multiple mental disorders, why not tack on a physical disease. I think the anger I feel, I direct more inward. I do know that I am my own worst critic.

When I come down from a anxiety attack, I’m angry at myself for letting it happen. Yes, I’m bitter about some of the things in my life, but my life could be a lot worse.

I am grateful for the things that I do have. If I didn’t experience the feelings of mental disorders, I wouldn’t have such a blast of typing all these posts for you to read and relate!

Conclusion

The paralysis of perfection: overthinking anxiety can get you into trouble. I have a lot of mental and physical issues, but by far, I am grateful for my experiences with life.

I’m one of those that believe that everything happens for a reason. You may not like it (I know, life sucks sometimes). At the same time, you wouldn’t be who you are today.

You first have to like yourself, then everything else will fall in place (karma). Sorry, I’m getting a little deep. I just want you to know that as my quote goes “you’re not alone.”

Their are many of anxiety sufferers out there. Did you know that 1.2 million people Googled anxiety. So, you are definitely not alone!