Paranoia... Again...

[Stippler]

Hi everybody. I have anxiety but also schizophrenia. the schizophrenia is mostly under control - meaning I don't get into trouble. When my illness first became apparent, I lost a lot of what I thought were good friends. That was 25 years ago, and nowadays my friends stick by me. HOWEVER... I am always fearful that, if my friend does not call me back, he must be mad at me. My therapist tells me I am "overthinking" again, and he is right! I don't know why I cannot let the past go. I guess I loved my friends dearly, but they apparently were not my friends. I call or text somebody and they don't respond right away, and I get real upset. Then they reply, and nothing is wrong. I don't tell them I was upset for fear of freaking them out. But I get so frustrated with myself for always thinking that way! It is not fair to my friends. Anyway, venting done (for now)...

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I am a person who overthinks a lot when I have too much time on my hands. So, I try to stay as busy as I can. Maybe when you are waiting for your friends to get back to you, you can just keep reminding yourself that everything is fine, and they will get back to you when they can.

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I overthink to the max as well. It is incredibly suffering. I could've written this post, as it really describes my feelings to a tee (except for the schizophrenia part). When overthinking, I try and do some CBT to think of alternatives. They might be things like my friend is busy, away from their phone, dealing with something in their own private life, etc. I also put a percentage by each alternative. For example, since people are mostly caught up in themselves and what goes on in their life, the alternative of being caught up in their own thoughts and life might be 65-70%.