The Art of Creating Problems

Vesa Debora Sara

11th Grade D

We are born with no knowledge, no concept of time, nor space, only with  

needs and different purposes. Thus, we are firstly curious, wanting and  

trying to learn and understand as much as we humanly possibly can at the  

time, on matters that we’re interested in.

For instance, a hyper curious baby has, most of the time, the tendency to  

overthink   and   continuously   analyse   everything   that   latches   on   to   his  

attention, regardless of whether he or she actually understands what is  

going on, which, let’s be honest, is rather absurd. After all, children's minds 

are not conscious, as they are not yet able to reason the same as an adult.  

The first ideas that enter a baby's head being linked to bodily experiences,  

such as hunger, cold, thirst, comfort and sleep.

However, we eventually grow up and end up having both a consciousness  

and a subconsciousness, capable of memorising and reasoning between  

“good” and “bad”. Morals are mostly affected by the environment we have 

lived in, the way we were raised and taught by our parents, or other family  

members, what social norms and values we know and what we believe is  

normal, yet that can thoroughly change over time.

Thus, after becoming aware of what’s going on around us, having no other  

option, but to think, in order to, well, simply do anything in life, we are  

sometimes prone to wasting plenty of time, concerning ourselves with the  

same thoughts or situations, ruminating about the past, present or even  

worrying about the future. This usually happens during a time of distress,  

when we fail to realise that the solution, doesn’t, in fact, require so much  

uneasiness over nothing. Therefore, we overthink because we can think,  

both of which are, sort of, “default” settings of the human mind.

Nowadays, overthinking has drastically started to increase the number of  

people it affects as well, due to distinct environmental causes, or worldwide 

sudden, dire changes in the past few years. Besides, ever since technology  

took over, more and more people  have  started  to  obsessively   consume  

whatever they find on social media platforms, desperately trying to distract 

themselves from their issues.

The fake, too good to be true “realities” that people like to show off on the  

internet, to feel better about themselves, knowing that the opposite is, truth  

be told, happening, can also affect those that believe what those so-called  

influencers are flaunting, consequently resulting in negative impacts in their  

daily lives. For example, it could often lead to irrational choices being  

made, being pessimistic all the time, only choosing to see the faults in  

everything,   creating   an   endless   cycle   of   stress   and   worry.   This   can  

ultimately cause them to have different mental health illnesses, such as  

anxiety or depression, or slowly, but surely destroying their relationships  

with others.

To conclude with, overthinking has been around ever since thinking has too,  

but denying and ignoring it, in case it keeps on getting worse, instead of  

maybe talking to someone, a family member, or a friend, or anyone you can 

trust, won’t solve anything. Even so, learning to keep a balance between the 

two, so that they result in things that you could actually benefit from, would 

be one of the first things one could do when attempting to become a better  

version of themselves.