Finding sanity in my insanity

Okay, so this title is a bit of an overstatement. But here goes. I used my overthinking to my advantage.

That sentence, in itself, is enough achievement for a whole blog, but I'll explain myself. Disclaimer: This whole situation might feel a bit silly and small to a "normal" person, but it felt like a big deal to me.

A few weeks ago, my boyfriend started playing Pokemon Go. Yes, I know we're a year too late to the party, but hey, we're 90's kids. He downloaded the game at the same time our neighbor did, who is also a young man, mid-20's. And they started playing the game together. And I mean PLAYING, as in running out of the house at 10 p.m. because "there's a Snorlax in the Toys R Us parking lot."

Anyway, I felt very left out. Here I was, sitting alone at home while he and his buddy ran around like kids. It felt very petty of me, which is why I started overthinking in the first place. Here's a bit of how my stream of thoughts went:
Why do I feel this bad? It's just a stupid game.
But he plays all the time. Is it because he doesn't want to be around me?
No, that's stupid. You're a person. He just finds the game fun and interesting.
So if it's not me, why is he leaving all the time?
Well, he does like to hang out with our neighbor. They're good friends.
But I'm his friend too. Doesn't he want to play with me?
Play the game? Do you need an invitation?

After all that figuring out why I felt bad and being alone, I decided to swallow my pride. Who cared if it was a stupid game? The problem was that I was depressed and alone. The solution was to find a way to stop being depressed and alone. A.K.A to play the game.

And you know what? It worked.

We started hanging out more, going on walks, going out with our neighbors. I could tell when we went out that the young man's wife was feeling the same way I had been: left out, lonely, and frustrated. I just didn't think it was my place to tell her what to do. In some ways, I wish I'd felt comfortable telling her I understood.

As ever, I can't stop myself from giving a little advice. Yes, this was a pretty easily-handled situation. But I could have very easily just sat there and continued to think about it and be lonely and overanalyze why the game was more fun than I was. Instead, and maybe it was by chance, my brain gave me an option I needed. It gave me a solution to the questions circling around my mind. If you often find yourself overthinking about a situation, it can help to try and focus your thoughts in a direction that leads to answers - if you can't turn off the overthinking entirely. This is a form of therapy in itself. Another part of being aware of your own thoughts. You have all these thoughts buzzing through your head. There's bound to be a solution in there somewhere.