Overthinking doesn’t just happen in your head—it spills into your connection with your partner. It shows up as mistrust, hypersensitivity, or even distance. A quiet night can morph into “Are they mad at me?” A forgotten compliment turns into “Maybe they don’t love me anymore.”
This mental chatter often comes with a side of self-blame or misplaced resentment: “I’ve let myself go, so of course they’ve lost interest.” Or, “I do everything around here, and they don’t even notice. They must not care.”
Sound familiar?
These thought loops—while they may feel real—are often fueled by fear, not facts. And research backs this up: rumination (that repetitive cycle of negative thinking) is closely linked to anxiety and depression. In relationships, it can create a wedge where there should be warmth, replacing connection with confusion.