What are the signs you’re a people-pleaser?

Chronic people-pleasing behavior can be recognized by agreeing when you really want to say no, trying to avoid any conflict, saying sorry all the time, believing that other people’s emotions are your responsibility, and having problems expressing yourself.

• Overcommitting: You say “yes” to too many things that you don’t have time for, just so you don’t let anyone down.

• Giving up on yourself: You change your outlook based on who you are with to fit into the crowd.

• Avoiding conflict: You don’t want the other person to feel bad about what you say, so you don’t say anything.

• Always need approval: You feel anxious or uneasy until you have the confirmation from others that they approve of what you are doing.

Stop Caring What Others Think

By James Umber

How do you know if you’re overthinking social interactions? 

The signs of overthinking social conversations are ruminating on your conversation continuously, checking all the words that you have spoken, imagining the worst-case scenarios, getting nervous before and after having a conversation, and being unable to think of anything but the way people perceive you.

This behavior also has to do with post-event processing in that your mind keeps going over what happened hours and days later to see if there were any mistakes made and if people have been judging you. 

At night, you go over every little detail and think of what you could have done differently. All this is consuming mental energy and creating excessive anxiety even when there is nothing really wrong. So you tend to avoid social interaction so you don’t get so tired afterward.