Do The Thing, Overthink It Later

Recently, I’ve surprised myself in how I’m dealing with difficult moments.

On paper, the solution is obvious. Pick up the phone. Send the email. Fire off the Teams message the moment something clashes or no longer works. That instinct has always been there, and it’s something I’ve actively tried to practise.

But bipolar and ADHD add their own variations to the process. Minutes or hours disappear into chronic overthinking. Analytical spirals. The endless rewriting of messages that were already clear, already reasonable, already fine. And then comes the resistance, the urge to grovel, to overexplain, to pre-empt rejection before it has even arrived.

Instinctively, I feel lesser than everyone else in the room. The pressure to impress and prove my worth becomes insurmountable. While that drive often pushes me to produce my best work, it also turns small, easily fixable moments into something much harder to face. Things that would benefit from being shared early get locked away, held close, allowed to grow heavier than they ever needed to be.

But something seems to have clicked in my head over the past few weeks.

Do the thing. Overthink it later.

It feels as though I’ve outsourced the panic. Once the message lands on the recipient’s desk, in whatever form it takes, I’ve done everything I reasonably can to ensure the best possible outcome. The fear doesn’t vanish, but it no longer blocks the action.

Of course, these moments are still nerve-wracking. That’s part of being human, especially if you care deeply about the trajectory of your life. But that’s the point, isn’t it? Initiative, motivation and a measure of proactivity will always say more than procrastination, self-blame and the slow self-destruction that bipolar and ADHD spirals can invite.

Doing the thing doesn’t make the anxiety disappear.

It just stops it from running the show.