I believe it’s safe to say that we all know a few worriers in our lives. Some of us might even be textbook overthinkers. Taking too long to make up your mind about what needs to be done, second-guessing yourself way too much or spending a hella long time concerned about the future. Well, for all the times that you have been frustrated over it all and berated someone (or yourself) for worrying too much, we have good news.
A recent study suggests that people with the traits of an overthinker may actually be this way because they are incredibly developed creative people. Researchers at King’s College in London have found definitive links between anxiety and a stronger imagination.
According to Dr. Adam Perkins, an expert in Neurobiology of Personality, ” for specific neural reasons, high scorers on neuroticism have a highly active imagination, which acts as a built-in threat generator.” Think of it this way: worry is the mother of invention. Many of our most significant inventions have been the result of worry over energy, invasion or survival.
Furthur, Dr. Perkins explained:
” Cheerful, happy-go-lucky people by definition do not brood about problems and so must be at a disadvantage when problem-solving compared to a more neurotic person. We have a useful sanity check for our theory because it is easy to observe that many geniuses seem to have a brooding, unhappy tendency that hints they are fairly high on the neuroticism spectrum. For example, think of the life stories of Isaac Newton, Charles Darwin, Vincent Van Gogh, Kurt Cobain, etc. Perhaps the link between creativity and neuroticism was summed up most succinctly of all by John Lennon when he said: ‘Genius is pain.’ ”
