Hello sedditors! First of all, I'm not sure if this should have been in AskSeddit, but since this doesn't concern a specific girl and other people might be suffering from the same, I decided to post here. Also, bear in mind that this isn't a post about technical seduction, this is purely about psychology. So, anyway.

Overthinking is a common theme with us awkward fellas, at least when it comes to girls. I've been there, I've done that; talking to a girl and freezing up because your brain is on overdrive, you try to say the 'best', 'most impressive' thing you can, or even take the encounter back home and analyze it until you become literally exhausted. And I'm not even including crushing/loving a girl. Now, a combination of therapy and life experience led me to mostly get over this specific type of overthinking. But lately, things haven't been good for me and I'm getting...innovative with my patterns.

Let me start with an example from today: I was with a friend, en route to pick up another buddy from his workplace. Since the bar was closing and only him, his girlfriend, a guy and a waitress were there, we decided to have a quick drink. To sum it up, the waitress was stunning, so I thought, why not try my hand at th...nah. Brain had other plans. As soon as I set my sights on just having some casual conversation, damn thing went fully operational with weird thoughts:'She will probably like my friend more', 'I shouldn't even try' etc. I know this might be a textbook low self-esteem symptom, but bear with me: while I'm not extremely confident externally, I have come to terms with most of my strengths, weaknesses and I am good-looking (both believe it and have been told by girls). As I said, I don't want to stand on that example, but all in all, I'm getting some weird resistance from my brain lately.

I honestly don't know how to handle this. It's not like I'm an incredibly awkward, shy or introverted person, I do have female friends and I've had my share of relationships. I also have hobbies, have a job and work out. It's just that I can't achieve consistency - and not in the way that 'everybody feels down some days'. Every time I win over my issues, the come back harder and they always sting in the dating department. If you have any advice, I really need it people!

Thank you for your time!