I can’t switch my mind off
Lying awake going back over a conversation. Planning for something that hasn’t happened and probably won’t. Thinking that won’t stop when you want it to is one of the most common reasons people look for help, and one of the most treatable.
Two patterns come up most often. They can feel much the same from the inside, and what helps is a little different for each.
Worry and rumination
Worry faces forward. It’s about what might happen. It branches — one ‘what-if’ produces three more — and it usually comes with physical tension. It tends to feel productive, as though thinking something through thoroughly enough will prepare you for it.
Rumination faces backward. It’s about what already happened. It turns in circles rather than going off in branches: replaying a conversation, a decision, a moment that you might have liked to be different. It comes with heaviness rather than tension, and it can make you feel stuck.
Lots of people experience both. Working out which one is louder is a useful first step towards knowing what will help.
Why telling yourself to stop doesn’t work
Trying not to think about something tends to make it more present, not less. So any Approach (modality) The kind of therapy someone uses, such as CBT or psychodynamic therapy. You'll also see it called a modality. More in the jargon decoder built on pushing thoughts away tends to backfire.
Worry and rumination also feel like they’re doing something useful. Worry feels protective, as though going over what could go wrong keeps you ready for it. Rumination feels like it’s working something out. Neither one gets you anywhere, and both feel purposeful enough that stopping seems careless.
Which is why the approaches with the best evidence don’t try to stop the thoughts. They change what happens around them.
What helps
Working on your beliefs about thinking itself. People who worry a lot usually hold views about worrying — that it’s necessary, that it prevents bad outcomes, or that it can’t be controlled. It’s often more useful to work on those beliefs than on any particular worry. This is the core of metacognitive therapy and a significant part of CBT for long-running worry.
Practising letting thoughts pass. Rather than arguing with a thought or pushing it away, you learn to notice it without following it. This is what acceptance and commitment therapy and mindfulness-based approaches train, and it suits people who find constantly challenging their thoughts exhausting.
Containing it. Setting aside a specific window for worrying, and postponing worries to that window when they arrive. It sounds too simple to work, and it has good evidence, particularly where sleep is affected.
Changing what you do rather than what you think. Rumination and withdrawal tend to feed each other, and behaviour often shifts before mood does. Behavioural activation works on this directly.
Things worth mentioning to a GP or therapist
A few patterns look similar from the outside but respond to different treatment, so they’re worth raising if any of them sound like you.
If it became much worse after a specific event, and the thoughts feel more like intrusions than circling, say so. Trauma responses can look like overthinking, and trauma-focused treatment is different.
If the thoughts are unwanted and distressing, and you find yourself checking, seeking reassurance or running mental rituals to settle them, that’s a distinct pattern with a specific and effective treatment.
If your mind has always been fast and scattered rather than repetitive, and concentrating and finishing things has been a lifelong issue, that’s worth a separate conversation.
And if the thing this affects most is your sleep, treating the sleep directly often does more than treating the worry. There’s a version of Cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) A structured, practical form of talking therapy. It's built on a simple idea: what you think affects how you feel, and both affect what you do. More in the jargon decoder built specifically for insomnia, usually shortened to CBT-I. It has very good evidence and few people get offered it.
What to do next
If this has been going on for weeks rather than days, and it’s affecting your sleep, concentration or enjoyment of things, it’s worth talking to someone. A GP (general practitioner) For most people, where getting help starts. A GP can write a Mental Health Treatment Plan, prescribe medication and refer you on, and some are trained to deliver a small number of structured therapy sessions themselves. More in the jargon decoder is the usual starting point, and can write a Mental Health Treatment Plan that makes seeing a Psychologist Someone trained to assess mental health problems and treat them with therapy. It takes at least six years of study and supervised practice, and they're registered with Ahpra, the national regulator. Psychologists can't prescribe medication. More in the jargon decoder considerably cheaper.
If you’d rather start on your own, This Way Up and MindSpot both run online courses for long-running worry. MindSpot’s are free, and This Way Up’s are free when a GP or therapist prescribes them. You mostly work through them on your own, though MindSpot can include support from a clinician. They ask you to supply the momentum, but they’re a reasonable first step.