How to Break a Loop of Stuck Thinking
Nine diagnostic strategies to stop you from spinning in circles.
Posted April 11, 2026 | Reviewed by Ekua Hagan
Let me tell you a funny story: A few days ago, my 3-year-old told me she had a sore armpit. I asked her some questions, concerned. I assumed she'd strained her lats hanging from the jungle gym, or something similar.
Then, she showed me her "armpit." She was showing the inside of her elbow, where she gets eczema that flares up periodically. Poor baby had a red patch that needed ointment.
But what was amusing was when I said to her, "Oh, it's your elbow," she kept insisting it was not her elbow that was sore. It was her armpit. She adamantly told me the pointy part was an elbow, and the part she was referring to was most definitely her armpit. Her explanation was smart; it just didn't match my terminology.
Why am I telling this story? Because it illustrates one of the fundamental root causes of stuck thinking: We try to solve a problem based on an assumption of a reliable narrator.
Medical doctors, mechanics, and tech troubleshooters all face these types of scenarios often. The person we're trying to help is describing the problem accurately from their point of view. The professional could jump to assumptions that turn out not to be accurate or helpful if they don't rely on procedures specifically designed to avoid this, like the doctor who takes a full patient history.
This is a principle we need to keep in mind with whatever we're trying to troubleshoot, including our own thinking and lack of progress on a professional or personal goal. Sometimes we're the unreliable narrator.
What follows are strategies you can run through when you're struggling to make effective progress on solving a problem. Some of these come from the world of computer science, which offers a lot of debugging strategies that can help isolate problems in complex systems.
How to Troubleshoot Stuck Thinking
Unchecked Assumptions Keep Capable People Spinning in Circles
Jumping to wrong assumptions isn't a personal problem; it's a human problem (and these days also a problem with AI). Professionals in all fields have procedures to overcome it, from medical doctors taking full patient histories beyond just the body part in question, to mechanics driving a vehicle to replicate the exact sound a customer says their car is making and isolating the noise and the circumstances, to programmers using the strategies to diagnose bugs in very complex systems. We learn from experience, too, when breakthroughs come after the lightbulb insight that an assumption was wrong, as in the armpit example.
When we're stuck, we need to recognize (without judgment) that we're not always a reliable narrator and neither are other people. Because assumptions are so sneaky and beneath our consciousness, we can't dig out the rotten ones without a specific structure to help us do that. This post suggested nine ways. Next time you're stuck, pick one that seems like it might help you find the assumption you didn't know you were making.
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Alice Boyes, Ph.D., translates principles from Cognitive Behavioral Therapy and social psychology into tips people can use in their everyday lives.
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This article is part of the Bringwise Psychology Journal — daily insights on human behavior, mental health, and personal growth.