How to Combat Overthinking
9 strategies to stop overthinking.
Posted June 2, 2026 | Reviewed by Margaret Foley
Being unable to turn off your thoughts is painful, especially in the middle of the night.
As a psychiatrist and empath , I've found that many of my patients come to me with an overactive mind. They’re frustrated because their mind’s chatter is drowning out everything else. It goes nonstop, keeping them stuck in circular thinking. They grow tired of repeating the same story, but they don’t know how to stop.
We each have a small and a large self. The small self is limited to the personality level where your ego, intellect, and emotional struggles dominate, and the large self is ruled by the heart. Overthinking can happen when the ego gets hurt, can’t let it go, and stays hurt. It would rather be right and have you remain stressed and angry than for you to release those burdens. As well, the small self compellingly tries to argue you out of empathy and offers “good reasons” to cling to suffering, fear , and grudges.
Empathy is the way of the heart. It lets you switch channels, away from your busy mind, to a different frequency where healing can happen. Here are strategies from my book The Genius of Empathy to help you shift from the small to the larger self.
Nine Strategies to Combat Overthinking
Once you shift out of your intellect and ego, loving forces can offer extra help. With an open heart, you may become willing to consider, "Perhaps there’s a better choice that I am unaware of. Perhaps I can change my attitude or behavior to heal a relationship."
Kaiser BN, Haroz EE, Kohrt BA, Bolton PA, Bass JK, Hinton DE. "Thinking too much": A systematic review of a common idiom of distress. Soc Sci Med. 2015 Dec;147:170-83. doi: 10.1016/j.socscimed.2015.10.044. Epub 2015 Oct 21. PMID: 26584235; PMCID: PMC4689615.
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Judith Orloff, M.D. , is an assistant clinical professor of psychiatry at UCLA and the author of The Empath's Survival Guide.
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This article is part of the Bringwise Psychology Journal — daily insights on human behavior, mental health, and personal growth.