A free course for when you overthink everything
The thought takes five seconds. The chase takes the evening.
If you overthink everything, it’s usually not because your thoughts are worse than anyone else’s. The thoughts that set you off are the ones almost everybody gets. What’s different is what happens next: you answer them, and each answer raises another question. You replay the conversation on the way home, looking for the moment it went wrong. You pick between two nearly identical things, then lie awake wondering if it was the wrong one. You aren’t broken, and you aren’t short of willpower. This isn’t a thought problem. It’s a response problem, and a response is something you can learn to stop doing.
The free guideHow to stop overthinking (without fighting your thoughts)The whole answer, step by step.
The five seconds and the long chase
Every loop starts with a trigger: a what-if, or a flicker of unease. It lasts a few seconds, and nobody chooses it. Overthinking is the long chase that follows.
Take an ordinary decision. A friend invites you to drinks on Friday. The trigger is one thought: what if it’s awkward? Five seconds. Then the chase. You check who else is going, rehearse what you’d say, remember the last party that went badly, ask your partner, decide not to go, then decide you should. By Friday you’re tired before you’ve left the house.
None of that was deciding. Real problem-solving lands on a next step: I’ll go for an hour. Overthinking ends in another question. As the psychologist Adrian Wells puts it, worry and rumination “can impair clear and controlled decision making” (2009, p. 14). The chase doesn’t make the choice better. It makes it harder.
Thoughts are weather. Picture yourself on a hillside, watching clouds drift over. The overthinker jumps up and chases every dark one across the fields. The clouds were never the problem. The chasing is.
Why it keeps going
Two quiet beliefs keep the loop running. Most overthinkers hold both without ever saying them.
- “It helps.” If I think it through enough, I’ll get it right. If I go over what I said, I won’t make the same mistake. This is why you start willingly.
- “I can’t stop.” Once it starts, it has to run its course. This is why you keep going.
One says it’s useful, so you begin. The other says it’s out of your hands, so you can’t leave. Of all the hours you’ve spent going round a decision, how many did the going round actually improve?
“You can’t always control initial thoughts that trigger worry, but you can choose not to engage in the extended worry process that follows.” Wells (2009), p. 106
What the course does about it
The Open Sky Method is a free, spoken course: eight lessons of about 40 minutes, at a pace you choose. A guide talks you through it and asks questions you can answer with a tap. The work is on how you respond. You’re never asked what your worries are about.
- Lesson 1, The trap. See the loop and the two beliefs, and start catching loops by naming them: that’s a loop.
- Lesson 2, The brake. Test “I can’t stop” by leaving a thought alone without pushing it away, and by putting the chase off to a 15-minute worry window in the early evening.
- Lesson 3, Watching the sky. Watch thoughts come and go from the hillside, then worry as hard as you can on purpose, and see whether you can stop.
- Lesson 4, Fixes that feed it. Asking everyone what they’d do, rereading, checking, avoiding: why they keep the alarm on, and how to drop one.
- Lesson 5, The great con. Test “it helps” by worrying more on one ordinary day and less on another, then comparing what actually happened.
- Lessons 6 to 8. Old memories you keep replaying, the full 12-minute attention training, and a plan for when loops come to visit.
Between lessons, most days, there’s a few minutes of practice. For the first four weeks after Lesson 2 that includes attention training twice a day (one full 12-minute round and one short 5-minute round), then once a day: moving your attention between everyday sounds, so you see for yourself that you choose where it goes. No willpower, and nothing to give up.
Try a short sample
A taste of the course for overthinking: a few minutes of the guide explaining the loop, then a short guided practice. Headphones help.
What it isn’t, and when to get help
This is self-help education, not therapy. The guide is an AI, not a person, and it can get things wrong. If you’re already seeing someone, check with them first.
- Worry most days, for months, or worry that gets in the way of your sleep or your days: talk to your GP or doctor, or a psychologist. The talking therapy usually recommended first for persistent worry is CBT (NICE guidance). Metacognitive therapy, delivered by a trained therapist, has also been tested in trials.
- Low mood: if you’ve felt flat or hopeless, or lost interest in things, most days for two weeks or more, see your GP or doctor.
- Intrusive thoughts with mental checking: if thoughts feel frightening or unacceptable and you keep checking in your head or seeking reassurance to feel sure (sometimes called Pure O), ask a doctor about OCD. The recommended first treatment is CBT that includes exposure and response prevention (ERP), with a trained therapist (NICE guidance). This course isn’t a substitute for it.
This isn’t a crisis service. If you’re thinking about ending your life or you’re not safe, call or text 988 in the US and Canada, call Samaritans on 116 123 in the UK and Ireland, or find a free line at findahelpline.com. More lines are on the help page.
Lesson 1 walks you through the loop out loud, from the five-second trigger to the two beliefs behind the chase, and gives you your first practice.
Try Lesson 1 freeA spoken, 40-minute lesson with a guide who asks you questions as you go. No account needed. How the 8 weeks work.
Common questions
Why do I overthink everything?
Usually not because your thoughts are worse than anyone else’s. Almost everyone gets unwanted thoughts. The difference is the habit of answering them, kept going by two beliefs: that thinking it through helps, and that once it starts you can’t stop.
How do I stop overthinking every decision?
Separate the decision from the chase. Work out what you need to know, find it out, choose, and take the next step. When “but what if it’s the wrong one?” turns up afterwards, that’s a new trigger, not unfinished business. Leave it alone, or postpone it to your worry window.
Is overthinking a mental health condition?
No. It’s a very common way of responding to thoughts. It can keep anxiety and low mood going, though, so if it’s getting in the way of your sleep or your days for weeks at a time, talk to a doctor or a psychologist.
If it feels more like this
- Anxiety and constant worry
- Rumination: going over and over the past
- Negative thoughts
- Pure O and intrusive thoughts
Guides
- How to stop overthinking (without fighting your thoughts)
- Worry postponement: how the worry window works
- Rumination vs worry
- Overthinking at night
- Stop replaying the past
Sources
- Wells, A. (2009). Metacognitive Therapy for Anxiety and Depression. New York: Guilford Press. Quoted from pp. 14 and 106. https://www.guilford.com/books/Metacognitive-Therapy-for-Anxiety-and-Depression/Adrian-Wells/9781609184964
- Normann, N. & Morina, N. (2018). The efficacy of metacognitive therapy: a systematic review and meta-analysis. Frontiers in Psychology, 9, 2211. https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2018.02211/full
- Nordahl, H. M. et al. (2018). Metacognitive therapy versus cognitive–behavioural therapy in adults with generalised anxiety disorder. BJPsych Open, 4(5), 393–400. https://doi.org/10.1192/bjo.2018.54
- Krzikalla, C. et al. (2024). Worry postponement from the metacognitive perspective: a randomized waitlist-controlled trial. Clinical Psychology in Europe, 6(2), e12741. https://doi.org/10.32872/cpe.12741
- National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (2011). Generalised anxiety disorder and panic disorder in adults: management (CG113). https://www.nice.org.uk/guidance/cg113
- National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (2005). Obsessive-compulsive disorder and body dysmorphic disorder: treatment (CG31). https://www.nice.org.uk/guidance/cg31