How to Stop Overthinking (Without Trying to Get Rid of It) | Dr. Chloe Carmichael

If your brain will not shut off at night, here is the reframe that surprised me most: you might not need to get rid of your overthinking at all. I sat down with clinical psychologist Dr. Chloe Carmichael, USA Today bestselling author of Nervous Energy, to talk about how to calm anxiety by understanding what it is actually for, and why the people pleasing habit of holding everything in tends to make a racing mind worse instead of better. We get into the difference between healthy fear and the kind of overthinking that just loops, a mind map exercise you can try tonight, and what brave, authentic communication has to do with a calmer mind. Two threads, one through line: learning to work with your anxiety instead of fighting it. Chapters 00:00 Why You Shouldn’t Try to Get Rid of Your Anxiety 02:32 From a Yoga Mat to a PhD: How Anxiety Became Her Life’s Work 12:06 Healthy Fear or Overthinking? How to Tell the Difference 18:49 The Mind Map Exercise for a Racing Mind 21:14 The Eight-Diet-Cokes Client: When Anxiety Is Actually Physical 26:15 Why Holding It All In Actually Makes Anxiety Worse 32:59 Self-Censorship vs. Healthy Self-Restraint 43:10 How to Speak Up Without Blowing Up the Relationship 53:33 The Three Doors: A Simple Way to Decode Any Anxiety Links • Free quiz, What’s Holding You Back?: https://www.growingself.com/break-free/ • Talk to a therapist or coach, free consultation: growingself.com/anxiety-therapist • Full episode and show notes: growingself.com/stop-overthinking Subscribe for a new episode every week: @DrLisaMarieBobby (Hanna to insert the channel subscribe link) More from Growing Self: growingself.com