A spiral isn’t a thinking problem, it’s a body problem… and once you understand why, everything changes. In this episode, I’ll show you exactly how to interrupt a spiral before it takes over. So, Let’s Talk About Mental Health!

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Episode Overview:

Are your thoughts are in a spiral? Is spiralling something you deal with often? Does your mind ever take one worried thought and turn it into a full-scale emergency, leaving you overwhelmed, exhausted, and unable to think straight? If anxiety spirals are something you deal with regularly, this episode of the Let’s Talk About Mental Health podcast is for you. 

This week I’m getting into what actually happens in your brain and body when you start spiralling… because understanding the anxiety feedback loop is the first step to interrupting it. When your thoughts, your emotions, and your nervous system all start feeding each other, you can feel completely out of control. I’ll walk you through why spiralling happens, why the instinctive responses most people reach for tend to make it worse, and I’ll give you a set of practical and realistic tools for emotional regulation that work even when you’re already overwhelmed. If panic and anxiety are familiar territory and you’re ready to stop the spiral cycle rather than just survive it, this one’s for you. 

👉 Ready to discover how to stop spiralling? Then let’s talk!

💡 TL;DR: If you’ve ever felt your thoughts start to spiral and tried everything to make them stop, only to end up more overwhelmed than when you started, this episode will explain why that happens and what to actually do about it. 🙂

New here? Hi! Let’s Talk About Mental Health is your weekly dose of practical mental health advice for real life. I’m Jeremy Godwin (hello! 👋) and I keep things simple, honest, and doable so you can feel more in control of your life and your mental wellbeing. If you’re not already a free subscriber, sign up below to have episodes and transcripts land in your inbox every Sunday:

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Episode Transcript:

Feeling like a burden when you’re struggling

If your thoughts are spiralling, trying to stop them is only making it worse.

Because you can’t ‘think’ your way out of a loop that thinking created; you have to interrupt it at the body level first.

So, let’s talk about… how to calm down when you’re spiralling.

Hello! I’m Jeremy Godwin and this is the Let’s Talk About Mental Health podcast, full of practical advice to help you understand and improve your mental health.

Today we’re talking about spiralling: what it actually is, why it happens, and how to interrupt it before it takes over. Now, I did just talk about overthinking and thought spirals in Episode 321… however, it’s such a big topic that we need to talk about it in more depth, and today I want to focus on the part that that episode didn’t cover: what’s actually happening in your body and brain when a spiral takes hold, and, more importantly, how to step out of it when it’s already happening.

This topic comes up a lot in the comments and messages that I get, and I think it’s because spiralling is just so disorienting when it’s happening. You know on some level that your reaction might be bigger than the situation warrants, but knowing that doesn’t help in the moment… and sometimes it can actually make things worse, because now you’re spiralling and judging yourself for spiralling at the same time.

So what I want to do today is help you to understand the mechanism that sits underneath all of this stuff, because once you can see how the loop actually works, what’s going on, why it’s going on, that’s when you’ve got a real chance at interrupting it; not by being calmer or stronger or more rational than you feel in that particular moment, but by knowing exactly where to step in. You also need to be aware that the thing that we usually instinctively reach for tends to actually extend the spiral rather than end it. So we’re going to dig into that shortly.

But first, however, if you’re currently feeling emotionally activated or if you’re in a bit of a spiral, whether that’s from something going on in your life or just the chaos of the world in, you know, in general, here’s something really simple that you can do right now to calm yourself a little. So, put one hand on your chest. Breathe in for four counts and out for six. That’s it. You’re not trying to magically fix anything here. You’re just giving your nervous system a slightly different signal so that you can now be a little more present for this conversation. Breathe in for four and out for six. Just that.

Alright, so now let’s talk about…

What is a spiral?

So, what is spiralling really? Well, it’s what happens when your thoughts, your emotions, and your physical sensations all start feeding each other in a loop… and then the loop keeps on tightening. It usually starts with a trigger. That could be a thought, or an image, or a memory, something someone said, or something you noticed. That trigger produces a feeling. The feeling then produces a physical response. That could be tension in your chest, shallow breathing, a racing heart, maybe that ‘electric restlessness’ feeling that makes it really hard to sit still.

And so your brain then reads those physical sensations as confirmation that something is genuinely wrong… which generates more anxious thoughts, which intensifies the physical response, which confirms the danger signal, which then generates more anxious thoughts. And round and round it goes, like a Lazy Susan in a hurricane. That’s the spiral. It’s not just overthinking; it’s a full body feedback loop… and understanding that distinction is actually the beginning of being able to do something about it.

If you’ve been in one, you know the feeling I’m talking about, right? Your thoughts move faster than you can catch them. There’s this kind of heaviness or tightness in your chest, or like I said before, that restless energy where you just can’t settle. Some people describe it as like being pulled underwater, right? Every time you surface, another wave comes. Or it might feel like watching yourself from the outside, unable to stop what’s happening. And underneath all of that, there’s often a layer of frustration or shame. So it’s not just “I’m spiralling,” but “Why can’t I just calm down? What’s wrong with me?” Which, as we’ll get to shortly, becomes its own kind of fuel.

Now, most of us tend to treat spiralling as a thinking problem, right? So we try to solve it with more thinking. We interrogate the thought. We argue with it. We fact check it. We try to ‘logic’ our way out of it. Or we look for reassurance from someone else. And all of that feels very productive in the moment, because at least you’re doing something. But what you’re actually doing is adding more mental activity to a system that’s already in overdrive. It’s the mental equivalent of having a Red Bull after eating your body weight in sugar. So the problem with doing all of that is that you’re engaging with the content of the spiral instead of interrupting the structure of it… and the structure is the problem.

The other thing I need to point out is that spiralling does not mean that something is fundamentally wrong with you. What it means is that your nervous system is doing exactly what it was designed to do, which is responding to a perceived threat. The problem isn’t the response itself. It’s that your system has been activated without an actual external danger to channel all of that energy into, and so the energy has nowhere to go; it just keeps on circulating in your system.

One more thing before we continue. There’s a big difference between a spiral that’s been triggered by something real, like a genuine problem, or a difficult situation, or something that actually needs your attention, versus a spiral that’s essentially feeding on itself. Both of them deserve to be taken very seriously, but you cannot deal clearly with a real problem while you’re in the middle of a spiral. So the work here is about interrupting the loop, and it’s not about avoiding the problem, right? It’s getting yourself to a place where you can actually think straight.

And that brings us to…

Why spiralling hijacks your brain

So the thing is that the spiral is not the real problem. The fear of the spiral is. When you spiral, your nervous system shifts into threat response mode. Your brain releases stress hormones through your body, so then your body prepares to deal with danger and your attention narrows to focus on whatever your brain has identified as the threat. That’s your nervous system doing its job. The problem is that the threat is often internal, like an anxious thought or a feeling of dread, rather than being something external that you can actually act on. So the stress response activates, but there’s nowhere for that energy to go. And then you start to become afraid of the activation itself, even if you don’t admit it to yourself.

Your chest gets tight, and your brain goes, “Uh-oh, there’s something wrong.” So your heart speeds up, and your brain goes, “Wow, this really is serious!” So then your thoughts start racing, and your brain goes, “I have to figure this out immediately, if not sooner!” Every physical symptom of anxiety becomes new evidence of danger, which produces more anxiety, which produces more symptoms. That’s the threat confirmation loop. And once it’s running, it’s really tough to interrupt it from inside your own head… because your head is part of the loop.

This is why spiralling tends to get worse over time if it’s left unaddressed. It’s not just that the spirals themselves are exhausting, although they are… it’s that you start to develop a fear of the fear. You begin to monitor yourself for signs of a spiral starting. You become hyper-vigilant about your own internal state. And that hyper-vigilance is its own kind of like ‘low level’ activation that makes the next spiral more likely and faster to escalate when it comes. You end up spending enormous amounts of energy trying to avoid something that the more you try to avoid, the more power it has over you.

Chronic spiralling without a way to interrupt it chips away at your sense of safety in your own mind. It makes it harder to trust your own thoughts, or to be fully present in your own life, and it becomes harder to make clear decisions because you never are quite sure whether what you’re thinking is a real signal or if it’s just the spiral talking. Over time, that’s going to eat away at your self-confidence… not to mention your relationships and your capacity to function well under pressure. It’s why one thing can just set you off.

There’s also the exhaustion factor. So, spiralling is draining on your body because you run through a significant amount of energy during a stress response. And if you are spiralling regularly, then you’re likely carrying a baseline level of fatigue that has nothing to do with how much sleep you’re getting; you’re tired because your nervous system is working overtime… and that’s something I talked about in Episode 331 about fatigue and anxiety. It’s linked in description.

Now, most of the advice out there about anxiety and spiralling addresses the symptoms rather than the structure. It tells you to breathe, or to think positively, or to challenge your negative thoughts. And while some of that has its place, and I have certainly shared some of that advice, none of it actually interrupts the loop at the level where the loop is being maintained. When you try those things, you’ll get temporary relief at best… and then you’ll feel like you failed when the spiral comes back. But you haven’t failed. You’ve just been working on the wrong part of the problem.

Treat the cause, not the symptom.

A spiral is a clear sign that your nervous system is stuck in a loop, and that it needs a very different kind of input to break that loop. And that’s something you can actually do something about… and it’s exactly what we’re going to talk about right after this quick break.

[AD BREAK]

And welcome back! So now let’s get into the ‘how to’ part of the episode, and let’s talk about…

How to interrupt a spiral when it’s happening

So I want to start with something that might feel counterintuitive: the goal here is not to stop the spiral. The goal is to stop feeding it. That’s a really important distinction, because trying to force a spiral to stop is itself a form of resistance… and resistance is fuel for the fire. What we’re doing instead is interrupting the loop at the point where it’s most vulnerable… which is not in your thoughts, but in your body. So, first…

Stop reasoning with it.

The single most important thing you can do when you’re spiralling is to stop trying to ‘think’ your way out of it. Now, I know that thinking might seem like the obvious fix: your brain’s generating problems, and so surely the solution is to think through those problems… right?! But remember what we talked about earlier. When you’re in an active spiral, your threat response has effectively hijacked the part of your brain that’s responsible for rational thought and clear decision making. So, trying to have a logical conversation with yourself in that state is like trying to negotiate with a fire alarm: the alarm is not interested in your argument… it’s just doing its job. So, stop adding more mental effort onto your plate. Stop interrogating the thought. Stop trying to figure out whether it’s true or not true. And stop seeking reassurance… from your phone, from Google, from other people. Reassurance feels good for about 3.4 minutes, and then the spiral restarts… because you haven’t interrupted the loop, you’ve just temporarily distracted it. Next…

Watch your exhale.

Because the spiral is running through your body as much as your mind, so the interruption needs to happen at the body level first. This is basic physiology, not philosophy, and the fastest way to change what your brain is doing is to change what your body is doing. Now, the most effective ‘in the moment’ tool is the extended exhale and it’s one I mention a lot in this show. So just breathe in slowly and deeply for four counts, and then out for six. Repeat that. The reason that this works is that a longer exhale directly activates your parasympathetic nervous system, which is basically your body’s natural brake system… so it sends a very clear signal that the threat has passed, so it helps to calm you down. Now, you don’t need to believe that for it to work and you don’t need to feel calm while you’re doing it. Just do it for one or two minutes, and let your physiology do the rest. If four breaths in and six out feels uncomfortable, try three and five… because the ratio matters more than the number. Next…

Ground yourself in the room.

And I don’t mean that in a vague, ‘light a patchouli candle and hope it’ll calm your qi’ kind of way. What I mean is deliberately anchoring your attention in your immediate physical environment so that you can interrupt the inward pull of that spiral. Now, the easiest way to do that is simply to name five things that you can see right now. Not five things that you’re worried about. Five things that are literally right in front of you. The ceiling, your hands, the window, a cup, the floor. That’s it. Your brain can’t fully maintain a spiral and process that sort of immediate sensory input at the same time, so it’s a really simple tool that uses the structure of attention to break the loop. Next…

Move your body.

I’m not talking about exercise here, just movement. Stand up. Walk to another room. Go outside for two minutes. Shake your hands out. Hell, do some star jumps if you really feel called to… although maybe not in the middle of the street or on the bus. Your choice though! The stress response prepares your body for physical action, and when that energy doesn’t go anywhere it just keeps on cycling around. Even minor movement gives it somewhere to go. And if you’ve ever noticed that pacing back and forth actually helps to calm you, now you know why! Next…

Name it without judging it.

So along with all these physical tools, there’s one mental one that genuinely helps and it’s one of the simplest: when you notice a spiral starting, say to yourself, “I’m spiralling.” Just that. Not, “I’m spiralling and something terrible is about to happen.” Not, “I’m spiralling again. What’s wrong with me?” Just, “I’m spiralling.” Naming an experience activates the observational part of your brain rather than the reacting part, and so it creates a very small but very real gap between you and the loop. It means that you’re no longer inside the spiral looking out. Now, you’re outside it looking in. That gap is where your sense of agency and self-control lives. It won’t stop the spiral instantly, but it does change your relationship to it… and that’s exactly what we’re building towards, bit by bit. Next…

Stop monitoring yourself.

OK, so if you’ve had spirals before then you may have developed a habit of watching yourself for early signs of one coming. Understandable. But that type of hypervigilance is exhausting, and it’s counterproductive because it keeps your nervous system at a slightly elevated baseline level… and that means that you’re already closer to the spiral threshold well before anything has even triggered you. The healthier practice here is to notice when you’re scanning for the spiral and to redirect your attention outward. Focus back in on what’s in front of you, or back to your senses, or back to the present moment. That helps you to focus on what is, instead of what if. Next…

Map your spiral.

When you’ve had a spiral, once you’re past it, it’s then worth doing this when you’re calm. So spend 10 minutes writing down what tends to trigger your spirals, or at least what did that time, as well as what the very beginning feels like before it fully escalates and what’s actually helped you, even slightly, this time around. Right? When you capture that each time, you build an idea and you can see what a potential pattern is. Most spirals follow a pattern, but most of us never look at the pattern clearly because we’re far too busy surviving each spiral as and when it happens. The earlier you can catch it, the easier it is to interrupt. So instead of looking out for it, by understanding what contributes to it and what it looks and feels like… that gives you some self-knowledge that is going to go a very long way. Next…

Lower your baseline.

This is about long-term nervous system maintenance. If your baseline activation level is already elevated because of issues like chronic stress, poor sleep, overcommitment, or just the relentless pace of life, then your threshold for spiralling is going to be much lower. So, small and consistent practices are going to make a huge difference over time. Doing extended exhale breathing for two minutes in the morning before you check your phone or your emails. Doing a brief grounding exercise before difficult conversations, or interacting with difficult people. Having a genuine ‘wind down’ routine before you sleep instead of just doom-scrolling until your eyes eventually close. Now, none of these things are big or particularly difficult to do, but all of them build and build over time for better mental health. Next…

Get support if you need it.

Look… if you’re someone who spirals regularly and you’ve been trying to manage it alone, then how’s that working out for you? Because the DIY approach to a dysregulated nervous system has real limits. Therapy, and particularly approaches that work directly with the nervous system, can really make an enormous difference. It’s not because you’re broken and you need someone to put you back together, but it’s because some of this stuff is genuinely tough to shift on your own without support. The spiral tells you that you need to figure it out right now, alone, in your head, right? But that’s the spiral talking. You’re allowed to get help… and it just might be the best thing that you’ve ever done for yourself. I know it was for me.

Conclusion

So here’s what I want you to take away from this episode. You don’t need to stop the spiral. You need to stop feeding it. And you do that by focusing on your body first, judgement last, and making one small system interruption at a time.

So, what do you usually do in the first 60 seconds of a spiral? And is it helping? Or is it adding fuel?

Because when you boil it all down, the spiral only has as much power as the fear you feed it.

Each week I like to finish up by sharing a quote about the topic, and I encourage you to take a few moments to really reflect on it and consider what it means to you. This week’s quote is by an unknown author, and it is…

Not everything that feels true is true.

Unknown

Let me repeat that:

Not everything that feels true is true.

Alright… that’s it for this week. If you found this episode helpful, please follow or subscribe wherever you’re listening or watching and share it with someone who might need it right now. And if you’d like to help me keep on creating practical advice for better mental health every week, join my Patreon. It’s linked in the episode description.

Thank you very much for joining me today. Look after yourself and make a conscious effort to share positivity and kindness out into the world… because you get back what you put out. Take care and talk to you next time!

Join me next week when I talk about over-functioning, and check out my episode on why overwhelm can make you freeze and shut down next. It’s linked in the description. I release new episodes every Sunday, so follow or subscribe to never miss an episode.

Join me next week when I talk about physical anxiety symptoms, and check out my episode on being kinder to yourself when you’re struggling next. It’s linked in the description. I release new episodes every Sunday, so follow or subscribe to never miss an episode.

Let’s Talk About Mental Health is an independent program. Discover more at ltamh.com.

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Let’s Talk About Mental Health.
Making Mental Health Simple.

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The information provided in this episode is for general awareness on the topic and does not constitute advice. You should consult a doctor and/or mental health professional if you’re struggling with your mental health and wellbeing. You’ll find additional information on the Resources page of this website.