“How do I stop overthinking?” is a question about content — too many thoughts, going round too long. The Attention Training Technique does not answer it on those terms, and the reason why is the interesting part.

Overthinking as an attention pattern

Metacognitive therapy’s account puts the problem one level up from the thoughts. The cognitive attentional syndrome is perseverative, self-focused, worry-based processing together with monitoring for threat[1] — a description of how attention is being spent, not of what it is spent on.

On that reading, overthinking is not a fault in your thinking. It is attention running in a particular mode: inward, repetitive, and difficult to move. Which implies that arguing with the thoughts — the intuitive fix — leaves the mode untouched.

ATT is what follows from that premise. Wells describes it as interrupting the syndrome and improving flexible executive control[1], and it contains no thought work whatsoever: about twelve minutes of holding attention on one sound, switching between sounds, then taking them all in at once[1].

Why “thinking less” is the wrong target

Three of the protocol’s instructions rule out the obvious interpretation:

You are not trying to have fewer thoughts. The manual states the exercise is not intended to lead to a blank mind, and that it counteracts the use of active thought suppression[1].

You are not trying to stop the ones that come. Intruding thoughts, images and feelings are treated as additional noise and should not be resisted; the instruction is that you must not try to stop them, and should think of them as passing inner noises[1].

A busy session is not a failed one. Wells notes the misconception directly: some people assume they could not practise effectively because they had intrusive thoughts[1]. The aim is not to remove awareness of inner events but to practise controlling attention in a particular way[1].

So a session where your mind was loud throughout and you kept returning to the sounds is, by the protocol’s own measure, a session that went well.

What it is not for

Reaching for the exercise at the moment overthinking gets bad is the use the manual argues against. ATT is practised when the person is not in a state of anxiety or acute worry[1], and is not to be used as a distraction, avoidance, or symptom-management strategy[1].

A tool used to make an unpleasant mental state go away is being trained as an escape route. The pattern it is meant to interrupt is precisely attention preoccupied with your inner state.

What the evidence supports

Narrower than the question. In a laboratory component study, a single ATT session produced a greater external focus of attention from pre- to post-manipulation[2] — with a mindfulness-based task as the comparison arm rather than a neutral control.

That is a measured shift in a laboratory measure of where attention sits. It is not evidence that people overthink less afterwards, and this page does not extend it that far.

The realistic version

Practising ATT because you overthink means: practising a general attentional skill on a schedule, with no expectation that any given session quiets your mind, and judging it by whether you kept steering rather than by how much thinking happened. Wells’ framing for patients is general “mental fitness training”[1], and it is meant to stay effortful rather than become comfortable[1].

If overthinking is genuinely interfering with your life, a qualified professional is the right next step — ATT was written as one component of a full therapy, not as a self-help substitute for one.

Closely related: attention training and rumination, and the cognitive attentional syndrome.

Questions and answers

Will ATT stop me overthinking?
It is not built to. ATT trains where attention goes rather than engaging with what you are thinking about, and the manual explicitly rules out using it to suppress thoughts or manage symptoms.
Isn't thinking less the point?
No. The manual states the exercise is not intended to lead to a blank mind, and that it counteracts active thought suppression. Thoughts are meant to arrive and be left alone.
So what would practising actually change?
The stated aim is flexible control of attention. Whether that carries over into less overthinking in daily life is not something the published evidence establishes.

References

  1. Wells, A. (2009). Metacognitive Therapy for Anxiety and Depression. Guilford Press. Chapter 4: Attention Training Techniques.
  2. Fergus, T. A., Wheless, N. E., & Wright, L. C. (2014). The attention training technique, self-focused attention, and anxiety: A laboratory-based component study. Behaviour Research and Therapy, 61, 150–155. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.brat.2014.08.007

Published by the makers of Heed, an app for practicing ATT-style sessions. iPhone · Android. Heed is a self-practice tool inspired by ATT research — not therapy, and not a medical device.