Yeah using your “entire brain” is definitely the key. If you can still have a little thread going in the back of your head, then you need to up the intensity.

Exercising while listening to a video game podcast is a fav of mine.

Obviously these aren’t solutions or cures, but it’s a cope that can give you a break.

I usually associate that more with anxiety, which I don’t have, because I can sometimes short circuit the bad thought spirals by switching to the latest hyperfocus. Like playing through doom levels in my mind’s eye.