Boy, I hear this, Hankster. I used to think my whirling thoughts were absolutely the norm. I started taking a tiny dose of Klonopin at bedtime about a year ago, to help me get to sleep (racing thoughts made this difficult) and be able to go back to sleep when I woke up in the early morning (once I woke up and the thoughts started, there was no more sleep from there). I told a friend at one point, it's like voodoo magic on the Klonopin: I wake up, the thoughts start, and then I think, I don't want to obsess right now, I want to go back to sleep, and BOOM, the thoughts stop and I go back to sleep. My friend looked at me with narrowed eyes and said, "Uh, yeah, I think that's how it is normally for most people." Madness!

Somewhat more on topic, Yearning, it has helped me somewhat over time to get at the root of where my guilt thoughts are coming from. I'm a textbook case of "guilt/depression is anger turned inward." For example, when I am guilting myself over feeling like I abandoned someone, it's usually because underneath, I am feeling abandoned. It has been helpful to identify specific things I guilt myself with, and specific types of guilting myself, and think about when and why I do this.