I understand totally. I wash the dishes or clean an area of my my place when down to feel like I'm accomplishing something productive and symbolically scrubbing myself and getting rid of the past and future obsessive thoughts and feelings.
I also work on dis-identifying from those thoughts through attaining the position of watching the thoughts but not owning them as "me" or "mine". There's also mantra repetition. Just take any two nonsense syllable and mentally repeat in your head for 20-30 min., twice a day. I mentally hear "SO" on inhalation and "HUM" on outbreath.
You can also do audible chanting. Don't be surprised at the results. Though I'm an atheist, I swear there's something to it. At least it gives the conscious mind something to chew on.A good luck mantra, for example, is "Om sharavana bhavaya namaha"; one for ridding oneself of past karma is "Shivaya namaha maakaral" as well as one to allegedly remove karma and make way for the new: "Om shreem kleem namah shivaya". Just try for ten to fifteen min. at a time.
This is all perhaps rubbish, but I've had some very good luck out of the blue and if it's all magical thinking, then so be it. Worth a try just to quiet the chatter in the mind though. One thing is when the darkness hits I find it important to engage the body and get out of the head, thus a walk (or limp), cleaning, cooking, food prep. Sorry if I digressed and went far afield.