You need to get in the habit of closing tabs after you read the message.

Or better yet stop opening tabs and read your mail in the Message Pane. Pressing F8 toggles the message pane on and off.

To get out of your situation now right click one of the message tabs you have open and select Close Other Tabs. Then use the x to close the last one.

Hilarycrosby said

Whenever I look at an email message, to get back to the inbox screen I have to push through so many emails, including closed and even deleted emails.

Thanks so much  this completely worked.

Hilary