My brain does not have a quiet setting.
There is no off switch, no pause button and no moment where the noise just stops.
I overthink everything. Not in a casual way either, where I wonder if I locked the door, but in a way that turns the smallest moment into a full breakdown. A sentence I said three hours ago can follow me around all day, replaying on a loop until I have convinced myself that I didn’t ruin something.
For people living with mental health disorders, this is not just a bad habit. Overthinking becomes part of how the brain operates.
A 2024 study published in Clinical Psychology and Psychotherapy found that adults with ADHD show a strong indirect link between their symptoms and increased levels of anxiety and depression, driven by excessive mind wandering and rumination.
That study illustrates something I already know. My brain does not just think, it spirals. One thought leads to another, and before I
realize what happened, I am three scenarios deep into a problem that does not exist yet.
Fear is what separates overthinking from just thinking too much. When you convince yourself that one mistake can define you, every decision carries weight that does not belong there. A missed assignment becomes proof that you are not reliable, while a wrong answer in class becomes a sign that you do not belong there.
University of Michigan psychology professor Susan Nolen-Hoeksema found that 73% of adults ages 25 to 35 identified as overthinkers
in a study of more than 1,300 people. Her research also showed that overthinking leads to increased depression, poor problem-solving and difficulty taking action.
Those numbers don’t shock me. I see the reality in myself and in the people around me every week, especially in college, where the pressure is already high.
The 2024-25 Healthy Minds Study reports that 37% of college students screened positive for moderate to severe depressive symptoms and 32% screened positive for moderate to severe anxiety.
The hardest part is not the overthinking itself, but the fear that comes with knowing you can’t control when the wave starts. You begin to worry about the worrying, overthink the overthinking. The loop tightens until even the smallest task feels heavy and you can’t tell the difference between a real problem and one your brain invented.
A Psychology Today analysis describes overthinking as a protective strategy rooted in the brain’s attempt to reduce uncertainty. Rumination, the clinical term for repetitive negative thinking, is strongly tied to anxiety, depression and emotional exhaustion, according to research from psychologists Nolen-Hoeksema and Edward Watkins.
I still catch myself replaying conversations and scanning every interaction for something I may have done wrong. When I make a mistake, the fear isn’t about the mistake alone, but that I may never stop thinking about it.
That mindset shrinks your world. You hold back from saying what you mean because you’re afraid of how people will take the words. You second-guess your work before you even finish because you have already decided the result is not good enough. You avoid risks that could help you grow because the thought of getting something wrong feels unbearable.
I do not have a clean answer for how to fix this, and I think that honesty matters more than pretending I have cracked the code. What I do know is that awareness helps, and sometimes I can slow the momentum before the day slips away.
Building a life around constant mental noise is exhausting, but ignoring the noise doesn’t make the volume drop. The goal isn’t to stop thinking, but to stop letting the fear of thinking wrong run every part of the day. That fight is not over for me, and I am willing to bet I am not the only one still in it.
