47 | Why Your Mind Won’t Shut Off and What’s Actually Fueling It

 Why does your brain get louder the moment you try to rest?
 What if your overthinking is not random, and it has a fuel source?
 Which daily habits are keeping you stuck in emergency mode? 

If your mind will not shut off, you are not broken. A racing brain usually has a power source, and it is often hiding in your daily patterns, not in your personality.

In this episode, Jessica Davis breaks down five things that keep your mind in overdrive. You will learn how avoidance keeps anxiety “right,” why an unoccupied brain starts inventing problems, how caffeine and skipped meals ramp up physical anxiety symptoms, why doing everything alone feeds overwhelm, and how self-trust quiets the panic long term.

You will also hear a quick listener shoutout (Queensland, Australia, we see you), plus how to grab the free Anxiety Survival Toolkit linked in the show notes. Watch until the end for the mindset shift that helps you stop fighting your brain and start changing what fuels it.

What You’ll Learn in This Episode
 • Why “calming down” does not work if you keep feeding the spiral
 • How avoidance trains your brain to stay on high alert
 • Why scrolling and zoning out often makes overthinking worse
 • How caffeine and low blood sugar can mimic anxiety symptoms
 • How perfectionism and doing it all alone keeps your brain overloaded
 • Why self-trust is a long-term anxiety reducer, not a motivational quote
 • A simple reframe for shifting out of emergency mode at night

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This podcast was created by Davis-Smith Mental Health, offering counseling for teens & young adults in Illinois (only). We accept BCBS PPO, Aetna PPO, and self-pay clients.

Links: 
Anxiety Survival Toolkit:
https://www.blockoutthenoisepodcast.com/anxiety-survival-toolkit/

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https://blockoutthenoisepodcast.substack.com/welcome

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⚠️ Disclaimer:  Block Out the Noise provides personal insights and practical stra...

Transcript

Why Your Brain Won’t Shut Off

Jessica N. Davis 0:07

You've tried the breathing exercises. You've tried the meditation apps. You've tried telling yourself to just stop thinking so much. And your brain says, that's cute. Anyway, here's every possible thing that could go wrong tomorrow. Here's something that no one really talks about. When your brain won't shut off, the problem usually isn't your brain. It's what you're feeding it. Not just food. I mean the habits, the patterns, the stuff you're doing every day that secretly keeps the engine running. Your brain isn't broken, it's being fueled. And today I'm going to show you five things that are probably keeping your mind in overdrive, whether you realize it or not. These aren't tips for calming down in the moment. This is about pulling the plug on what's powering the spiral in the first place. Hi, and welcome back to Black Out the Noise, a space to quiet the noise of anxiety, self-doubt, and overthinking. I'm Jessica Davis, licensed therapist, mindset coach, and the creator of the Courage Method. I specialize in helping teens and young adults build confidence, courage, and purpose. If you want something you can use the moment anxiety shows up, the free anxiety survival toolkit is in the show notes. It gives you clear steps to stay grounded when your thoughts start to race. Seriously, it's free. Go get it. Also, quick reminder: this podcast is here to support and guide you, but it is not a replacement for talking to someone in real life. If you're struggling with your mental health, please reach out to a therapist. And if you're in crisis, contact emergency services or a local helpline. You don't have to go through it alone. Before we dive in, I want to say a quick shout out to all of our listeners, whether you've listened to one episode or 10 episodes or even all of them, I just want to say thank you so much. In 2025, we reached the goal of being in the top 50% of podcasts. And I am so appreciative of everyone who's listened. Also, shout out to Queensland and Australia. It is so great. You guys are top city and you listen to us the most. So thank you again for everything. I look forward to continuing to grow and build more content for you guys in the future. If you're listening on Spotify, please click the link to send us a message. We love getting messages from our listeners, and it just helps us come up with new content, new direction, new ideas. And we are seriously here to help serve you. Okay, let's talk about what's actually keeping your brain running. One, avoiding the thing that makes you anxious. I know this one's annoying, but stay with me. When something makes you anxious, your brain says, Don't do that. It's going to be terrible. You can't handle it. And so you don't do it. You skip the party, you don't raise your hand, you put off the hard conversations, you avoid the thing that feels scary. And in the moment that feels like relief. But here's what's actually happening. Every time you avoid something, your brain takes notes. It goes, see, I was right. That was dangerous. Good thing we didn't do it. Your anxiety never gets a chance to be wrong. Think of it like stretching. And I know this might seem like a weird example, but if you stop the second you feel any discomfort, you never get more flexible. The progress happens in the stretch, in the zone where your body says, this is uncomfortable, but I can handle it. Your brain works the same way. It gets tight and tense because you don't put it in situations that challenge it. The only way to loosen up is to stretch your comfort zone, not by throwing yourself into the deep end. I don't want you to drown. I know I would because I can't swim, but by letting yourself be in situations where your anxiety could be wrong. Because right now, if you avoid everything that scares you, your anxiety is right 100% of the time. And it knows it. That's why it keeps talking. So try your best to push yourself outside of your comfort zone, even if it's just a little bit. Because the more you stretch just a little, it's just going to keep allowing you to feel that sense of I can do this and I can navigate this. And even if it doesn't go the best, I still did something that was hard and I'm proud of myself for that. Two, giving your brain nothing to do. This one might surprise you, but a lot of people think rest means doing nothing, laying around, scrolling, or even zoning out. But what I've learned, an empty brain is not a calm brain. An empty brain is a brain looking for problems to solve. When you're not doing anything or when you're doing something that doesn't really engage you, your brain has leftover capacity. And it will use that capacity to run worst-case scenarios about everything happening in your life. It will have you asking questions like, how is this going to go wrong? What if they're mad at me? What if I fail? What if something bad happens? What if they don't like me? What if I'm not really ready for this? And it's not trying to torture you, even though it feels like it. It's just bored. And bored brains catastrophize. Think of your mind like a kid with a ton of energy. Kids are going to be active. You can't stop that, but you can direct it. If you give them something fun and engaging to do, they'll do that. If you don't give them anything, they'll find their own entertainment. And it might be drawing on your walls with permanent marker or taking toys and throwing them all around and you feel like a tornado hit. Your brain is the same way. If you keep it occupied, it'll do what you point it towards. If you leave it empty, it'll create its own drama. This doesn't mean you have to be productive 24-7. That's not realistic and that's honestly exhausting and not the point. But if you notice your brain spiraling when you're just laying around, it might not need rest. It might need direction, a project, a hobby, a puzzle, a show that actually requires your attention, something that helps you to grow, something that uses enough of your brain that there's nothing left over to spiral with. Three, running your body on empty. Okay, this one has two parts because both of them are super important. Part one is stimulants. I'm not talking about anything illegal. If you're on illegal substances, I would strongly recommend getting help and support. Addiction is a real thing and it can truly change your course of your life and be in a place that's really dangerous and unhealthy. But what I'm talking about in terms of stimulants is caffeine. Energy during pre-workouts, iced coffee, mountain dew, five-hour energy, whatever you use, caffeine is a stimulant. And stimulants increase brain activity. They make more thoughts happen faster. But here's the thing: they don't make the thoughts better. They just make more of them. So if your brain already tends to produce anxious thoughts and you drink two energy drinks, you're basically giving your anxiety a turbo boost. You just doubled its output. And I'm sure if you have been a caffeine drinker for enough time, you probably recognize that there are times where caffeine increases your anxiety. I'm not saying you can never have caffeine again, but if your brain is constantly racing, it might be worth experimenting to see what happens if you cut back, even just for a week, even for a couple of days. If you drink caffeine every single day or multiple times a day, can you start to cut back and see if there's a difference? Also, if you're struggling sleeping, I would strongly recommend trying to figure out how you're tracking your caffeine, because that might be a reason why you're struggling going to sleep at night. So take a leap, try to cut down the caffeine, and you just might be surprised how much quieter things get. Now, part two, skipping meals. This one's sneaky because when your blood sugar drops, your body produces a stress response. Shaking, sweating, nausea, rapid heartbeat, dizziness, irritability. Do any of these sound familiar? These can also be symptoms of anxiety. So if you skip breakfast or you eat a bag of chips and call it lunch, or you go hours without real food, your body is going to feel anxious, even if nothing is actually wrong. Now add that on top of any anxiety you already have. What have you done again? We have doubled, tripled, whatever, you don't know the actual percentages, but we have definitely increased our anxiety, which isn't fun. Your brain runs on fuel. That's literally what food is: energy. If you don't give it enough, it's going to cut corners. And the first things to go are emotional regulation, distress tolerance, and your ability to think clearly. Eat real meals, protein, carbs, fats, not just carbs. Don't skip, don't restrict. Your brain literally cannot function well without it. Four, trying to do everything yourself. This one is hard, especially if you're someone who has high standards or trust issues or even a combination of both. When anxiety is loud, it usually comes with perfectionism. It has to be perfect or something bad will happen. No one else will do it right. I have to handle this myself. So you have these types of thoughts and it makes you take on everything. You take on the group project, the planning, the emotional labor, the stuff no one asked you to carry, but you picked up anyway. And then you look at your to-do list and wonder why you feel like you are constantly drowning. Here's the truth: you will eventually hit a point in your life where you cannot do it all yourself. Maybe you're already there. And if you refuse to ask for help, you're going to stay overwhelmed. Perfect example. I had a client start a new job full-time, and they were really excited about this new opportunity and adventure. But at the same time, they were really anxious about trying to fit in meals because now not only do you have to get up earlier for figuring out breakfast, lunch, you're coming home and you're ready hungry for dinner. So meal prepping and meal planning was a major piece of this client's anxiety and worry. And so what we just talked about is this exact one, asking for help. As a teen or a young adult, you need help and support. We all do. It doesn't matter what age you are, to be honest. Everyone needs help. And this client just asking for help from their family, it reduced their anxiety and worry. And it made them feel cared for because now we have people who, when we ask for help, we realize that they can pick up the pieces and they can do the things that we need. If you're really struggling with asking for help, take a minute, take a second, and really just ask, even if it feels like it's painful, even if it feels like you're going to get told no, it doesn't matter because ultimately you'd be in the same place you were, whether they said yes or no anyway. Maybe you'll be surprised. And I always say, don't just ask one, ask multiple people if there's something that you need help with. Because the more we have that village around us supporting us, even if one person really can't, and sometimes people can't help us, there can be someone else who can. So I want you to remember this. Your brain is going to keep racing because there's too much on the list and not enough hours in the day. I know that asking for help feels risky and delegating feels uncomfortable. I know it can be hard to trust other people to do things the way you would, but trying to carry everything alone is one of the fastest ways to keep your brain in overdrive. You don't have to do it all. You're allowed to let some things go. You're allowed to ask for help. And honestly, your life will get easier if you do. And I would go as far as to say for number four, when you don't ask for help, we end up doing number two, which is giving your brain nothing to do. We get so overwhelmed by the list and the things that we have that we just want to escape. And we escape through scrolling, through zoning out, through uh sleeping and not wanting to get out of bed and not do things because we're just too overwhelmed. So the more you do number four, the less it takes the burden off of number two and reduces your chance of falling into that. Number five, not trusting your future self. This one is subtle, but it might be the most important. When anxiety is loud, it tells you that you can't count on yourself. You have to do this now because who knows what shape you'll be in tomorrow, or you put anything off because future you might not show up. So you try to cram everything into right now. And when you can't, you start to spiral. Here's what I want you to consider. If you're treating yourself like someone you can't trust, you're going to stay stressed and overwhelmed. And again, this isn't doomsday. This isn't to scare you. This isn't to make you feel overwhelmed. This is just to point out how important mindset is and how you view your future self because you don't allow yourself grace. You're not allowed to put anything in the future. You're never allowed to say, I'll handle this tomorrow because you're always running on emergency mode. Now, I get it. Maybe there was a time when you weren't reliable. Maybe you let yourself down before we all have. I know I have. Maybe anxiety or depression has made it hard for you to follow through. But here's the thing people change. You change. And sometimes we don't notice it in real time. You might still be treating yourself like the person you used to be, even though you're not that person anymore. So try this reframe. Start treating yourself like someone who will eventually get the important things done. Not someone who has to do everything today or it's all going to fall apart. If it's 9 p.m. and you still have 10 things on the list, you're allowed to say, hey, I trust myself to handle this tomorrow, or I trust myself to break this up over the next few days. That's not laziness, that's self-trust. And self-trust is one of the things that actually calms your anxious brain long term. Here's what I want you to take it from this whole entire thing. Your brain isn't broken. It's not defective. It's not doing this just to punish you. It's just being fueled by habits and patterns that keep it running on high. Avoidance keeps it convinced that everything is dangerous. Understimulation gives it room to catastrophize. Caffeine and skip meals give it physical symptoms to panic about. Overloading yourself keeps it overwhelmed. Distrusting yourself keeps it in emergency mode. If you want a brain that's quieter, you don't need better coping skills for the moment. You need to stop beating it the things that keep it loud. That's the difference between managing anxiety and actually reducing it. Your racing brain isn't a character flaw. It's not a sign that there's something wrong with you. It's a signal, a signal that something in your life is keeping that engine running. And once you find it, you can turn it off. Not by fighting your brain, but by changing what you're giving it. That's how you go from constantly overwhelmed to actually genuinely calmer, not just in the moment either. Again, thank you so much for spending the time with me today. I truly hope that this was valuable. And if this helped, hit that follow button and the notification button so you don't miss a future episode. Also, download the anxiety survival toolkit. It is linked in the show notes and is packed with value. And we also send weekly newsletters to help you stay focused on your journey of managing your anxiety and beating it. Until next time, keep moving forward. Trust yourself, and never forget you have what it takes to block out the noise.