Bhagavad-gita 18.35 describes determination in the mode of ignorance through five mental habits that together provide a remarkably comprehensive picture of how thinking goes wrong and starts working against us instead of for us.

The first, svapna, refers to daydreaming or fantasizing, where we imagine a positive future without doing the work required in the present to prepare for it.

Bhaya, or dread, projects a negative future that ends up paralyzing us in the present.

Shoka consumes us with regret and resentment about the past, leaving us unable to focus on the present.

Vishada, or moroseness, becomes a habitual negative attitude toward life that weighs us down like a heavy mental burden in the present.

When all these forms of overthinking become distressing and eventually unbearable, we often rush toward mada, or intoxication, seeking escape. Here we try to stop thinking by dulling ourselves with something that appears superficially pleasant. Today, the escape once sought through intoxicating substances is often sought through digital means. Endless scrolling and doomscrolling can also become ways of running away from the mind and its painful, compulsive patterns of thought.

All five of these—daydreaming, dreading, lamenting, brooding, and intoxicating—are, to some extent, natural possibilities in a world marked by unpredictability and upheaval. What turns them into toxic overthinking is described in the third line: na vimuncati durmedha. We refuse to let go of these patterns even when we know they are harming us. This is the misdirected determination that the Gita identifies as the mode of ignorance: the stubborn persistence that keeps us repeating patterns that hurt us.

How do we overcome this?

By raising ourselves toward the mode of goodness, or at least by engaging in activities and seeking association that elevate us, even temporarily, to goodness. Constructive responsibilities and healthy relationships, though situated in the mode of passion, can also keep us from sinking into the abyss of overthinking by engaging us in purposeful action.

The highest solution, however, is to connect with Krishna in a mood of remembrance and service. Then our thinking brings us peace by reminding us that Krishna is there and that Krishna cares. Our actions reassure us that we are participating in Krishna’s plan—not only for our own life but also for the world at large.

Ultimately, the Gita’s solution to overthinking is not to stop thinking but to redirect thinking—from compulsive rumination to purposeful remembrance.

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18.35 And that determination which cannot go beyond dreaming, fearfulness, lamentation, moroseness and illusion – such unintelligent determination, O son of Pṛthā, is in the mode of darkness.