People tell overthinkers to "just stop thinking so much." It's the most useless possible advice and the people giving it usually mean well. The problem is it treats overthinking as a choice, when it's not — at least not in the way the advice assumes.
For people with ADHD, overthinking is structural. The executive function that normally gates between thoughts — filters them, prioritises them, puts most of them in a holding pattern — doesn't work the same way. So instead of one thought at a time, you get a concurrent flood. All equally present. All demanding immediate attention. None of them losing ground to the others.
What it actually is
The loop is the brain trying to resolve uncertainty. When something is unresolved — a conversation that ended ambiguously, a decision that doesn't have a clear right answer, a relationship where you're not sure where you stand — the brain returns to it. Repeatedly. Looking for the piece of information that will make it settle.
In a typical brain, this process can be paused, set aside, returned to deliberately. In ADHD, it runs in the background whether you've invited it or not, surfacing at inconvenient times, running through the same sequence of thoughts looking for the resolution that isn't there yet.
What helps — and what doesn't
What doesn't help: telling yourself to stop. Trying to out-logic the loop. Berating yourself for not being able to control it.
What can help: naming it. Noticing "I'm in the loop about this specific thing" without adding judgment to it. Sometimes just giving the loop a time and place — ten minutes to think about it intentionally, and then close — can let the rest of the day be quieter. Not always. But sometimes.
The song Too Democratic isn't trying to solve the loop. It's trying to name it accurately, without shame, so the people experiencing it feel recognised rather than diagnosed. That's usually the better starting point.