Editorial Essays
Essays and educational perspectives on psychiatry, anxiety, overthinking, performance, digital mental health, emotional regulation, and the patterns that shape how people think, feel, and function.
Thoughtful. Evidence-informed. Human.
Written from the perspective of a board-certified psychiatrist, founder, author, and mental health educator, these articles explore emotional health with clinical grounding, clear language, and human context.
Based in Jacksonville, Florida, Shariq Refai, MD, MBA writes about psychiatry, digital mental health, performance, and emotional health.
At a Glance
Perspectives is the educational essay section of shariqrefai.com, featuring writing from Shariq Refai, MD, MBA on psychiatry, anxiety, overthinking, performance, digital mental health, emotional regulation, and modern mental health literacy.
Editorial independence: The essays and perspectives on this website reflect educational and editorial viewpoints intended to encourage thoughtful discussion around psychiatry, emotional health, performance, digital mental health, and modern mental health literacy. They are not individualized medical advice, diagnosis, treatment, therapy, or a substitute for care from a licensed clinician.
Psychiatry & Culture
May 2026 · 14 min read
A board-certified psychiatrist's educational essay on what modern psychiatry has gotten right, what the public conversation still misreads, and why the field deserves more nuance than the internet usually allows.
Read essay →A board-certified psychiatrist's educational essay on why racing thoughts get louder at bedtime, why stillness amplifies the mind, and what's actually happening in the nervous system.
Why analyzing anxiety doesn't relieve it, why intelligent people often overthink more, and how the mind confuses thinking with safety.
Why the brain replays old conversations, the social wiring underneath it, and why intelligent people get stuck in post-conversation analysis.
Why successful adults often carry anxiety underneath their performance, how achievement can deepen the pattern, and the wiring that drives it.
Why the modern nervous system reads ordinary life as continuous emergency, the wiring underneath chronic activation, and what the body actually means when it says urgent.
The convenience era of telehealth lowered the bar for access and, in places, the bar for care. A clinician's view on what the next chapter of digital mental health has to deliver.
Most overthinking starts when a passing thought gets confused for a problem to solve. The distinction matters, and learning it changes the relationship you have with your own mind.
Most popular mental health commentary is calm-brain advice given to a panicked brain. Why that mismatch falls short so consistently, and what actually moves the needle when the moment is happening.
Perspectives is the editorial essay section of shariqrefai.com. The work here is general public education on psychiatry, anxiety, overthinking, performance, digital mental health, emotional regulation, and modern mental health literacy. Every essay is authored and editorially reviewed by Shariq Refai, MD, MBA, board-certified psychiatrist.
The essays aren't individualized medical advice, diagnosis, treatment, or therapy, and aren't a substitute for care from a licensed clinician. For clinical care inquiries, visit shrinkmd.com.
Each essay opens with a Quick Answer block summarizing the core point in three or four sentences. If you only have a minute, read the Quick Answer. If you want the full argument, read the article body. If you have specific questions, scroll to the FAQ at the bottom of each piece. Every essay also includes a References section if it draws on primary sources.
The essays are designed to be useful on their own and to link together. The Related Perspectives block at the bottom of each article points to two or three other essays that develop adjacent ideas.
For deeper, condition-specific reading, Dr. Refai serves as medical reviewer for four independent editorial publications:
All four are editorial and educational. None is a clinical service.
Shariq Refai, MD, MBA, is a board-certified psychiatrist with dual certifications from the American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology and the American Board of Sports and Performance Psychiatry. He's a Fellow of the American Psychiatric Association and a member of the Forbes Business Council. He founded shrinkMD, the separate multistate telepsychiatry practice. He's based in Jacksonville, Florida. Read his full bio.
New essays are published as they're written and edited. Each essay carries a published date and a last-reviewed date. Existing essays are reviewed for accuracy at least once per year, with the last-reviewed date updated when meaningful changes are made.