Mercury Retrograde in Scorpio: When Your Mind Needs to Slow Down (November 9-29, 2025)

On November 9, 2025, Mercury stations retrograde in Sagittarius before backing into Scorpio, where it will remain until going direct on November 29th. And if you're already feeling the anxiety creeping in—the fear of miscommunication, technology failing, plans falling apart—take a breath.

Mercury retrograde doesn't have to be a disaster. In fact, for those of us doing deep mental health work, it can be exactly what we need: permission to slow down, revisit, and go inward.

But here's what nobody tells you: Mercury retrograde can be especially challenging for anxious, sensitive people who already struggle with rumination, overthinking, and communication anxiety. The same cosmic energy that asks us to "review and reflect" can trigger our nervous systems into hypervigilance, catastrophic thinking, and analysis paralysis.

As a Creative Arts Therapist working with highly sensitive people in Brooklyn and throughout New York State, I want to offer you a different way to work with Mercury retrograde—one that honors your mental health, supports your nervous system, and helps you use this time for genuine healing rather than just surviving the chaos.

What Mercury Retrograde Actually Means for Your Mental Health

Mercury rules communication, technology, travel, and all things related to thinking and processing information. When it goes retrograde (appearing to move backward from our perspective on Earth), these areas of life tend to slow down, malfunction, or require us to revisit them.

For your mental health, this can show up as:

Overthinking intensifies
Your mind might feel louder, more chaotic, more difficult to quiet. Thoughts you thought you'd processed come back for another round. The mental loops get tighter.

Communication feels harder
Saying what you mean feels impossible. Being understood feels like a struggle. Misunderstandings multiply. For people with social anxiety or communication trauma, this can be especially triggering.

Old patterns resurface
That anxiety you thought you'd healed? It's back. The depression you've been managing? It's knocking at the door. This isn't failure—it's Mercury retrograde asking you to integrate these patterns more deeply.

Technology and routines break down
The structures that help you manage your mental health—your therapy appointments, your routines, your digital tools—might glitch. This loss of structure can be destabilizing for anxious nervous systems.

The past demands attention
Old relationships, old wounds, old versions of yourself want to be revisited. Ex-partners text. Memories surface. Unfinished business asks to be completed.

Decision-making feels impossible
If you already struggle with indecision or fear of making the "wrong" choice, Mercury retrograde amplifies this. Everything feels uncertain.

Why This Retrograde in Scorpio Hits Different

This particular Mercury retrograde begins in Sagittarius (the sign of truth-seeking and expansion) but spends most of its time in Scorpio (the sign of depth, psychology, and the unconscious). This means it's not just about surface-level miscommunications—it's about the deeper truths you've been avoiding.

Scorpio Mercury retrograde asks:

• What are you not saying because you're afraid of the intensity?

• What conversations have you been avoiding because they feel too vulnerable?

• What truths are you hiding from yourself?

• What needs to be spoken that's been living in your body as tension, anxiety, or unexpressed emotion?

For highly sensitive people already navigating Scorpio season's intensity, this retrograde can feel like a lot. But it's also offering you a profound opportunity: to communicate with yourself and others from a place of depth and truth, not just from your anxiety or your performance.

The Anxiety Spiral: When Mercury Retrograde Triggers Your Nervous System

Let's talk about what actually happens in your body and mind during Mercury retrograde, especially if you're prone to anxiety:

The anticipatory anxiety loop
You've heard Mercury retrograde is coming. Your brain starts scanning for problems before they even happen. Every small glitch becomes evidence that "it's starting." Your nervous system goes into hypervigilance, constantly monitoring for the next thing that will go wrong.

The catastrophizing pattern
One miscommunication becomes "everyone misunderstands me." One tech glitch becomes "everything is falling apart." Your anxious mind takes Mercury retrograde themes and amplifies them into worst-case scenarios.

The rumination intensifies
Mercury rules thought, and when it's retrograde, thoughts tend to loop backward. That conversation from three days ago? Your brain wants to replay it 47 times, analyzing every word, every tone, every possible meaning.

The communication freeze
Afraid of saying the wrong thing or being misunderstood, you might stop communicating altogether. This isolation then feeds the anxiety, creating a cycle of withdrawal and increased distress.

This is your nervous system doing what it thinks will keep you safe. But it's not actually helping. So let's talk about what will.

Somatic Practices for Mercury Retrograde Anxiety

Because Mercury retrograde affects your mind and communication, it's essential to work with your body to prevent getting stuck in your head.

Breaking the Thought Loop

When you notice you're ruminating or spiraling:

The Pattern Interrupt
Clap your hands sharply three times. Stomp your feet. Make a loud sound. Do something physical that disrupts the mental loop. Then take three deep breaths and say out loud: "I am here. I am in this moment. I am safe."

Bilateral Tapping
Cross your arms over your chest and alternately tap your shoulders (left, right, left, right) for 1-2 minutes. This bilateral stimulation helps calm your nervous system and can break rumination patterns.

The 5-4-3-2-1 Grounding Technique
Name 5 things you can see, 4 you can touch, 3 you can hear, 2 you can smell, 1 you can taste. This brings you out of your anxious thoughts and into your present sensory experience.

Regulating Your Nervous System

Humming or Singing
The vibration of your voice activates the vagus nerve, which helps regulate your nervous system. Hum, sing, or chant when you feel anxious. It's physiologically calming.

Extended Exhale Breathing
Breathe in for 4 counts, out for 6-8 counts. The longer exhale signals to your nervous system that you're safe, countering the "something is wrong" message that anxiety sends.

Weighted Comfort
Use a weighted blanket, hold something heavy, or press your back against a wall. The proprioceptive input helps your nervous system know where your body is in space, which is grounding when your mind feels scattered.

Moving the Anxiety Through Your Body

Anxiety Shaking
Stand and literally shake your body for 2-3 minutes. Let your hands shake, your legs shake, your whole body discharge the anxious energy. This is what animals do naturally after a threat—they shake it off.

Progressive Muscle Relaxation
Tense each muscle group for 5 seconds, then release. Start with your feet and move up to your head. This helps release the physical tension that anxiety creates.

Creative Discharge
When words feel impossible, move the anxiety through art. Scribble with intensity. Paint messy. Tear paper. Mold clay. Let your body express what your mouth can't.

Art Therapy Practice: Communicating with Your Anxious Parts

This practice helps you work with the parts of yourself that are most activated during Mercury retrograde—the parts that overthink, catastrophize, and struggle to communicate.

You'll need:

• Paper and drawing materials

• Different colored pens or pencils

• Your journal

Part 1: Meeting Your Anxious Mind

Close your eyes and check in with your anxious, overthinking part. Where do you feel it in your body? What does it feel like?

Now, give that anxious part a visual form. Draw it, paint it, or create a collage representation. Don't judge it—just let it be seen.

As you create, ask this part:

• What are you worried about?

• What are you trying to protect me from?

• What do you need right now?

Write down whatever comes up. Let this part speak without censoring it.

Part 2: The Miscommunication Map

Think about a recent miscommunication or a conversation you're anxious about having.

Create a visual map with three sections:

1. What I'm trying to say (draw/write what you actually mean)

2. What I'm afraid will be heard (draw/write your fear about how it will land)

3. The truth beneath both (draw/write the vulnerable truth under your words and your fear)

Often, our communication anxiety comes from this gap—between what we mean, what we fear, and what's really true underneath.

Part 3: The Clarity Ritual

On a new sheet of paper, create an image that represents clarity, clear communication, and being understood. What does it look like when your words land the way you intended? When you feel heard? When connection happens despite Mercury retrograde?

Use colors, symbols, or words that feel aligned with this vision.

Now, place your hand on this image and speak a commitment:

"I commit to communicating with compassion and clarity. I trust that the right words will come when I'm ready. I release the need to be perfect and welcome the possibility of being understood."

Keep this image where you can see it during the retrograde as a reminder of what's possible.

Part 4: The Re-Communication Practice

If there's something you need to communicate during this retrograde (and let's be real, life doesn't stop just because Mercury is backwards), practice it first:

1. Write it out exactly as you want to say it

2. Read it out loud to yourself

3. Notice where you feel resistance, anxiety, or tightness in your body

4. Revise from a place of clarity rather than anxiety

5. Practice saying it out loud until it feels true and grounded

This process helps you communicate from your centered self rather than your anxious self.

What to Do (and Not Do) During Mercury Retrograde

DO:

• Review, revisit, and reflect on your mental health journey

• Reconnect with old coping skills that worked

• Revisit therapeutic insights you haven't fully integrated

• Rewrite, revise, and refine your self-understanding

• Rest more than usual—your brain needs extra processing time

• Double-check communications before sending

• Allow extra time for everything

DON'T:

• Make major life decisions if you can avoid it (wait until after November 29)

• Sign contracts without reading them multiple times

• Assume everyone understands what you mean without checking

• Start brand new therapy modalities (if possible—finish what you've started)

• Ghost people because communication feels hard

• Believe every anxious thought that crosses your mind

• Expect yourself to function at normal capacity

For Highly Sensitive People: Extra Support During the Retrograde

As an HSP, you're likely picking up on the collective anxiety and communication chaos, not just your own. Here's how to navigate:

Create extra buffers
Give yourself more time between appointments, more space between social interactions, more rest than you think you need. Your nervous system is processing more than usual.

Limit information intake
Too much news, too many opinions, too much social media can overwhelm your already-heightened system. It's okay to take breaks.

Communicate your needs explicitly
Don't assume people will intuit what you need during this time. Use clear, direct language: "I need to cancel our plans," "I need more time to respond," "I need clarity about what you mean."

Honor your alone time
If you need to withdraw to process, that's okay. Just communicate it: "I'm taking some space to process, I'll reach out when I'm ready."

Therapy During Mercury Retrograde: What This Time Supports

If you're in therapy or considering starting, Mercury retrograde in Scorpio is actually optimal for:

Revisiting old material with new perspective
Going back to wounds, patterns, or insights you've worked on before but haven't fully integrated. The retrograde helps you see them differently.

Processing communication trauma
If you have wounds around being misunderstood, not being heard, or having your words used against you, this is powerful time to work on that.

Internal Family Systems/Parts Work
Having dialogues with your internal parts—especially the anxious ones—is Mercury retrograde medicine. These parts are louder now, which makes them easier to work with.

EMDR for old patterns
If the same anxiety patterns keep coming back, EMDR during retrograde can help finally process and integrate them at a deeper level.

Somatic therapy for communication anxiety
Working with where you hold communication fear in your body—the tight throat, the clenched jaw, the held breath—helps you communicate more freely.

When Mercury Retrograde Triggers Deeper Issues

Sometimes what looks like "Mercury retrograde anxiety" is actually pointing to something that needs therapeutic attention:

If you're experiencing:

• Panic attacks when trying to communicate

• Inability to speak up about your needs

• Extreme fear of misunderstanding or conflict

• Shutting down completely when communication gets difficult

• Physical symptoms (jaw clenching, throat tightness, stomach issues) when you need to speak

This might be pointing to:

• Communication trauma from your past

• Attachment wounds around being heard and seen

• Unprocessed experiences of being misunderstood or dismissed

• Nervous system dysregulation that needs support

These aren't just "Mercury retrograde problems"—they're valuable information about where healing wants to happen.

The Gift Nobody Talks About

Here's what I want you to understand about Mercury retrograde: it's not actually trying to make your life difficult. It's trying to help you slow down enough to integrate what you've been learning.

Your brain learns and processes during sleep. Your psyche needs retrograde periods to catch up with all the forward momentum you've been pushing through.

This retrograde is offering you:

• Permission to review your progress without judgment

• Space to understand yourself more deeply

• Time to integrate insights you haven't fully embodied

• Clarity about what you actually think and feel (once the fog clears)

• A chance to repair miscommunications and strengthen connections

• Proof that you can tolerate uncertainty and still be okay

The Post-Retrograde Clarity

When Mercury goes direct on November 29th, you'll likely experience a clearing. Decisions that felt impossible become obvious. Communications that felt stuck start flowing. Understanding arrives.

But here's the thing: that clarity comes because of the retrograde period, not in spite of it. The slowing down, the reviewing, the revisiting—that's what creates the conditions for true clarity to emerge.

Think of Mercury retrograde like a mental health integration period. You're not moving forward right now because you're meant to be consolidating, processing, and deepening what you've already learned.

You Don't Have to Do This Alone

If Mercury retrograde is triggering intense anxiety, bringing up old communication trauma, or making it hard to function, that's information. It's your psyche saying: "There's something here that needs support."

I work with highly sensitive, creative people in Brooklyn and throughout New York State (virtual) who struggle with anxiety, overthinking, and communication challenges—especially during intense astrological transits.

Through somatic art therapy, EMDR, parts work, and depth-oriented approaches, we can work with:

• The anxious mind that won't quiet down

• Communication trauma that makes speaking your truth feel impossible

• Old patterns that keep resurfacing

• The nervous system overwhelm that comes with being highly sensitive

• The integration work that Mercury retrograde is asking for

Feeling like Mercury retrograde is highlighting something that needs deeper work? Schedule your free consultation to explore how therapy can support you through this transit and beyond in Brooklyn or anywhere in New York State.

Mercury retrograde runs from November 9-29, 2025, primarily in Scorpio. The post-retrograde shadow period extends through December 16, 2025, when Mercury finally clears the degree where it first stationed retrograde.

Irene Maropakis, LCAT, is a Creative Arts Therapist specializing in somatic art therapy, EMDR, and Jungian depth work for highly sensitive people navigating anxiety, communication challenges, and the journey toward authentic self-expression. She practices in Brooklyn, NY and virtually throughout New York State from a trauma-informed, queer-affirming, spiritually-honoring lens.