Songfacts®:

• As the title implies, this song deals with what was going on in Noah Kahan's head at the time. "'A Troubled Mind' is basically about my experience with anxiety in the beginning of the pandemic," he told Vermont Public. "My mom always said that she felt like it really encapsulated the anxiety that a lot of people were feeling. She posted a video of me my little brother singing the song on Facebook, and a bunch of people kind of loved it, and so they told us to release it, and so it inspired me to record the song and release it. And to me, it speaks about what we were going through in that time."
• The song is part of Cape Elizabeth, a 5-song EP Kahan released as the follow-up to his debut album, Busyhead. It's a concept EP taking place in Cape Elizabeth, Maine, telling the story of a troubled romance. In "A Troubled Mind," Kahan expresses his fears to his love interest, looking for comfort and understanding.
  
  Kahan had never been to Cape Elizabeth when he made the EP, but as a New Englander growing up in Vermont he knew about it, and he thought it would make a great setting for his story.
• Kahan produced the Cape Elizabeth EP with Phin Choukas, a friend of his from Vermont. They made it one week, keeping the songs spare with the focus on Kahan's acoustic guitar.