The 4400: In "Voices Carry", Gary Navarro, a baseball player who disappeared in 1973, is unable to cope with his telepathic powers. He hears every thought of every person around him and can't filter any of them out. As such, he becomes increasingly unstable. NTAC gives Gary an anti-psychotic drug called haloperidol which quietens the thoughts in his mind. However, when he is goes undercover in the 4400 Center, the drugs are confiscated and the voices return. Gary blows his cover when he bursts into Jordan Collier's office demanding the return of the haloperidol. In "The New World", Gary tells Diana that he eventually learned to control and harness his power and he now thinks of it in the same way as he does his other senses.

In Ultimate Spider-Man, Spider-Man meets Jean Grey and she compliments him on being one of the first guys who, upon waking, doesn't picture her naked. She then has to revise her statement. What follows is seven panels of awkwardness as Spiderman tries to stop thinking of her naked. This is part of the reason main antagonist Hao went batshit insane and became a Woobie, Destroyer of Worlds. An accident left him with a very dangerous ability, Reishi ("Reading the Heart"), that he could not control. The negative emotions and thoughts of others constantly overwhelmed him and, since he was unable to turn his Reishi off, the deluge of negativity eventually drove him to become the Shaman King so that he could create a Shaman only kingdom on earth.I'm 82 years old now and can't tell you how many times I have cried out to God, like Job: "Please, God, these thoughts are killing me! Take them away. I give them to you. I place them on the altar of your love. Only you can make me realize that I am whole, that all shall be well, and all shall be well and all manner of thing shall be well' " ( Julian of Norwich). The Star Trek: The Next Generation episode " Tin Man" has Tam Elbrun, a Betazoid who has had his ability from birth, resulting in Power Incontinence (most Betazoids develop telepathy during puberty, and are able to control it). He was quite relieved when he met Data, who had no (organic) mind to read.

Toshiko Sato of Torchwood gains telepathy in " Greeks Bearing Gifts". She races home hurt and angry after hearing the petty thoughts of her co-workers. On the other hand, it does help her stop a man from killing his ex-wife and kid in a Murder-Suicide. Psychic Squad: Shiho has the ability since birth. At the beginning of the series, she is somewhere around 12 and pretty much despairs of humanity. Made even worse by some of the ways others use her powers; her own father, the police chief, has her read evidence in murder investigations, meaning she has been exposed to visions of horrible killings and corpses. She is a tad morbid and disturbing as a result. Fuentes, Danny (December 20, 2018). "Ministry's Al Jourgensen Is a National Treasure". L.A. Weekly . Retrieved March 16, 2019. The exceptions are her sister, whom she can read the mind of and cares very deeply for, and a cat she adopted, whose thoughts are unintelligible because they're still in cat. Harry Potter and The (Cursed) Power of (Mad) Love : After Snape read Ginny's mind (especially her obsessive thoughts about Harry) he begged Dumbledore to obliviate him. After Dumbledore read Snape's mind to see just what was so bad, they both got obliviations from Madame Pomfrey.

Wonder Woman (1987): Angelica Wallis was overwhelmed and needed outside help to keep herself steady when she used her telepathy on a petrified Hippolyta.