#33 Is It ADHD, or Are You Just in Late-Stage Capitalism?

We live in a culture that glamorizes being “always on.”
But behind the hustle, the hyper-productivity, and the constant stimulation is a nervous system in crisis. In this episode, I unpack how we confuse overstimulation with personality and why that confusion is burning us out.
We talk dopamine loops, trauma responses, nervous system basics, and what it means to rediscover yourself beneath the noise.

Episode source material:

• University of California, San Diego. (2020). How much information do we consume?

• Dana, Deb. The Polyvagal Theory in Therapy

• Gabor Maté. The Myth of Normal

• NPR: “How constant dopamine stimulation rewires our brain”

• Psychology Today: “The Addictive Cycle of Doomscrolling”

Episode Transcript

(00:03):
Welcome back to So I Was Told, the podcast where we get real
about what it means to be human in a world that keeps trying to
turn us into machines. Today we're taking a little
break from the usual candor between my Co host and I for a
little solo episode that you guys seem to like listening to.

(00:25):
Now. Today's episode is dedicated to
the overthinkers, the multitaskers, the doom
scrollers, the I just need something on in the background
people. The ones who mistake anxiety for
energy. We're talking about
overstimulation and how a fried nervous system isn't a
personality trait. It's a red flag that we've been
living in survival mode for way too long.

(00:47):
So let's get into it. Here's where I want to start.
I believe we live in a culture that confuses being on edge with
being on point. Or for you younger folk out
there, being on edge with standing on business.

(01:08):
You see, we've normalized getting notifications at 2:00 in
the morning, checking emails while taking a poo, listening to
three podcasts while texting 6 people while, you know, also
forgetting what we walked into the room for.
And somehow we were all of this chaos like it's some sort of
badge of honor. We say things like I work better

(01:31):
under pressure or I can't sit still.
That's just how I am. Or maybe I have a fast brain.
OK, Yeah, sure. But are you really wired like
that? Or are you just always in fight
or flight mode? Here's some research for you.
The average American consumes over 34 gigabytes of information

(01:53):
per day. I remember growing up, when I
was in middle school, I got an MP3 player for the first time
and I was so stoked to put musicon there.
You know how much information that MP3 player stored?
124 megabytes. Today, your brain consumes over
34 gigabytes of information per day.

(02:17):
That's like downloading a Netflix season in your brain
every single day. And still you wonder why you
can't focus, why you feel so tired, why nothing feels real
anymore. It's not how you were wired,
it's not how you were built. It's just over simulation.

(02:38):
You see, we've glamorized the over stimulated version of
ourselves. The always booked, always busy,
constantly checking, never resting version of ourselves.
The I drink coffee until I disassociate and call it
productivity version. And social media is built around
this. It rewards it.
Our work culture demands it. Look at every job description on

(03:02):
Indeed and you'll see somewhere in that description a need for
somebody who is highly motivatedand works well under pressure.
All the while our inner child isscreaming, I don't know who I am
with all of this noise because here's what no one tells you.
Sometimes your little quirks that you have, they're actually

(03:25):
just trauma coping in disguise. Sometimes your hustle is really
just avoidance. And sometimes your personality
is really just survival masking itself because you haven't
learned how to truly be normal yet.
And I say all this with love because I struggle with wearing

(03:46):
this mask as well. My nervous system is still
learning how to be normal. So let's talk about our nervous
system for a while. We have two gears, right?
The sympathetic system, which isthe fight flight, freezer fawn.
You know it kicks in when your brain thinks that there's a
threat, even if the threat is just a text message, a deadline,

(04:08):
or someone not texting back fastenough.
Then there's the parasympathetic, which is the
rest digest, chill out, level out.
And most of us are stuck in gearone, right?
We were raised in chaos. I don't know what it's like to

(04:29):
exist in a room when I'm workingwithout the TV on in the
background or some sort of hum going on in the background.
And this is all because we live in a capitalistic hellscape.
And when we treat being constantly on as the price of
being valuable, our minds pay that price.

(04:49):
And so living in that state longterm leads to anything but
productivity. In fact, it's the fastest way to
burn out. So no, you haven't always been
like this. You've just never been safe long
enough to figure out who you arewithout the noise.
So let me offer you something different.

(05:10):
Not a cure, but something you can do and you should do in
every situation. When you don't understand
something, that is a question. Who are you when you're not
performing energy? Like, really, who are you when
your phone is off? When no one is watching?
When nothing needs to get done? If that question feels

(05:34):
terrifying, then you're not alone.
Because the silence can feel like a void until you realize
that silence is actually a mirror.
So what do we do? How can we combat late stage
capitalism, rehabilitate our minds, and become people who can

(05:55):
actively and passively rebel against the system that is made
to conform us into submission? Here are 4 tips that I have for
you #1 Turn your phone to grayscale.
By turning your phone to grayscale, it actually makes it
boring. Try it and see how quickly

(06:17):
you'll find what you're doing Tobe kind of monotonous,
repetitive, stale #2 this is super hard.
Like really, really hard. Sit in stillness for 15 minutes
a day, right? No distractions.
You can think, you can meditate,you can pray, whatever.

(06:39):
Let it feel weird. Become familiar again with the
feeling of boredom #3 is along the same lines as this, just
with movement. And that's to take a walk
without your headphones. If you can, head to a local park
that has a walking track. Walk around it.
Two to three times, no headphones.

(07:01):
If you have a safe neighborhood,walk around the block two to
three times, no headphones. If you can go to the mall, go to
the beach, go to a grocery store, walk down from one side
to the other with no headphones.And lastly, the 4th tip I have
for you is another question thatyou can ask yourself.

(07:24):
That is, what am I running from when I fill every second?
Why do I feel the need to compact every moment in of my
day with noise or productivity? These are all really simple
things that we can do right now to rehabilitate our minds from
all of this over working. This isn't about quitting your

(07:46):
job and moving into the woods. This is about small acts of
nervous system repair. Little moments where you say I
am not a machine and I don't have to earn stillness.
So if you've been moving too fast and for whatever reason you
think that's your personality and this is your invitation to
pause. You don't have to be interesting

(08:08):
all the time and you don't have to be on all the time.
You get to be soft. You get to be quiet.
You get to rest. Your nervous system deserves
peace. Your mind deserves to know what
quiet feels like. And you, as you are, are worth
knowing even when you're not performing.

(08:31):
So please be kind to the versionof you that thought they had to
be a storm just to fill scene. We'll catch you on the next one.