You’re Not Burned Out. You’re Overstimulated.

I once read something from the 1700s discussing, in essence, that people of the time were overstimulated. I remember thinking to myself, "if they thought THEY were overstimulated, what chance do WE have?!?"

Most people who come into my office don’t say, “I’m overwhelmed.”

They say things like: “I’m fine, I’m just tired.”

“I can’t focus like I used to.”

“I don’t feel like myself, but nothing is technically wrong.”

And they usually assume this means something inside them is failing.

It’s not. We’ve misnamed the problem.

This isn’t burnout in the classic sense. Burnout implies depletion from effort. What most people are dealing with now is saturation.

Too much input. Too many opinions. Too many expectations. Too much noise masquerading as urgency.

Your nervous system was never designed to metabolize this much information, comparison, and pressure without pause. Not without cost.

So it does the only reasonable thing it can. It dulls. It numbs. It pulls back. It says “enough” in subtle ways first.

The trouble is, we interpret that response as weakness. We tell ourselves we should be able to keep up. We pathologize our need for quiet. We override the signal and reach for productivity hacks, motivation, caffeine, or scrolling.

But your system isn’t asking for optimization. It’s asking for less.

Less explanation. Less performance. Less proving. Less pretending that constant access to everything hasn’t changed us.

One of the most healing shifts I see happens when people stop asking, “What’s wrong with me?” and start asking, “What have I been exposed to without rest?” That question restores energy.

Because your exhaustion isn’t a character flaw. Your disconnection isn’t laziness. Your fog isn’t a lack of discipline. It’s a reasonable response to an unreasonable pace.

Clarity doesn’t usually come from pushing harder. It comes from subtraction. From space. From quiet. From relationships where you don’t have to be impressive or articulate or okay.

This isn’t about dropping out of life. It’s about coming back into it with your nervous system intact.

And that begins when you stop arguing with the signal your body has been sending all along.

If this hit close to home and you’re realizing you’ve been trying to think your way out of a nervous system problem, that’s where therapy can help. At Integrated Mental Health Associates, we work with people who look functional on the outside but feel fried on the inside. Call 480-261-5015 to schedule a free 15-minute consultation.

You don’t need to justify why you’re tired. We already understand.