Overwhelm isn’t a personality trait. It’s a trap.
If you feel like you’re constantly behind, missing things, spinning plates, and never quite catching your breath — hear this clearly: you are not the problem. You are living inside a system that runs better when you are tired, distracted, and doubting yourself.
The Sickness Economy depends on it.
Overwhelm Isn’t an Accident. It’s a Strategy.
Somewhere along the way, “overwhelmed” got turned into a character flaw. You’re told you:
- Need better time management.
- Need to be more disciplined.
- Need to stop being “so emotional.”
But step back and look at the bigger picture:
- Work hours go up while wages barely move.
- Food gets more processed and more addictive.
- Screens and notifications demand your attention 24/7.
- The healthcare system becomes more expensive and more confusing.
That isn’t random. That is design.
Because if you’re exhausted, you don’t even have the energy to question who benefits from your exhaustion.
The Science Backs It — Stress, Overwhelm & Unhealthy Eating Habits
There is strong evidence showing that chronic stress and overwhelm push people toward unhealthy food choices. Here are a few solid, peer-reviewed examples:
- Harvard Health Publishing explains how stress hormones push people toward sugary, fatty “comfort foods,” and why this often leads to overeating.
https://www.health.harvard.edu/staying-healthy/why-stress-causes-people-to-overeat - 2022 study (Ecuador): High perceived stress was strongly associated with emotional eating — choosing food in response to stress rather than hunger.
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC9817472/ - MDPI Study (2020): Higher stress increases reliance on convenience foods (processed, fast foods) instead of home-prepared, whole-food meals.
https://www.mdpi.com/2072-6643/12/5/1241 - Longitudinal MIDUS study: Stress eating is linked to poorer glucose regulation, increased fat storage, and worse long-term health outcomes.
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC3733123/ - Study on medical students (2025): Stress significantly influences unhealthy eating habits and increases consumption of calorie-dense foods.
https://www.cmjpublishers.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/the-association-between-stress-and-eating-habits-among-medical-students-in-imu-university-malaysia.pdf
These studies show a consistent pattern:
A stressed population eats worse, feels worse, becomes more dependent on processed foods, and is easier to control.
Exactly what the Sickness Economy relies on.
Overwhelm Makes You Predictable
When you’re worn down or overloaded, your nervous system defaults to survival mode. You reach for whatever is easiest:
- Fast food instead of real food.
- Scrolling instead of resting.
- Saying “yes” when your body is begging for “no.”
- Trusting experts instead of questioning systems.
Overwhelm makes your behavior predictable — and predictable consumers are profitable.
The Sickness Economy Needs You Tired
This entire system runs on your exhaustion.
If you’re too stressed to cook, too tired to research, too overloaded to challenge a doctor, or too overwhelmed to read a label… the system wins.
Overwhelmed people don’t have the bandwidth to resist.
They’re just trying to survive the day.
That’s the point.
The Truth No One Wants to Admit
When you’re overwhelmed, you are easier to control.
You are not failing.
You are responding normally to a system that is not normal.
You are not “too sensitive.”
You are living in a world designed to overload your nervous system.
You are not “bad with health.”
You’ve been bombarded with conflicting information, engineered food, and manipulative messaging.
This isn’t about personal weakness.
It’s about systemic design.
So What Do You Do?
You don’t fix the entire system.
You reclaim your leverage inside it.
Start small:
- Protect your attention.
Turn off non-essential notifications. Stop letting your nervous system be yanked around by every ping. - Simplify your food decisions.
Choose a few real-food meals and rotate them. Fewer decisions = fewer openings for processed food. - Build “no” into your week.
Overwhelm shrinks when you stop overcommitting. - Question anything that pressures you to hurry.
“Hurry up” is the oldest manipulation tactic in the book. - Create tiny moments of regulation.
One deep breath. A walk without your phone. A moment of silence.
These are not luxury tasks — they are acts of resistance.
You Are Not Broken. The System Is.
Overwhelm is not a personal flaw.
It’s your body telling the truth about a world out of alignment with human health.
A health-sovereign life begins when you stop asking “What’s wrong with me?” and start asking:
“Who designed this, and who profits?”
That shift — from self-blame to systems awareness — is where your power comes back.
Next Week on Why Wednesday
Title: Why Processed Food Is Engineered to Override You
Theme: How flavors, chemicals, and marketing manipulate appetite and biology.
With love and truth,
—Donna 💚
Sources & Studies
- Harvard Health Publishing — “Why stress causes people to overeat”:
https://www.health.harvard.edu/staying-healthy/why-stress-causes-people-to-overeat - Carpio-Arias et al. — Emotional eating & stress (2022):
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC9817472/ - Choi et al. — Stress and unhealthy eating behaviors:
https://www.mdpi.com/2072-6643/12/5/1241 - MIDUS national study — Stress eating & metabolic impacts:
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC3733123/ - CMJ Publishers (2025) — Stress & poor eating habits in medical students:
https://www.cmjpublishers.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/the-association-between-stress-and-eating-habits-among-medical-students-in-imu-university-malaysia.pdf
