2025 Recap
This post is a recap of all the other posts from 2025 on The Overstimulated.
This post is a Thank You to the people who read The Overstimulated in 2025 and a Welcome to the people who will read The Overstimulated in 2026. Peruse the assortment of pieces I published here last year in the recap below. Perhaps you will find something to revisit or read something you missed the first time.
As a reminder, I love it when people go through my back catalog to catch up, and those that do it methodically with a post or two a week really make my day. (I only know that’s their system because they heart a piece once they finish. And every time that happens, my heart is filled, just like the icon on the post.💗)
The first post I shared in 2025 was a recap of my 2024 Lowlights.
I believe in sharing my life openly & honestly, so I’m including this roundup of the low points as an addendum to my year-end “highlights” recap. I’m a big proponent of keeping a record—through journals, blog posts, and the like—as it not only helps to have something written to reference later but also assists in pattern recognition.
I do not plan to continue the tradition and share my 2025 Lowlights because while I still agree with the sentiment of trying to share my life openly & honestly, seeing all of the low points listed out in a row was overwhelming and disheartening. I don’t really need to rehash it for myself in a condensed format, and you probably don’t want to read it either. This is not an overcorrection into some toxic positivity perspective where I’m going to only be sharing “good” things about my life. Rather, I’m hoping to stop viewing any of my life as “good” or “bad” and try to share things more holistically without the judgment.
I Love Cats 🐈
Over the past two years, I lost two of my longtime cat companions. I’ve also gained three more. I wrote 3 posts about cats in 2025.
I am always concerned with the animals in my yard, and I try to make decisions on how to shape the environment to their benefit. I put out bird seeds, nuts, and corn every other day or so. We get birds, squirrels, opossums, raccoons, rabbits, cats, and even sometimes turkeys! In the winter, when it is so cold that the bird bath is frozen solid, I have a heated water bowl plugged in on the top deck. It gets a lot of visitors because I don’t know of any other fresh water sources nearby.
As I was sitting down to re-prioritize all the tasks on my overflowing plate, the universe told me that I shouldn’t bother with any of it. Instead, I needed a new cat to focus on to help me slow down and remind me what is really important in this life.
She basically just handed us back the cat in the carrier after a five-minute once-over in back, as if to say, this cat doesn’t require any emergency care and we’re too busy to deal with it right now. One of her last comments was, “Sounds like this cat picked you!” I replied, “That’s what they’ll say!”
I Have “Daddy Issues” ❤️🩹
For the first time in years, I realized that my estranged family know where I live and could just pop over whenever, if they so choose. It has made me feel unsettled and potentially unsafe in a way that I hoped to never feel again. I was so scattered and off-kilter after the unexpected contact from my dad that I stopped what I was doing mid-sentence and decided to meditate. That’s actually a huge win for me!
I’m Not Afraid to Get “Political” ✊
In this moment, the powerful people (and systems they uphold) are doubling down on prioritizing profit over people, our planet, and sustainable life for everything on Earth. Being one of those people who feels compelled to try to improve myself, my life, and in effect the lives of those around me, it is not in my nature to sit idly by spectating, if there is something that I can do. I also realize I am just one person. I may not ever take an individual action that tips the scales in favor of justice, but that does not mean that my personal activities will have no bearing on the big picture.
All these “human rights” that other countries have do not apply to USAmericans. Housing, food, water, and healthcare are not rights given to everyone in the United States. They are directly tied to your job, so only people who can labor in trade to the state receive it. That job can be taken from you at almost any point, for almost every reason. Even so-called “illegal” reasons can happen with no push-back because you don’t have the money to fight them in court. People who cannot labor due to disability are forced to jump through excessive amounts of paperwork and years of court dates to be rejected over and over before any kind of help might be provided. They make it so your basic existence costs money. If you lose your job or cannot work, you will eventually run out of money. If you can’t pay your bills, you’ll lose your home and your healthcare.
While a lot of what is currently happening in US politics feel overwhelming, I refuse to give into despair. Even though I may be just one person, there are things I can do to change my life, change myself, change my immediate environment, and hopefully those changes will ripple out further. I’ve been thinking a lot lately about what I should be doing right now with my life. I decided to take stock of how I’m spending my time, energy, and money and then take action to spend those precious commodities on things that are in alignment with my values.
The event was promoted as the Fight for a People’s Earth Day, and there is often a protest around Earth Day each year. It ended up being a breezy Saturday with temps in the low 50s as the high. There were very few clouds in the sky, and it was a beautiful Spring day. I dusted off my old dslr and decided to attend.
I Share with Others 💞
On my quest to align the actions in my life with my personal values, I have been looking into ways to divest and stop supporting these billionaires. So far, I have deleted my X/Twitter accounts, my Instagram accounts, my Facebook accounts, and (for a separate reason) my TikTok account. I know a lot of people are interested in how to channel their emotions into concrete actions currently, so I’ve compiled a bunch of links I found to help you with this process. Under each linked headline is a little snippet from the piece along with my personal commentary.
Hopefully these ten pieces will not only give you more to think about but will motivate you to act. There’s a variety of ways we can move forward with a diversity of tactics. Let’s each remember how to care for ourselves while not forgetting that we also need to care for each other. (Especially those “othered” in our communities.) For those who are unable to do some of the suggested activities, there is still space for you. You just have to find out what you’re willing (& able) to do in the myriad of options available.
I went into my saved pieces to try to recapture some of the hope I felt at a simultaneously low moment in November 2024. The first five on this list were all published right after the 2024 US Presidential Election. You know that saying: “The best time to plant a tree is twenty years ago. The second best time is now.” I think the same sentiment can be applied to becoming an advocate, participating in activism, and taking action against fascism. While circumstances have evolved since these top posts were written, the crux of the advice is still relevant today.
I’ve been on a writing hiatus for a couple of months now, and in that time, I have been listening to music, podcasts, and audiobooks, watching movies and shows, and reading a lot of posts on Substack. Recently, I noticed a theme from the publications I subscribe to and the people I follow: we, as a collective, seem to be going through it right now. Also, I am not the only one who noticed. This “In Case You Missed It (ICYMI)” roundup post includes 10 pieces that discuss how people are feeling, why we’re stressed out, and where we can go from here.
I’ve turned my front porch into a Free Community Exchange called Ripples to reference the way that gifting items freely to others can have a ripple effect within the community. It’s like a combination of a packing & shipping kiosk, low waste, upcycling art store, with a variety of secondhand items seeking new homes including clothing, books, household items, COVID-19 rapid tests, and occasionally food. I was searching for a way to be involved with likeminded people who I can connect with in a fashion that keeps me safe as a disabled, mostly housebound person who is still isolating for my health, and this was the idea I came up with. It’s been going really well, and I hope it continues to exist and evolve for years to come!
I am Chronically Ill & Disabled 🥄
I will probably never write posts here that are live or up-to-the-minute breaking fare, as part of my approach to writing is allowing some space to build up for me to fully process what happened and how I feel about it. I think I’ve been avoiding writing lately because I’m avoiding thinking about the causes of my overstimulation. Or am I overstimulated because I haven’t been writing lately, as the writing forces me to think about the things I’m trying to ignore.
There's a reason why I'm still so cautious about exposing myself to preventable illnesses, because I know that so much of what happens within my body is already out of my control. Anything I can do to help myself manage my current conditions, without obtaining more, is crucial to both my physical and mental health.
my doctor asked if I had applied for disability. I told her that I hadn’t because I don’t want to deal with the stress of that long and arduous process. She also spent a few minutes talking to me about who I could reach out to and potentially get back to working, prioritizing my ability to participate in our current economic system of capitalism. I just listlessly replied that, “It is good to know those resources are out there.” I think one of the main reasons that my health is in the spot it is in now is because I am not working. As long as my spouse can handle supporting our entire household, I do not plan to re-enter the workforce. I understand the luxury of this position, and I continue to fight for a world where it is an option for anyone and everyone to have their needs met without having to trade their time and labor for them.
Those are all seventeen of the posts I published in 2025. I’m not entirely sure what I’ll be posting in 2026. I’ve been changing a lot in my life and my writing recently. One of the things I’ve altered is that I’ve removed my self-imposed deadline to write something here every Tuesday. I’ll write when I feel like I have something to say. I’m sick of the constant drone of daily content, and I refuse to add to the forced urgency of the news cycle. I also removed all the paywalls from The Overstimulated. In the ongoing effort to align my actions with my ideals, I’m slowing down, being more intentional, and removing the excess to spend my time and energy on what I truly want as opposed to what I feel like I should be doing.
~The Overstimulated
