Anxious, Ambitious, and Overstimulated | Therapy for Young Adults in San Luis Obispo
by Ben Rea, LCSW
San Luis Obispo is beautiful. It is active, high achieving, and full of forward momentum. Cal Poly students are building résumés before they graduate. Young professionals are launching careers in a competitive and expensive coastal town. On the surface, it looks energized and inspiring.
Underneath, many young adults feel constantly wired. Anxiety therapy in San Luis Obispo is not in demand because people are weak. It is in demand because the nervous system was not designed for the level of stimulation most of us are living in.
You wake up and check your phone. News alerts. Global instability. Economic uncertainty. Technological disruption. Social media showing curated success from people your age who seem further ahead. Then classes, deadlines, internships, side hustles, gym goals, social obligations. There is very little true downtime. Even rest often involves a screen.
How Chronic Stress Affects the Brain and Nervous System
Chronic psychological stress places sustained demands on the nervous system. The body reacts through the hypothalamic–pituitary–adrenal axis, releasing cortisol and mobilizing energy to respond to perceived challenges. When this response is repeatedly activated without sufficient recovery, it creates what researchers call allostatic load, or cumulative wear and tear on the body from chronic stress. You can read more about this here: Physiology Review: Stress and Adaptation.
When this stress response stays switched on, it affects sleep, mood, immune function, and cognitive clarity. Research in Nature Reviews Neuroscience shows how prolonged stress exposure impacts memory and emotional regulation: Lupien et al., 2009. Studies also show that psychosocial stress can temporarily disrupt attention and executive functioning, particularly in the prefrontal cortex: Liston, McEwen & Casey, 2009.
It can start to feel normal.
That is the tricky part. When everyone around you is stressed, anxiety blends into the culture. You assume this is just what ambitious young adulthood feels like. Some anxiety is expected. In fact, research has long shown that moderate levels of arousal can improve focus and performance: Yerkes & Dodson, 1908. The problem is when anxiety stops being a signal and becomes the driver. When decisions are made to avoid discomfort rather than move toward meaning. When you are constantly reacting instead of intentionally choosing.
College Anxiety at Cal Poly and High-Achieving Stress
College anxiety at Cal Poly often shows up as perfectionism, comparison, and fear of falling behind. Research on student mental health highlights the high prevalence of stress, anxiety, and depression among college students: Beiter et al., 2015. You might perform well academically and still feel internally unsettled. You might achieve your goals and immediately move the bar higher. There is rarely a sense of enough.
From a physiological standpoint, chronic stress reduces cognitive flexibility and executive functioning. Prolonged cortisol exposure affects attention, planning, and emotional regulation. Your brain under stress defaults to urgency and threat scanning rather than reflection or long-term vision.
This is where clarity matters.
Moving Forward: Staying Ambitious Without Burning Out
Instead of asking how to eliminate anxiety entirely, a more useful question is how to build a life guided by what matters even when anxiety is present. Research on psychological flexibility shows that staying engaged in meaningful action despite discomfort is strongly associated with better mental health and life satisfaction: Kashdan & Rottenberg, 2010. That does not mean the discomfort disappears. It means you are no longer ruled by it.
In therapy, we focus on regulating the nervous system so your body is not constantly activated. We address sleep, technology boundaries, and how you structure your day. We explore the stories driving pressure and comparison. We practice staying present with discomfort while taking intentional steps in the direction you care about.
Getting Support
If you are feeling overstimulated and stretched thin, you are not alone. The environment is intense. The expectations are high. Your nervous system is responding exactly as a human nervous system would.
Anxiety therapy is not about lowering your ambition. It is about helping your body and mind sustain it without burning out. It is about learning how to stay steady in a culture that constantly accelerates.
You can be ambitious and regulated. You can care deeply and still sleep well. You can live near the ocean and actually feel calm.
If anxiety has started to run the show, it may be time to get support.
Call 805-903-2604
Or reach out today
As always, I’m here to help.
