Is Your Nervous System Addicted to Intensity?

The Cost of Living in Pursuit Mode

In my NW Calgary acupuncture practice, I don’t just see sore backs, tight shoulders, or poor sleep — I see nervous systems stuck in the same pattern over and over again. People come in exhausted but wired, productive but depleted, driven but disconnected from rest. In Traditional Chinese Medicine we would say their systems are no longer moving with natural rhythm — they’re stuck in a state of constant mobilization.

This isn’t weakness. It’s a nervous system that learned early that safety lives in doing, chasing, proving, or staying activated. Over time, intensity becomes the baseline. Stillness starts to feel uncomfortable. Calm feels flat. And rest feels strangely unsafe.

Here’s how that pursuit mode shows up most often.

1. Work & Achievement

For many people, urgency becomes the only way they know how to move. When there’s no pressure, motivation collapses.

• Overworking to avoid emotional stillness
• Needing deadlines to feel engaged
• Burning out, then resetting and repeating the cycle
• Tying self-worth to productivity
• Feeling uneasy when things slow down

TCM lens: This pattern often reflects taxed Spleen Qi (difficulty generating steady energy) combined with strained Liver Qi that keeps pushing without adequate replenishment.

2. Fitness & the Body

Movement stops being nourishment and becomes discharge. The body is worked hard but not restored.

• Over-training instead of recovering
• Chasing soreness as proof of effort
• Using exercise to outrun emotion
• Rest days creating agitation instead of relief

TCM lens: Here we often see Liver Qi over-expressing without sufficient Blood or Yin rebuilding, leaving the body driven but depleted.

3. Social Life & Stimulation

When the nervous system doesn’t feel safe in quiet, the calendar fills itself.

• Constant plans and little integration time
• Difficulty being alone without distraction
• Endless scrolling, background noise, or stimulation
• Anxiety when nothing is scheduled

TCM lens: This often points to a disturbed Heart Shen — the mind no longer settles easily in stillness.

4. Sex & Dating

Attraction becomes intertwined with unpredictability. Calm feels flat.

• Drawn to emotionally unavailable partners
• Confusing anxiety with chemistry
• Losing interest when connection stabilizes
• Sexualizing nervous activation

TCM lens: This commonly reflects a miscommunication between Heart and Kidney — desire becomes driven by agitation rather than rooted intimacy.

5. Emotional Processing

Healing becomes something you do intensely instead of something you digest.

• Trauma-dumping instead of integrating
• Revisiting wounds without closure
• Seeking emotional release without containment
• Feeling more raw than regulated afterward

TCM lens: Emotional responses rise quickly and frequently but are slow to resolve, leaving the system stirred rather than integrated.

6. Spirituality & Personal Growth

Insight replaces embodiment. The mind grows faster than the system can integrate.

• Constant workshops or modalities
• Chasing breakthroughs rather than daily grounding
• Living in awareness but not in the body
• Feeling perpetually “almost there”

TCM lens: This often shows as Shen floating without root — awareness expanding without the Kidney or Spleen anchoring it.

The Nervous System Truth

Intensity can feel like aliveness, but often it’s just the nervous system stuck in pursuit mode.

The body doesn’t heal in constant mobilization. It heals in rhythm, repair, and safety.

When calm feels boring, it isn’t because something is wrong with you.
It’s because your system has forgotten how to rest.