If you’ve been doing “all the right things” – meditation, breathwork, exercise, better sleep – and still feel wired, restless, or exhausted…
There’s a good chance the problem isn’t your mindset.
It might be biological interference.
In the latest episode of The Full Stack Podcast, I sat down with Ted Phaeton to explore a question most high performers never consider:
What if anxiety isn’t psychological at all – but a biological signal being misread?
This episode isn’t about managing stress better.
It’s about understanding what’s actually driving the signal beneath the surface.
Anxiety Isn’t Always “In Your Head”
Modern culture treats anxiety like a thinking problem.
If you could just reframe harder, regulate more, or optimize your habits, the feeling would disappear.
But that model collapses when the nervous system is under constant physical load.
When the body is inflamed, restricted, overstimulated, or fighting internal threats, anxiety becomes a reasonable response, not a character flaw.
In the episode, we break down why so many people feel stuck in a loop of effort without relief, even when they’re doing everything “right.”
The Vagus Nerve, Burnout, and Stuck Fight-or-Flight
A central theme of the conversation is the vagus nerve — the primary communication channel between the brain, gut, heart, and breath.
When vagal tone is compromised, the body struggles to downshift out of fight-or-flight.
We explore:
- Why chronic anxiety can be driven by physical restriction, not thought patterns
- How vagus nerve compression keeps the nervous system on edge
- Why breathwork and meditation help temporarily — but often don’t hold
- How the body remembers unresolved biological stress
This is why calm can feel so elusive.
The system isn’t broken, it’s overloaded.
Parasites, Overgrowth, and the Invisible Energy Drain
This is where the conversation gets uncomfortable – and necessary.
Most people think of parasites or microbial overgrowth as rare or extreme.
In reality, low-grade parasitic and gut imbalances are far more common than most people want to admit, especially in high-stress, high-performance environments.
In the episode, we talk openly about how parasites and overgrowth can:
- Drive sugar cravings and caffeine dependence
- Create brain fog that looks like anxiety
- Drain energy and flatten emotional range
- Keep the nervous system in a constant state of threat
If you want a deeper dive into how this works – especially how parasites influence cognition, mood, and decision-making – I’ve written about it in detail here:
👉 Are Parasites Controlling Your Brain?
https://bledsoe.life/2025/08/05/are-parasites-controlling-your-brain/
That piece expands on the biological mechanisms we reference in the episode and helps contextualize why “mental” symptoms often aren’t mental at all.
Why Coffee Makes Confusion Worse When You Lack Clarity
One of the simplest – and most confronting – takeaways from the episode is what we call The Rule:
If you’re not clear, don’t drink coffee.
Stimulants don’t create clarity.
They amplify whatever state your nervous system is already in.
When the system is disorganized, caffeine projects internal chaos outward – into rushed decisions, emotional reactivity, and unnecessary pressure.
Clarity first.
Stimulation second.
That order matters more than most people realize.
This Isn’t About Fixing Yourself – It’s About Removing Interference
The core reframe of this episode is simple:
You are not broken.
Your body is responding intelligently to conditions it was never designed to tolerate long-term.
When biological interference is removed, calm doesn’t need to be forced.
It returns naturally.
That’s what sovereignty looks like in the body.