Claustrophobia of consciousness

By Lexi Jones

What if some people aren’t “too sensitive,” “paranoid,” or “anxiety-driven”?

What if they’re simply too hyper-aware, overly conscious of everything happening around them, embedded too deeply in reality?

Almost like their brain forgot to install the filter that softens the edges of the world.

Not floating through life, but staggering through it,

weaving their way through the ins and outs of understanding everything a little too deeply.

What do you call it when everything feels too real?

When you’re analyzing situations and people too well, noticing the smallest details,

picking apart the absurdity of small talk,

all while everyone else walks by, oblivious.

Is this presence?

Is this madness?

Is this what it means to be too awake?

Some people mistake it for anxiety, but it’s not worry or fear.

It’s not panic, it’s perception.

It’s analyzing the reality of everything a little too deeply.

It’s having too much clarity with no off switch.

Living in high definition, where there is no escape.

Consciousness doesn’t flow. It loops.

It’s like sensory overload, but existential.

Not spontaneity anymore, but analysis paralysis of the soul.

Once you realize how reality is formed, how it’s stitched together,

everything stops feeling real.

Reality becomes a simulation, not because it’s fake, but because it feels too real.

You’re not dreaming.

You’re just trapped in being fully awake.

You’re watching your life instead of fully living it.

It’s the discomfort of existence becoming too visible, too raw, too close.

So if reality feels fake to you, but real to everyone else,

does that make you wrong?

Or just awake?