Back to Breath - Lucine Setian

Back to Breath - Lucine Setian From burnout and overwhelm to achievement and execution
🧠Late diagnosed ADHD mum
✨Breathe your way to purpose and fulfilment

Your body has been sending you signals for a while now.You’ve probably put them down to being tired, needing a holiday, ...
18/02/2026

Your body has been sending you signals for a while now.

You’ve probably put them down to being tired, needing a holiday, or just not being resilient enough.

But what if it’s not any of those things?

What if your nervous system has been running in survival mode for so long that dysregulation has started to feel like your normal?

The wired and tired feeling at night. The overreaction to things that never used to bother you. The numbness. The gut stuff. The inability to actually rest without feeling like you have to earn it first.

These aren’t character flaws. They’re signals.

And the good news is that your nervous system is not broken. It is adaptable. It can learn to regulate again. But it needs the right input, not more pushing through.

Comment AUDIT below and I’ll send you my free burnout and nervous system audit. It takes a few minutes and gives you a clear picture of where your system is sitting right now and what it actually needs.

Your baseline doesn’t have to feel like this.

16/02/2026

Every. Single. Time.

You: “I should text Sarah back”Picks up phoneOpens Instagram to check one thing45 reels laterYou: “Wait, what was I doing?”
This isn’t lack of discipline.

This is ADHD brain with:
• No filter for relevant vs irrelevant information
• Every stimulus demanding equal attention
• Working memory that forgets the original task within seconds

• Dopamine-seeking behaviour (reels = instant hits)
You pick up your phone with intention. Your brain gets hijacked by whatever’s in front of it.

Then an hour later you remember: “Oh god, I still haven’t texted Sarah back.”

And when your nervous system is dysregulated on top of ADHD? The phone becomes an escape from overwhelm. So you scroll even longer.

When I regulated my nervous system, I didn’t stop getting distracted by reels. But I could notice “oh, I’m doing it again” and redirect before losing an hour.

If you’ve ever opened your phone to do one thing and completely forgotten what it was, you’re not alone.

Comment SAME if this is you đź’›

15/02/2026

POV: You’re an ADHDer who can respond instead of react
And it feels… uncomfortable.

Here’s why:
For years, your brain has had a well worn pathway: Trigger → React immediately.

No pause. No choice. Just instant reaction.
That pathway is STRONG. It’s automatic. Your brain can do it without thinking.

But now you’re trying to create a new pathway: Trigger → Pause → Choose → Respond.
And that new pathway is weak. Unfamiliar. It takes effort.
So when you respond instead of react, it feels:
• Awkward
• Slow
• Unnatural
• Like you’re forcing it
• Uncomfortable

That discomfort? It’s not you failing. It’s you rewiring.
You’re weakening the old reactive pathway and strengthening the new responsive one.

Every time you pause instead of react, you’re building that new neural pathway.

Every time you choose your response, you’re making it easier for next time.

It won’t always feel this hard. But right now, it does. And that’s actually a good sign.

It means you’re acting in alignment with who you want to be, not who you’ve always been.

Keep going. The discomfort is temporary. The rewiring is permanent.

Comment AUDIT for the free Burnout & Nervous System Audit and see where you’re at 💛

15/02/2026

Yeah, that’s called masking.

What you see: Calm. Organised. High functioning.
What you don’t see: Complete internal chaos. Racing thoughts. Constant overwhelm.

I’ve been performing “calm” my whole life.
Learned early that the real me, scattered, impulsive, easily distracted, wasn’t acceptable. So I learned to hide it.

Hypervigilant about appearing normal. Overprepared for everything. Rehearsing conversations in my head. Suppressing every impulse.

It looked like I had it together.

Really, I was just exhausted from the constant performance.

And when your nervous system is dysregulated on top of ADHD? Masking takes even more energy.

You’re not just hiding the ADHD symptoms. You’re also managing the constant fight-or-flight activation from dysregulation.

That’s why “calm” ADHDers are often the most burnt out.

Because the performance never stops.
When I started regulating my nervous system, I didn’t suddenly become chaotic. But I stopped needing to perform calm.

I could just… be. Without the constant internal management.

If you’re “calm” and ADHD and exhausted—you’re not high functioning. You’re masking.
And your nervous system is paying the price.

Comment AUDIT for the free Burnout & Nervous System Audit and see where you’re at 💛

14/02/2026

When your ability to mask and your social battery run out at the same time:
Complete shutdown. Can’t speak. Can’t smile. Can’t pretend anymore.

And everyone thinks you’re rude.

But here’s what’s actually happening:
Masking takes energy. Being social takes energy. And when you’re neurodivergent or have a dysregulated nervous system, you have less of both.

So you perform “normal” for as long as you can. You smile. You engage. You pretend you’re fine.
Until you can’t anymore.

And then your nervous system just… shuts down.
You go non-verbal. You withdraw. You need to escape immediately.

That’s not you being antisocial or rude. That’s your nervous system saying: no more input. We’re done.
When I regulate my nervous system, I don’t have infinite social energy. But I have more capacity before I hit shutdown.

The battery drains slower. The mask feels less heavy. And I can tell when I’m approaching empty instead of crashing without warning.

If you hit shutdown at social events, you’re not broken. You’re overstimulated and your nervous system needs support.

Comment AUDIT for the free Burnout & Nervous System Audit and see where you’re at 💛

13/02/2026

If you need to disappear into a quiet room during gatherings to recharge, you’re not broken.
You’re overstimulated.

The noise. The people. The conversations. The chaos.
Your nervous system can only handle so much input before it needs a break.

So you remove yourself. You regulate. You recharge. Then you can cope with more.

That’s not being antisocial. That’s nervous system regulation.

Comment AUDIT for the free Burnout & Nervous System Audit đź’›

Don’t also do this at gatherings?!

13/02/2026

ADHDers cleaning their whole room, texting people back and solving world hunger at 11pm on a random Tuesday after procrastinating it for 2 months straight.

And then being absolutely useless the next day because we used all our capacity in one night.
This is ADHD + dysregulated nervous system.
Your brain doesn’t know how to regulate energy or attention. So you either do nothing or ALL THE THINGS with no in between.

When your nervous system regulates, you don’t get rid of the bursts. But you stop completely draining yourself every time.

Comment AUDIT for the free Burnout & Nervous System Audit and see where you’re at 💛

The 90 second rule that changed everything for my ADHD brain.An emotion only lasts 90 seconds in your body, unless you r...
12/02/2026

The 90 second rule that changed everything for my ADHD brain.

An emotion only lasts 90 seconds in your body, unless you retrigger it by ruminating, replaying, or fighting it.
When you’re triggered: Notice → Breathe → Feel → Allow → Wait

90 seconds. That’s all.

This won’t cure ADHD. But it’ll stop one trigger from hijacking your entire day.

Comment AUDIT for the free Burnout & Nervous System Audit and see where you’re at 💛

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