When Wellness Becomes Overwhelm: Navigating Anxiety in the Crunchy Community

After immersing myself in the wellness and “crunchy” community, I initially felt empowered to take control of my health. But the more I learned, the more I started feeling overwhelmed and anxious. What began as a journey rooted in self-love and nourishment slowly became a source of self-doubt and constant worry.

In this post, I’m reflecting on how trying to “fix” myself through wellness culture ended up fueling my health anxiety instead. I’ll explore how the pressure to be perfect, combined with constant access to health information, led me to overthink every aspect of my body and mind. Ultimately, I’ll share what I’ve learned about finding balance—and why I’m now reevaluating my relationship with wellness and social media.

I’ve struggled with anxiety for as long as I can remember, and I also have a history of disordered eating. That combination definitely led me to a place where I constantly worried about my health.

Even though I’ve always been mindful of my health, I used to only dip my toes into the wellness space. I’d learn a little more about ingredients, figure out which foods made me feel best and which didn’t, and why it was especially important for me—as a woman and an athlete—to nourish myself properly.

Even growing up, my mom bought a lot of organic produce, we’d go to the farmers market every weekend, we home-cooked most meals, and used unscented or lower-tox household products—definitely a step up from the Tide and Clorox aisle. My interest in healthy eating also grew from my recovery journey. I wanted to give back to my body and fuel it after all the years I spent depriving it.

But I hadn’t fully dived into the “crunchy” wellness world until about two years ago. That deep dive? A big part of it came from grief. After losing a dear friend in a tragic way, my anxiety spiraled. And I found myself searching desperately for something I could control.

And for me, that “something” became health. Researching everything about nontoxic living, healing foods, and holistic health gave me a strange sense of comfort. It made me feel like I was doing something to protect myself and the people I love. It was a distraction, a coping mechanism, and a way to anchor myself when everything else felt uncertain. Diving into the wellness world gave me a purpose. But eventually, that purpose turned into pressure.

It took me a long time to realize how my obsession with healthy living had morphed into a tangled knot of anxiety. I felt trapped in it—constantly scrolling Instagram, following crunchy wellness influencers, and taking in so much content every day.

Here’s the thing: it’s not that living a crunchy, nontoxic lifestyle is bad—in fact, I still believe that nourishing your body with whole foods, supporting your hormones, and minimizing exposure to harmful chemicals can be amazing! But if that same lifestyle starts fueling your anxiety, it’s not helping you anymore.

Even my favorite influencers often say this: if trying to make everything perfectly nontoxic is causing you more stress, then it’s no longer healthy. And I really had to sit with that.

I can’t believe how much anxiety I used to feel after scrolling through Instagram for just 20 minutes. But I didn’t stop there—my Instagram usage went up to almost four hours a day. FOUR hours. And most of that time, I was deep in the wellness rabbit hole—saving posts left and right, screenshotting every supplement list, bookmarking highlight bubbles like my life depended on it. I’d leave the app with my heart racing, my palms sweating, and a racing list in my head of what I had to buy next to “fix” myself. That was the start of a very long (and very expensive) year of impulse-buying health gadgets and supplements I didn’t even fully understand.

I’d tell myself, Okay, I need this red light device because my hormones are out of whack. Then, Oh wait, now I have this other weird symptom… maybe I need to test for mold or get a fancy mineral balancing protocol.

It was just a constant loop of chasing health “solutions” to problems I wasn’t even sure I had.

I know people share their health journeys online to be helpful—and for many, it’s genuinely healing to connect with others. But when you live with health anxiety like I do, seeing someone list out their symptoms (and their solutions) turns into a game of mental spiraling. My brain immediately goes: Wait… I have that too! And that! OMG—what if I have all of it?! What do I need to buy?!

Before I knew it, I had a mental list of over 100 symptoms that must mean this and that and maybe also that. “I hope it’s not serious! Oh someone help me please!” Then come the Instagram pages saying, “Buy this—because apparently the thing you have causes cancer. Oh, and that other thing you’ve been using? Also cancer. And heart disease…”

Cue the never-ending hamster wheel: one supplement, then another…then swapping out this ‘toxic’ product for a nontoxic one. One expensive bottle of adaptogens here, a $300 gadget there—and suddenly, I’d spent all my savings chasing a version of “wellness” that was never meant to be this overwhelming.

It’s hard to pull yourself out of it, too! One video that really hit home for me was from one of my favorite YouTubers, Shelby. It’s called Our Insecurities Are Hurting Our Wallets, and wow—it opened my eyes to how deeply wellness brands (even the ones that seem super “real” and well-intentioned) can feed into our insecurities about our health.

Like… that was literally my living reality. And honestly, I’m still working on unlearning a lot of it.

My mom actually encouraged me to write down everything I was taking every day—every supplement, powder, tincture, capsule—and when I looked at the list, I was like, ohhhh… yeah. I was definitely overdoing it.

Right now, I’m actively working on cutting back. Less noise, less stuff, fewer “fixes.” Not only will it save my wallet, but more importantly, it will save my mental peace.

Here’s the thing I’m still processing: last year, I was trying so hard to be the healthiest version of myself. I had all these fancy wellness tools and supplements. I was checking every box. I felt like, Okay, this is it. This is who I’ve been working toward becoming. I’ve got this.

But plot twist… this past year has actually been one of the hardest on my health—especially my mental health.

The truth is: I was trying so hard to be well that I stressed myself into feeling worse.

So many of the “symptoms” I thought I needed to fix were actually rooted in anxiety. I was constantly in fight-or-flight. My nervous system was totally dysregulated. My brain was always on alert: Is this okay? Am I eating the right thing? Is that product toxic? Is my body breaking down and I just don’t know it yet?

I had such a deep fear of not being healthy… that the stress and fear themselves made me unwell.

It was like I was chasing wellness so hard that I ran right past balance, right into burnout.

I knew I had to take a step back—this had been going on for way too long. As of just yesterday: no social media on the weekends. I’ve also unfollowed a few accounts—people I love with good intentions, but just not right for me right now with where I’m at.

At some point, I had this lightbulb moment: I was following so many different wellness influencers—each with their own routines, stacks, supplements, and non-negotiables—and I started getting overwhelmed trying to keep up with all of it. I mean, one person swore by her morning adrenal mocktail, another couldn’t live without her $80 mushroom blend, and someone else had an entire shelf of tinctures for each phase of her cycle. I wanted to do what they were doing because they seemed to have it all figured out—but here’s the kicker: even they aren’t doing all of it at once. I was trying to adopt everyone’s protocol without having a grounded one of my own.

And the truth is—I was doing it all without any real guidance. Just me, Instagram, Google…and an overstimulated nervous system. I would love to work with a holistic practitioner, but let’s be real: they’re expensive, and it’s just not in my budget right now. So I’ve been learning to slow down, trust myself more, and start small. Not every supplement is a must-have. Not every hack is going to work for me. And that’s okay.

I’m still working through everything. I’ve definitely cut down on my supplements (shoutout to my mom for helping there!), and I’m shifting my focus back to real, whole foods and proper nourishment. Because supplements are just that—supplemental. I’ve even unsubscribed from some wellness brand emails, because I do not need to know about every single product drop and sale from every crunchy brand out there! There’s really no need for a 10- or 15-step morning and night routine…because wow, that is SO stressful! Aren’t evening routines supposed to be calming? And mornings supposed to help you feel alive?

I have to keep reminding myself: I’m already doing so well. I take care of my body. I eat nourishing food. I’m intentional not just about what goes in my body, but what goes on it. I’m doing my best—and my best is more than enough.

Also—just to be clear—I still love being crunchy. I’m just learning to be crunchy with boundaries. Like, yes to organic strawberries, no to 87-step supplement regimens. Yes to iron (because I am low so actually need it), no to panic-buying three different kinds of various blends because someone who I follow on Instagram raved about them. Basically, I’m all about keeping the cozy socks and the herbal tea… and leaving the stress spiral behind...and yes, still working on it all!