Part 1 — The constant readiness mode (and why being “always on” isn’t a flaw – it’s your edge)

A strengths-based exploration by 🟠 the neurovision group

Introduction

This article is Part 1 of a 12-part strengths-led series exploring the lived experience of neurodivergence through a blend of real-life reflection, neuroscience insight and a gentle, human lens.

Many neurodivergent people carry internal experiences they’ve never had language for, sensations, reactions and emotional landscapes that feel invisible to others but deeply real to us. This series aims to bring those experiences into the open, not as deficits, but as design features: rooted in neurobiology, shaped by environment and rich with strengths.

The constant readiness mode (and why being “always on” isn’t a flaw – it’s your edge)

I spent years thinking I was just “wired tense.”

My body was always a half-step ahead of the moment, like it was waiting for the starting gun that never quite fired. Shoulders a little higher, ears pricked, gut quietly scanning the room. Not panic, not fear… just ready.

Most people switch on when something actually happens. We’re already on. You know the feeling:

• You walk into a meeting and register the temperature drop in someone’s voice before they’ve finished their sentence.
• You hear the flicker in the fluorescent light that nobody else clocks.
• You feel the email you’re waiting for land in your chest before your phone even buzzes.
• You’re ten seconds ahead of every conversation, every shift, every possibility.

It’s not anxiety (though it gets labelled that a lot). It’s your nervous system running in 4K while most others are on standard definition.

What’s actually going on 

Our amygdala lights up faster and stronger. Our sensory gates are wider open. Interoception (our internal, eighth sense that tracks what’s happening inside the body) is basically turned up to eleven. And our pattern-recognition engine never clocks off.

Translation: we spot the change, the mismatch, the risk, the lie, the opportunity before it’s even fully formed. The world calls it “being on edge.” I call it built-in radar.

The hidden strengths 

This is the same wiring that lets me:

• Walk into a room and know who’s upset before they do
• Spot the flaw in a strategy three moves ahead
• Feel when a child (or colleague, or friend) is about to melt down and head it off
• Notice the tiny detail in a design, a contract, a conversation that saves disaster later
• Sense when something beautiful is about to happen and lean in before anyone else realises

That “constant readiness” everyone told me was wrong? Turns out it’s situational super-awareness. It’s intuition on steroids. It’s the reason I’m the one people call when it’s about to hit the fan and they don’t know why they feel uneasy. It only feels like a curse when the environment is too loud, too bright, too fast, too fake. Give that same system quiet, respect and a problem worth solving and it becomes pure magic.

Why we've been missed

Because we perform. We mask the overload, deliver the insights, then go home and collapse. Society calls it "sensitivity" like it's a dirty word, ignoring how it powers empathy, creativity, risk-spotting. We've been the quiet advisors, the detail-catchers, the ones who make teams better without fanfare, until burnout hits and we get labelled "fragile" instead of "essential."

The opportunities staring right at us

Flip the script:

Neurodiverse people aren't liabilities; we're the untapped advantage. In teams, we're the ones who:

• foresee problems three steps ahead, saving time and money.
• build genuine trust because we feel the emotional weather and call it out kindly.
• innovate from the edges, connecting subtle patterns into game-changing ideas.
• lead with quiet authority, the kind that notices when someone's quietly sinking and pulls them up.

Give us the right setup, dimmer lights, clearer briefs, space to process and we don't just cope; we elevate everything. Businesses lose billions to turnover from misunderstood sensitivity; imagine the ROI when we harness it instead.

What actually helps 

I stopped trying to “switch off” and started giving my body what it needs before it has to scream: quiet corners, noise-canceling headphones, proper food, transitions instead of surprises.

I lean into the readiness now. When my shoulders lift a fraction, I don’t beat myself up. I ask: “What am I picking up that matters?”. Using that pre-verbal gut sense for decisions, trusting the pause before reacting (it's not hesitation; it's wisdom). Nine times out of ten, there’s gold in there.

I save the deep, creative, high-stakes work for when the radar is humming and the boring admin for when I’m flatter. My nervous system knows its own weather.

If you’ve ever felt like your body is permanently set to “stand by”. That hum under your skin? It’s not a glitch. It’s early warning, deep knowing and fierce protection dressed up as tension. You’re not too sensitive. You’re tuned to a frequency most people don’t even know exists. And the world needs that frequency more than ever.

You're the 1 in 5 who evolved to keep the rest of us safe, and in a messy world, we need you more than ever.

For more on this (the full deep dive, with all the science and stories), check out my detailed guide: Highly Sensitive Persons: Understanding the 1 in 5 Phenomenon – it's the longer version of everything here.

If this rang true, come chat with the rest of us who feel the world at full tilt: Join our All Kinds of Minds community

You're not alone. And you're exactly what's needed.

Part 2 up next - Masking as muscle memory.

We learn to mask before we learn to multiply, find out what this feels like, what strengths lie beneath the masking and how to start to unmask.