Adaptive Strategies for a Sensitive System is a lovingly disordered field guide for surviving a world that keeps turning up the brightness. Disguised in the respectable badge of a diagnostic title, this is in contrast a poetic log of being too sensitive in a society built for the perpetually unbothered. From violent mornings to dreich late nights, Kate sifts through bedrooms, public transport, supermarkets, her Gran's house, the surveillance-era optimism of mindfulness apps, and the wild terrain of her own mind-gathering softness, silliness, and unexpected wisdom along the way. This is a companion for anyone who has ever felt out of alignment with the world's settings, and is still learning how to stay tender without falling apart.