Things I've Been Hyperfixating On - Romance Scams & Psychedelics | Neurospicy Black Girl

A short trip...no pun intended

Transcript

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Hi, I'm Milani. I'm black, female, and neurodivergent, aka I lost the genetic lottery. The only thing I could do is pull myself up by my bootstraps and live whatever life takes me. No one deserves to profit from my trauma, it's me. That's the life of a neuro-spicy black girl. It's me, Alani, your favorite, overstimulated, slightly unhinged, soft-spoken chaos agent on the internet. I should probably change favorite, um, more like tolerated. Anyway, today's episode is gonna be another short, another chill, super unserious. I just wanna let my brain spiral out loud about what I've been hyperfixating on lately. And listen, what I've been hyperfixating on lately is, or should I say are, romance scams and psychedelics. So if you weren't already sure I'm neurodivergent, surprise! Anyway, let's start with the first hyperfixation, romance scams. So how it started. So this one, I would say like probably started at like 2 a.m. I was on YouTube looking for something comforting, like cats falling off furniture, or slow-living vlogs, or those weird bouncing ball animations. Instead, I fell into, I don't know how I did, but I fell into this channel called Catfish, no relation to the MTV show Catfish, that discusses romance scams. It was the classic person falls in love with a very conventionally attractive male or female, which turns out to be a romance scammer from Nigeria. And my brain was locked in. But you're wondering, why is it so fascinating? It's because it's the psychology of it for me. how these scammers are so good at emotionally grooming people. Based on what I see on the episodes, they find someone vulnerable, maybe they're lonely, recently divorced, going through it, and they mirror their emotions like a dating chameleon. It's like digital love bombing. Constant texting, calling you pet names like baby and queen, which is the most popular one, And then slowly, the asks start. Can you help me out? It's just temporary. And boom! You're broke and heartbroken. The craziest part is that a lot of these people are... I would say have average intelligence. Not naive. Although, that depends. And maybe just, I would say just human. And humans, I would say for the most part, are deeply wired to want connection. Even if it's fake. Me personally, I've watched so many scammer stories that now when someone DMs me like, hi beautiful, my brain is like, are you about to ask for my routing number? I've started analyzing real convos like, is this a red flag, or am I just emotionally unavailable? Jury's still out. Speaking of which, I almost fell for a scam myself recently. Somebody impersonated, or at least tried to impersonate, my styling boss. So, as you may know, or if you haven't already known, I'm a video editor, and I work with this client. And this client, well, the scammer, sends me an email as the client. So, she was, or she, I don't know the gender of the scammer, was saying, Hey Alani, I'm planning to throw this party celebration for my staff, and I want you to help me out. Please reply to me so I can give you more details. And at first I was a little suspicious, but Allison told me to just reply, yeah, tell me more, so that way to confirm my suspicions. Because my boss had a different, well, boss, quote unquote, had a different email that they were emailing from. So I was like, yeah, sure, answer boss name. What you need me to help you with? And then they immediately said, can you go get some Sephora gift cards? And I'm just sitting here like, girl, you're wealthy. Why would you need me to buy you gift cards? So I pretty much blocked her. Or them. Whatever, the scammer. But yeah, damn, these scammers are getting better. I think it's the first time where somebody, usually I would get the classic Bitcoin scammers or the car warranty type of scammers, but now they're impersonating real life people. Honestly, both impressive, but kind of scary. So people, make sure to look at your emails carefully. Anyway, after a week of consuming scammer content like it was a Netflix original, my brain said, you know what we need next? Psychedelics. So, let's talk about that. So, my order of hyperfixation is psychedelics. So, here's how it started. This one started way more innocently. I was listening to a podcast, or I think it was a YouTube video, really, and it mentioned how microdosing mushrooms to treat ADHD and depression. And I was like, go on. So I started researching it like it was my job. Red threads, podcasts, TikToks, reading studies I had no business understanding. There's also a botanical dispensary. That is like 20 minutes from where I am that sells the legal stuff. Or at least like the natural legal stuff. So I even got more curious about it. So what's interesting about it for me is that there's something about the way psychedelics affect perception that fascinates me. Like you can literally change how your brain processes the world. Colors, sounds, even yourself. And it's not just a druggy stereotype either. People are exploring it for healing trauma, breaking out of depressive loops, rewiring toxic thought patterns. And as someone who is neurodivergent, the idea of escaping the constant noise in my head, or at least remixing it, is intriguing. Sometimes I think, What if I could take one shroom and suddenly know how to respond to emails? What if I could reorganize my desktop files and my childhood wounds in one trip? Also, psychedelics aren't new. Indigenous cultures have been using plant medicine for centuries. Now it's just been rebranded by tech bros in Silicon Valley as the next productivity hack. Now, in a disclaimer... For the record, I'm not saying y'all should go out and eat mushrooms from your neighbor's garden. I would say choose, do your research wisely. But I do think it's cool that we're finally talking about mental health, trauma, and brain in new ways. And as you know me, I love to learn and I will continue to explore and learn. So yeah. This week, my brain has been bouncing between Nigerian print scams and psychedelic mushrooms like it's perfectly normal. And honestly, for me, it is. I think both these hyperfixations say something about being human. Whether it's getting scammed for love, or trying to feel something beyond burnout, or I'll try to escape something. Or feel more connected. Or more alive. Or maybe I just need to get off YouTube after 10pm. So, if your brain's also been hyperfixing on something random lately, comment below. Tell me about what your rabbit holes have been. Both points if it's weirder than mine. If you like this episode, follow or subscribe wherever you're listening. All the ways you can support me are in the description below. It helps other NeuroSpicy people find us, and it gives my ego just enough dopamine to record next week. Remember, it's okay to be human. Do what feels best for you. Tune in next time where something new happens and it definitely won't be boring. Alright, bye y'all! Hey everyone, I have credits now! Narrow Spicy Black Girl is written, created, produced, and edited by me, Align Weeks. This show is produced at Brick Media Arts. To learn more about this nonprofit arts organization, visit brickmediaarts.org. That is B-R-I-C-M-E-D-I-A-R-T-S dot org.