94. When a Group Chat Goes in Circles — And You Leave Feeling Like You’re the Problem

About this episode

This episode explores the complexities of group chats and conversations that leave participants feeling unsettled and questioning their own contributions.

If you’ve ever left a group chat replaying everything you said… and everything you didn’t… and somehow landed on ‘that felt off… was that me?’ this episode is for you. Because this isn’t just about group chats. Or school committees. Or awkward conversations that go nowhere. It’s about what happens when everyone in the room is solving a different problem… and no one realises it. In this episode, we unpack the kind of interaction that looks normal on the surface — calm, polite, ‘reasonable’ — but leaves you carrying it for hours (or days). The replaying, the second-guessing, the quiet shift into ‘I must have handled that wrong.’ And why that feeling doesn’t mean what you think it means. 🧠 What We Cover in This Episode: Why some conversations go in circles and never actually resolve What’s really happening when everyone sounds ‘right’ but nothing lands How different brains track completely different things in the same conversation Why tension builds even when no one is being openly confrontational The moment a conversation stops being about the topic — and becomes about identity Why you leave interactions with a version of yourself you didn’t walk in with How group chats split into…

People in this episode

Host: Jane McFadden

Topics covered

• group chat dynamics
• communication issues
• identity in conversations
• mental health
• ADHD
• social interactions

Keywords

• group chat
• communication
• mental health
• ADHD
• social anxiety
• identity
• conversational dynamics

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