Dean Burnett

Social learning and cues are incredibly powerful, and the brain’s ‘better safe than sorry’ approach when it comes to dangers means if we see someone being afraid of something, there’s a good chance we’ll be afraid of it too. This is especially true during childhood, where our understanding of the world is still developing, largely via the input of others who we assume know more than we do

The fight-or-flight response is biologically demanding and draining and often unpleasant to experience, so the brain remembers this as ‘The last time I met that thing, the body went haywire, so I was right; it is dangerous!’ and thus the phobia is reinforced, not diminished, regardless of how little actual harm the individual came to.

Depression manifests in many different ways. It’s a mood disorder, so mood is affected, but how it’s affected varies. Some end up with unshakeable despair; others experience intense anxiety, resulting in feelings of impending doom and alarm. Other people have no mood to speak of, just feel empty and emotionless regardless of what’s happening. Some (mostly men) become constantly angry and restless.

If you can’t be depressed because you’re better off than others, logically only the most unfortunate person on earth should be depressed

Depression is not logical. Those describing suicide and depression as selfish apparently struggle with this concept, as if those with depression make a table or chart with the pros and cons of suicide and, despite there being more cons, selfishly opt for suicide anyway.

Stress activates the hypothalamic–pituitary–adrenal (HPA) axis in the brain which activates fight-or-flight responses, which release adrenalin and cortisol, the ‘stress’ hormone.

but how does something cause stress in the first place? In psychology, things that cause stress are known (logically) as stressors. A stressor reduces personal control. Feeling in control makes most people feel secure and safe.

Every human is technically a meaningless sack of carbon clinging to a rock hurtling through the uncaring void around trillions of tonnes of nuclear fire, but that’s too big for a single human to be aware of.

You know when you look at something extremely bright and it lingers in your vision because it was so intense it’s ‘burned’ onto your retinas? This is the memory equivalent of that. Except it doesn’t fade, it persists, because it’s a memory. That’s the point, and the memory is almost as traumatic as the original incident. The brain’s system for preventing reoccurrence of trauma causes reoccurrence of trauma.

Appreciating the brain for limiting the damage caused by stress via nervous breakdowns is like thanking someone for helping put out the fire in your house when they were the one who left the fryer on.