Sympathetic Overdrive Brain and Anxiety & Depression

In the last post you learned how detrimental Covid was to the number of people dealing with anxiety and depression.  So, if you didn’t get a chance to read it do so here.  You see, Covid was responsible for creating a sympathetic overdrive mindset to many people over the past 2 years.  Sympathetic overdrive is responsible for many of the symptoms we see in anxiety and depression people.  But…

what is Sympathetic overdrive?

It all starts in the caveman days of human existence.  The normal mode people live in is called the parasympathetic brain.  This is the brain function that allows us to relax, to digest food and generally take things in.  When you watch a move or go to a school class, this is the brain that lets us take everything in.  When this brain is active, was are able to fall asleep easily in the evening or for a nap. 🙂

All of that is well and good in 21st century United States.  But, back in the caveman days, life threatening events were more common.  So, if a tiger were to walk in to the camp, the man would be eaten before he had a chance to react if he was in the parasympathetic brain mode.

The humans who survived were able to flip a switch in their bran and go to the sympathetic brain.  In this mindset, you aren’t able to sit back and take things in. You brain races to look at all aspects of the environment.  It tries to find possible ways of escape.  It quickly looks for things that can be used as a weapon.  All of your available blood flows immediately to the arms and legs.  This is so the muscles of the arms and legs have the energy to run away or fight off the threat

Understanding Sympathetic Mindset

When you understand the sympathetic mindset, you can understand why people who are stuck in this mode will have symptoms of anxiety because their minds are racing even though there is no wild tiger nearby. You can understand that someone stuck in sympathetic mindset might feel depressed because their brains are constantly looking for bad things and that is what consumes their brain.

The fact is we need the sympathetic mindset for when we face life-threatening events.  I understand in our society today, those don’t happen very often.  But, when they do, you want to have this tool to survive.

Next week I will explain how people are pushed into the sympathetic overdrive brain even though there is not major life-threatening threat in their life. (like a lion)

sympathetic overdrive anxiety and depression