Mushy Brain: It’s Not You, It’s Pandemic Stress

Are you feeling more forgetful than usual? Mind wandering lots? Just feeling kind of meh?

First of all, it’s not just you. Second of all, it’s not you, it’s likely pandemic stress.

In a previous post I wrote about the brain’s response to a perceived threat, which, for the record, can be a thought, not just the things you see or hear outside your brain (i.e., in the news). The long and the short of it is that the more the brain perceives threats (real or imagined), the more it responds with stress, and the more cortisol (i.e., the stress hormone) gets released. At some point, this manifests as brain burnout.

“It’s just all too much.” If I had a dollar for every time I’ve said that over the past year…

I say that because, well, it is. Pandemic stress, the chronic stress induced and maintained by the pandemic, is causing brain burnout. At some point, the stress becomes too much to handle. That one news story, or fight with a loved one, or the grocery store running out of flour (again!) has the potential to be the straw that breaks the camel’s back. Humans aren’t meant to handle this kind of chronic stress. When it doesn’t let up (like in a year-long pandemic, for example), the body and brain take a hit.