Why Your Brain Forgets, Numbs, and Overthinks: The Psychology of Survival
Subtitle: Dissociative Amnesia, Alexithymia, Nervous System Dysregulation, and Anhedonia Explained
Introduction: When the Brain Protects You from Yourself
Have you ever walked into a room and instantly forgotten why you came? Or stared at your phone, opening and closing apps, unable to find satisfaction in anything? Maybe you’ve looked back at your childhood and found parts of it blurred, like a film with missing frames.
Dissociative Amnesia: When Forgetting Becomes a Shield
Memory loss isn’t always caused by aging or stress. In dissociative amnesia, the brain deliberately “hides” memories when emotions feel too overwhelming to process.
This might look like:
Entering a room and forgetting why you came.
Ordering the same product twice without noticing.
Childhood memories that feel blurred, as if you watched life from outside your body.
It’s not distraction—it’s emotional overload. Your brain is stepping in to protect you, shutting down access to painful emotions.
Alexithymia: Why Some People Can’t Name Their Feelings
Imagine being asked, “What’s wrong?” and the only answer you can give is, “I don’t know.”This is alexithymia, which literally means “no words for emotions.” People with alexithymia feel deeply, but their brains struggle to translate feelings into words.
Anger, sadness, or love might surge inside, but when it’s time to express them, silence comes out.
As a result, emotions get “trapped” in the body, often showing up as chronic aches, stomach issues, or even heart problems.
Alexithymia shows us that unspoken emotions don’t disappear—they live inside us until they find a way out.
Nervous System Dysregulation: When Calm Feels Unsafe
Have you ever noticed that peace makes some people restless, or that silence feels suspicious? This is often nervous system dysregulation, which happens when the body doesn’t trust calm because chaos has been its baseline for too long.
The amygdala (the brain’s alarm system) stays on high alert.
The sympathetic nervous system (fight-or-flight) refuses to turn off.
So even in safe environments, the body feels danger: racing heart, spiraling thoughts, or pushing away healthy relationships.
Healing doesn’t feel like joy at first—it feels like boredom, restlessness, or unease. That’s because the body is unlearning chaos as safety. You’re not broken; you’re rewiring.
Overthinking: Living Inside Mental Movies
Overthinking isn’t just about worrying. It’s the brain replaying and rewriting life like a movie on loop.
You replay conversations, imagining what you “should” have said.
You create entire future scenarios in your mind, some comforting, others catastrophic.
You find yourself more alive in assumptions than in reality.
While it can provide a sense of control, overthinking eventually drains energy and blurs the line between imagination and lived experience.
Anhedonia: When Joy Goes Silent
One of the most painful experiences of trauma and depression is anhedonia, the inability to feel pleasure.
It often looks like:
Skipping songs because none feel right.
Constantly scrolling without finding satisfaction.
Craving connection but avoiding it at the same time.
Feeling exhausted even after resting.
When someone finally finds something—anything—that sparks emotion, they may repeat it obsessively. It’s not indulgence; it’s survival.
Closing Thoughts: You Are Not Broken
These concepts—dissociative amnesia, alexithymia, nervous system dysregulation, overthinking, and anhedonia—remind us that the human brain is not simply logical. It is protective.
What looks like forgetfulness, numbness, or anxiety may actually be your mind’s way of keeping you safe from what once felt unbearable.
Healing doesn’t happen by forcing yourself to “snap out of it.” It happens slowly, by teaching your brain and body that it’s safe to feel, to remember, and to rest.
You are not weak. You are not broken. You are simply rewiring—and that is the bravest kind of healing.
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