Have you seen the videos where people are describing their toxic traits?
Yeah, the algorithm found me on that one.
I saw one the other day of a girl saying, “My toxic trait is traveling to other countries and then immediately starting to figure out how to move there.”
Same girl, same.
Unless you move in neuroscience or mental health circles, I’m guessing you probably haven’t heard the term neurotoxic.
Per Wikipedia: Neurotoxins are toxins that are destructive to nerve tissue (causing neurotoxicity).[3] Neurotoxins are an extensive class of exogenous chemical neurological insults[4] that can adversely affect function in both developing and mature nervous tissue.
Examples include lead, mercury, insecticides, solvents, car exhaust, formaldehyde, aspartame, etc.
So, I’m going to stretch the term in a way that isn’t entirely scientifically correct, but it’s a bit cheeky…
Overthinking is my neurotoxic trait.
Yes, overthinking is not directly neurotoxic.
BUT…
It has a definite impact on stress. (Particularly what I call background stress. I’ll talk about that at a later time.)
And unless you’ve been living under a rock, you may have heard that stress is not the best for our overall health/ brain health.
Also – let me state for the record – we do need SOME stress in our lives. It’s just that in our modern world, we tend to live in states of chronic stress, which is not the best for us.
Chronic stress = excess cortisol (a stress hormone). In high levels over extended periods, cortisol can damage brain structures such as the hippocampus.
I’ll talk about my seahorse friend, the hippocampus, later too.
Overthinking also plays a role in mental health issues such as depression and anxiety. And we can observe very clear functional changes (in brain activity) and structural changes (in brain shape/ size) in the brain with these issues.
So, we’re going to take a deep dive into this toxic trait, help you understand the negative neurological effects, and get you on track for your level-up.
STOP OVERTHINKING – my current offer.
30 day coaching container is live now. DM me OVERTHINKING for the details.
