art

Art of an introspective nature; a look at artwork that reveals the artist's psyche and comments on the inner workings of a chaotic mind.

Decision Fatigue and the Hidden Cost of Constant Choice. AI-Generated.
Modern life is defined by choice. From the moment we wake up, we are faced with decisions: what to wear, what to eat, which messages to answer first, how to structure the day, what to buy, what to avoid. While choice is often framed as a form of freedom, psychology reveals a more complicated reality. Too many decisions, even small and seemingly harmless ones, can exhaust the mind. This phenomenon is known as decision fatigue, a subcategory of cognitive psychology that explores how repeated decision-making depletes mental energy and affects judgment, impulse control, and emotional regulation.
By Kyle Butler7 days ago in Psyche
How Anxiety Traps the Brain in Survival Mode
I lived for five years like I was being chased by a predator no one else could see. My heart raced at traffic lights. My hands trembled during normal conversations. My body prepared for catastrophe every waking moment. The threat wasn't real—but my nervous system didn't know that. It started with the panic attacks. The first one hit me in a grocery store on a Saturday afternoon. One moment I was reaching for cereal, the next my heart was pounding so hard I thought it would explode. My vision tunneled. My chest constricted. I couldn't breathe. I was certain—absolutely certain—I was having a heart attack and would die right there in aisle seven. I abandoned my cart and stumbled outside, gasping, shaking, convinced these were my final moments. Twenty minutes later, I was fine. Physically fine. The ER doctor confirmed it: "Just a panic attack. Your heart is healthy. You're okay." But I wasn't okay. Because my brain had just learned something terrifying: danger could strike anywhere, anytime, without warning. And if it could happen in a safe, ordinary grocery store, it could happen anywhere. From that day forward, my brain decided I was never safe. And it's been trying to save my life ever since—from threats that don't exist. The Alarm That Won't Stop After that first panic attack, my nervous system essentially got stuck with its finger on the panic button. My body remained in a constant state of high alert, scanning every environment for potential danger, interpreting normal sensations as emergency signals, preparing to fight or flee from threats that weren't there. Heart rate slightly elevated? Must be another heart attack coming. Feeling dizzy from standing up too fast? Something's wrong. You're dying. Chest feels tight? Can't breathe. This is it. Every normal bodily sensation became evidence of impending catastrophe. My brain, trying to protect me, had become my greatest threat. The anxiety spread like a virus through my life. I stopped going to grocery stores—too dangerous, too triggering. Then restaurants. Then anywhere crowded. Then anywhere that wasn't home. My world shrank to the size of my apartment, and even there, I wasn't safe from my own nervous system. I couldn't explain to people what was happening. "There's nothing to be anxious about," they'd say, and they were right. Objectively, logically, rationally—there was no real danger. But my brain wasn't operating logically anymore. It was operating from a part far older and more primitive than logic—the part that keeps you alive when there's actual danger. Except it couldn't tell the difference between real danger and perceived danger. To my nervous system, it was all the same threat. Understanding the Trap My therapist drew me a diagram of the brain—the prefrontal cortex up top, responsible for rational thinking, and the amygdala buried deeper, responsible for fear and survival responses. "In a healthy system," she explained, "these work together. The amygdala detects potential threats and alerts the prefrontal cortex, which assesses whether the threat is real. If it's not, the cortex tells the amygdala to stand down." She drew an arrow showing the communication loop. Then she drew a big red X through it. "In anxiety disorders, especially after panic attacks, this communication breaks down. The amygdala keeps sending danger signals, but the prefrontal cortex can't override them. Your thinking brain knows you're safe, but your survival brain doesn't believe it. So you stay stuck in survival mode—fight, flight, or freeze—even though there's nothing to survive." That explained everything. Why I could logically know I was safe but still feel terrified. Why rational thinking didn't make the anxiety go away. Why my body responded to a text message or a phone call like it was a life-threatening emergency. My brain had essentially lost the ability to feel safe. The survival system was running the show, and it only knew one setting: danger. Life in Survival Mode Living in constant survival mode is like being a soldier who never comes home from war. Your body maintains battle-ready status 24/7, flooding your system with stress hormones, keeping your muscles tensed, your senses heightened, your mind scanning for threats. Except there's no battle. There's just normal life—work, relationships, errands, conversations. But your body treats it all like combat. I couldn't sleep because my brain interpreted relaxation as vulnerability. I couldn't eat normally because my stomach was perpetually clenched. I couldn't focus because my attention was constantly pulled toward potential threats—a weird look from someone, an unexpected sound, a change in plans. My memory started failing. Not surprising—when your brain is focused entirely on survival, it doesn't bother filing away mundane information like where you put your keys or what someone said five minutes ago. I was exhausted constantly, but in a way that sleep couldn't fix. This was nervous system exhaustion—the kind that comes from your body being in crisis mode month after month with no relief. My immune system weakened. I caught every cold, every flu. Chronic inflammation showed up in bloodwork. My body was cannibalizing itself, burning through resources to fuel a state of emergency that never ended.
By Ameer Moavia7 days ago in Psyche
Moonlit Grapple
Arthur couldn't sleep. The house breathed around him, a heavy, silent thing, each creak of the old wood a whisper of all the lives that weren't here anymore. He'd tried the book. He'd tried the news. He'd tried just lying there, eyes wide open in the dark, counting the beats of his own heart, but the numbers kept getting tangled, pulled apart by thoughts that clawed at the edges of his mind. Lily's birthday had been last week. No call. He knew why. Didn't make it any easier to breathe.
By HAADI8 days ago in Psyche
The Speed of Life
We live in an age where speed is celebrated. Faster internet, faster success, faster replies, faster results. From the moment we wake up, life seems to press a silent accelerator. Notifications buzz, deadlines chase us, and comparison quietly sits in our pockets. The speed of life keeps increasing—but the quality of life often does not. This raises a powerful psychological question: Is moving faster actually helping us live better, or is it slowly draining the meaning from our lives?
By Alexander Mind9 days ago in Psyche
The Night I Understood Football
I didn’t go to the game expecting hope. It was a cold November Thursday. My brother had just lost his job. My nephew hadn’t spoken in days after a school incident. The world felt heavy, and the last thing I wanted was to watch a mismatch—our hometown team facing a dynasty that hadn’t lost in months.
By KAMRAN AHMAD9 days ago in Psyche
The Erasure of Silas Thorne
The clinic did not look like a place where souls were altered. It looked like a high-end spa in the heart of Zurich—all white linen, soft ambient bird-call recordings, and the faint, sterile scent of ozone. Silas Thorne sat in the leather chair, his hands trembling.
By Luna Vani10 days ago in Psyche
The Last Whistle
The platform wind bit at Arthur’s exposed neck, a cold, wet dog nosing for a weakness. It was a miserable hour past midnight, and the only light came from a single, stuttering lantern hanging precariously from a rusted iron beam. His breath plumed in front of him, thick and heavy, like the fog that usually hugged the river on nights like these. He adjusted the strap of his worn duffel bag, the weight on his shoulder nothing compared to the one pressing behind his ribs, a dull, constant ache that had become his only real companion.
By HAADI10 days ago in Psyche
Neon Bruises
The rain came down in sheets, a cold, indifferent curtain between Leo and everything else. His cheap jacket, already waterlogged, clung to his shoulders like a shroud. Each step splashed, sending icy sprays up his ankles, but he barely registered the cold anymore. It was just a dull throb, a constant companion to the ache in his chest that had settled in weeks ago and refused to leave.
By HAADI11 days ago in Psyche
The Moon's Cold Embrace
Arthur’s kitchen smelled of stale coffee and old wood. Every night, the same. He’d sit at the table, just him, the dim yellow glow of the pendant light pulling shadows long across the checkered linoleum. He’d trace the rim of his empty mug, the ceramic cool against his thumb. The quiet hum of the refrigerator, the distant whine of a dog somewhere down the street, these were his companions. And the empty chair across from him, that was always there too, holding the ghost of Eleanor, a faint imprint of her presence in the air, a scent he still sometimes imagined: lily of the valley, her favourite.
By HAADI12 days ago in Psyche
Broken Light on Wet Streets
Elias hadn't meant to be out this late. The rain, a cold, persistent sheet, had caught him three blocks from the bar, the one he’d just stormed out of. The argument, a low, simmering thing with Clara, had finally boiled over, spilling out in harsh whispers and a slammed door. Now, the city's neon signs, usually a garish blur, became something else, something sharper, something almost malevolent in the puddles.
By HAADI12 days ago in Psyche
When Silence Hurts More Than Words
Mia grew up in a quiet house. Her parents never screamed. Never threw things. Never called each other names or slammed doors. To anyone looking from the outside, they were the picture of civility—calm, controlled, perfectly composed.
By Ameer Moavia13 days ago in Psyche
Why Some People Feel Alone Even in Relationships
Lena woke up next to her husband of seven years and felt like a stranger was sleeping beside her. Not because Tom had changed. But because somewhere between the wedding and this Tuesday morning, they'd stopped being two people who knew each other and become two people who lived in the same house.
By Ameer Moavia13 days ago in Psyche