Betterment Burnout- Rewards System
Betterment burnout affects the functions of reward systems, working memories, and circadian systems. In this podcast with article, I focus on declining reward systems due to betterment burnout.
To catch up with the constantly changing society, inadequate feeling forces us to have daily improvement. When the brain perceives the pressure of a never-ending need to fix or improve ourselves, it releases less and less dopamine, leaving us numb or paralyzed to fail life battles.
This mental state is coined as Betterment Burnout.
Dopamine System
The dopaminergic system involves two crucial pathways, the ventral tegmental area (VTA) and the nucleus accumbens. These two areas are responsible for releasing motivational dopamine, which offers us a positive mindset to work on complicated tasks, making us rewarded for accomplishing every small goal.
With renewed energy and down-to-earth confidence, we will be prepared with sufficient fuel for challenges in life, and importantly, resolving hassles depends on rejuvenizing thinking.
Refuel Cognitive Energy
The prefrontal cortex is the part of the brain that signals exhausting warnings like, “You’re not quite there yet,” or, “You should be doing more.” When it works overtime from overacting to little downfalls without adequate rest, we cannot maintain critical thinking, planning, and self-reflection, leading to cognitive fatigue and feeling “stuck” in ordeal labors.
The amygdala, which processes emotional hormones, is sensitive to how we see things around us. Exerting too much depression on any setback in life triggers negative burdens of frustration or inadequacy, and we fail to clear up the brain space to focus on the problem when the pessimistic self-blaming drags us to nowhere. These neural responses can create a vicious cycle of fatigue, self-doubt, and burnout.
Better than Yesterday- ONE STEP AT A TIME
Understanding the mechanisms of neural networks in the brain strengthens our potential for self-improvement. As we are all composed of unique and exquisite biological computations. Slowing down and adjusting our own pace of absorbing and filtering daily massive information is the foundation for self-improvement.
