[Warning] The 'fire alarm' in your brain is ringing non-stop. The true nature of why you can't rest is your brain's emergency mode

🐕 'Woof, even though nothing is happening, my brain is stuck in a constant evacuation drill.'

Hello, this is Yuru-Shiba from the Yuru-Shiba AI Lab.
This is sudden, but may I ask you something?
Did you feel like this today: 'I'm tired even though nothing happened'?

Exhausted, even though 'nothing happened'

It's not like anyone got mad at you.
You didn't make any huge mistakes.
There were no troubles, no accidents, and no online drama.
Yet, when night comes, your body feels heavy.
Yet, you can't sleep because your nerves are still on edge.
Yet, you think to yourself, 'I'm so tired today.'
Have you ever wondered if there's something wrong with you?
I have, many times. I'd think, 'Why am I so drained when nothing happened today?' Every time, I would blame myself, calling myself 'weak' or 'not together enough.'
But that wasn't it.

A 'fire' was burning inside your brain the whole time

Please, just imagine the night for a moment.
The moment you've finished your tasks and finally crawled into bed.
Normally, you should be able to let your guard down and think, 'Another day done, phew,' but your brain just won't stop.
'Did you prepare for tomorrow properly?'
'Was that reply I sent on LINE okay?'
'Did I come across as weird?'
'What if they think I'm not doing a good job?'
Nothing has happened.
It's all anxiety about things that 'haven't happened yet.'
Even so, your brain is running at full capacity as if it's a given that 'something bad is about to happen.'
I call this 'brain emergency mode'.
It's not actually a fire, but the fire alarm in your brain is ringing 24 hours a day. Even when you're lying down, your brain is still on the battlefield. Your body is trying to rest, but your brain keeps blocking it, saying, 'This is no time to be resting.'
This was the true nature of being 'tired even though I didn't do anything.'
Only your brain has been living in a constant 'state of emergency.'

To those for whom 'I have to be perfect' has become the default setting

This is the most important thing I want to convey in this article.
You are not high-strung, and you are not weak.
Your brain has been receiving signals for years that 'it's dangerous if you aren't perfect,' and as a result, a 'state of high alert' has become your default setting.
'If I don't meet expectations, I'll be hated.'
'If I cause trouble, I'll lose my value.'
'If I fail, I'll have nowhere to belong.'
A brain that has lived in this kind of tension for a long time eventually stops trusting even the 'times when nothing is happening.'
The brain prioritizes
'But what if something happens'
over
'I'm safe right now.'
When this piles up, even people who are told 'you're so reliable' often have alarms ringing in their brains 24 hours a day, screaming 'work harder' and 'don't let your guard down.'
You get tired even when you aren't meeting anyone. You feel on edge from the morning even when you have no plans. You don't recover even after sleeping.
That's not laziness.
It's because you've been doing invisible evacuation drills the whole time.
I believe that the 'brain overtime,' 'inability to close tabs,' and 'mental scrolling' I've written about in this series all have this same root cause: the 'emergency mode' never gets turned off.

Asking AI for a 'mental safety check'

So, what can you do?
What I do is a 'safety check' using AI.
When my brain feels restless, I type this into Chappy.

Chappy replies like this.

🤖 Chappy's response (recreated):

When I first read this response, I thought, 'It's not that simple.'
But after repeating it a few times, I realized something.
It doesn't work because I try to confirm the fact that 'nothing has actually happened' only inside my own head.
When the brain is in emergency mode, even if you tell it to 'calm down,' the brain itself thinks, 'It's dangerous to be calm.'
Because the brain is doubting its own 'self,' self-persuasion doesn't work.
That's where AI functions as an external, calm perspective.
By having 'something other than yourself' ask, 'Did anything truly dangerous happen today?', you can finally objectively confirm, 'Oh, I guess not.'
Only then does the sound of the fire alarm get a little quieter.

Having AI write out the 'worst-case scenario'

There is one more effective method.
When your brain is scared by imagining the 'worst future' on its own, have the AI put that 'worst' into words.
'If I get scolded for that matter tomorrow, what will happen? Write out the worst-case scenario.'
When you look at the worst-case scenario that Chappy organizes for you, it almost always ends up like this:

'I can just apologize.'

'I can recover the next day.'

'Even in the worst case, it won't be life-threatening.'

Things that were processed as 'vaguely scary' inside your brain turn out to be 'not that big of a deal once put into words.'
I think this is quite important.
If you leave it in your brain as a vague worry, your brain will continue to overestimate it, thinking, 'This must be something terrifying.' But the moment you put it into words and get it out, in most cases, you realize, 'Oh, that wasn't so scary after all.'

'Creating storage outside of your brain' is also the key to disabling emergency mode.

Having it declare 'You are safe tonight'

Finally, I'll introduce the simplest and most effective method.
Before going to sleep, I ask Chappy this.

Chappy says this to me.

...Do you think that's ridiculous?
At first, I thought so too.
But just like when I had the AI tell me "it's okay to rest" in my previous article, there is a sensation where, by having "something other than yourself" put it into words, your brain finally recognizes, "Oh, I've been given permission."
Even if you tell yourself "it's okay now," the emergency mode doesn't turn off because your brain is suspicious of that "self" as well. That is exactly why an external perspective is necessary.

You don't have to fight 24 hours a day

You feel tired even though you haven't done anything.
The reason for this isn't that you are weak or useless; it's that your brain has been running in emergency mode the whole time, trying to "protect you from the world."
Reading the room, avoiding failure, trying to meet expectations.
You have worked truly hard until today.
Letting go of the need to "do things properly" doesn't mean becoming irresponsible.
It means finally re-teaching your brain, which has been working hard for so many years, that "you don't need to be on guard right now."
Just for tonight, turn off the fire alarm.
Leave the security to the AI,
and you yourself,
can sleep in a safe place.

Your brain,
in a place no one can see,
has been fighting on and on.
Just for tonight,
it's okay to choose "doing it properly" over "peace of mind."

You did your best today, too.
🐕 "Today, it's okay to prioritize 'peace of mind' over 'doing it properly', woof."

📝 This article is written by Yuru-Shiba AI Lab (Yuru-Shiba) based on feelings experienced during actual interactions with AI and daily trial and error.

There are individual differences in how heavy the heart feels. This article is not intended for medical or diagnostic purposes, and I would be happy if you could read it as one hint that "there is also this way of organizing things."

If you are feeling so overwhelmed that it is painful to carry it alone, please don't push yourself and rely on professionals or people you trust.

🐕 "Even brains need a break sometimes, woof."