Emotional Signal Saturation
One of the takeaways from my undergraduate in engineering was that sensors can get saturated. After that, the signal no longer gets through and can’t be detected. All sorts of sensors, mechanical, digital, and biological can become saturated. Too much light on a camera, too much radiation on a Geiger counter, too much of a scent. At some point, we just stop sensing.
For me, sometimes that signal is stress. Too many stressful things that adding a few more doesn’t change the level of stress. It doesn’t mean I’ll be effective and it might mean I’m in that saturated level of stress for longer, but it doesn’t scale beyond.
When it comes to emotions, maybe there’s some biological basis for this? Neural receptors can only receive so much neurotransmitter at once. Cortisol, adrenaline, serotonin, etc can only be absorbed to a point. So maybe as nature’s gift, it’s not so bad when things pile on. It doesn’t feel worse.
