Have you noticed a physical shift in yourself post-pandemic, or during particularly stressful periods?
Maybe you’ve found yourself more irritable in crowds, overwhelmed by loud noises in networking events or malls, or needing to dim the lights and lower the volume on your life.
You're not imagining it. Some people reported their cognitive dysfuction such as sensory overload, insomnia or concentration issues became out of countrol even 3 years after covid.
This kind of sensitivity isn’t just in your head - it’s a neurological response to chronic stress. When cortisol, your primary stress hormone, stays elevated for long periods, it starts to dysregulate the prefrontal cortex - the part of your brain responsible for decision-making, emotional regulation, and filtering out irrelevant sensory input. When this system is overwhelmed, the brain struggles to distinguish between true threats and harmless stimuli.
The past month hs been particularly stressful for me, at work and in my personal life. and I’ve noticed a buildup in sensory sensitivity.
I remember in my final year of high school, months leading up to exams, I became hyper-reactive. I’d wake up at the sound of footsteps, flinch at the kettle boiling, and could only listen to music at a quarter of my usual volume.
When that state of sensitivity lasts too long, the brain often swings the other way.
I became emotionally flat. Numb.
During a post-exam summer trip to Australia, I (unknowingly) craved stimulation. I signed up for a 12 a.m. ghost town tour and went skydiving the next morning.
I felt… nothing.
No fear, no thrill - just irritation that the “ghosts” weren’t scary enough and that the wind during free fall made it hard to breathe.
This emotional blunting isn’t just psychological. Chronic stress leads to what we call - sensory overload, when one or more of our five sense becomes easily overwhealmed.
Sensory overload can lead to temporary damage in the brain's dopamine and threat-processing circuits - particularly in the amygdala and nucleus accumbens. In simple terms: our neurons misfire, and our sense of aliveness dulls.
This topic hits close to home for founders. We’re constantly riding waves of prolonged stress, which makes it crucial to understand how recovery actually works.
But before we dive into how to repair those systems, we need to understand the biology behind it - and why our brains are wired to respond this way.