Andrew Huberman on stress & mental health
Huberman says cortisol is an energy-mobilizing hormone rather than a stress hormone, and that chronic stress is really a flattened curve with cortisol staying high into the evening. He sees acute stress as useful for driving forward action and teaches real-time control of arousal through the body: physiological sighs and breathing, forward motion, lateral eye movements, and deliberate cold. For mental health he stresses steering thoughts out of ruts, channeling surplus anxiety into action, and understanding grief and depression in terms of nervous-system circuits.
16 points · 5 appearances · 2020–2026
Up next
2022–2026
“You want this peak in cortisol as high as possible in the first 60 minutes of your day. Everyone thinks you want low cortisol, but here's the deal. High cortisol in the early part of your day is what provides for elevated mood, focus, attention, your ability to learn. It's also what establishes low cortisol in the afternoon and at night which is a requirement for falling and staying asleep.”
2020–2026 · changed view
“how much dopamine is in our system at any one time compared to how much dopamine was in our system a few minutes ago, that dictates your so-called quality of life and your desire to pursue things. This is important. Your experience of life and your level of motivation and drive depends on how much dopamine you have relative to your recent experience. This is why when you repeatedly engage in something that you enjoy, your threshold for enjoyment goes up and up and up.”
2020–2026 · changed view
“When we decide to focus what the brain really does is it switches on a set of circuits then all the frontal cortex and nucleus basalis and some others and it's trying to understand duration, how long something's gonna last, path, what's gonna happen, and outcome, what ultimately is gonna happen. So duration, path and outcome. You know, the events of early 2020 are a good example of this. One of the reasons why it's so exhausting to be alive in 2020, is because we are now having to pay attention to duration, path and outcome. How long is this thing gonna last? When are, you know, when are they gonna open up all businesses? Did I touch that door handle? Does it matter? You know, who are the experts? Are there any experts? You know, there are a lot of questions whereas normally, we can just move through life without having to do all that analysis.”
2021–2026 · changed view
“Adenosine is a molecule in our nervous system and body that builds up the longer we are awake, so if you've just slept for 8, or 9, or 10 really deep, restful hours, adenosine is gonna be very low in your brain and body. If, however, you've been awake for 10, 15, or more hours, adenosine levels are going to be much higher.”