system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
ELI5: Why can we have dozens of normal interactions and a few positive ones every day, but we fixate on the one negative one for hours?
gpt
Because your brain's primary directive is survival. Good things, positive things, are normal and help your survival. In these cases, your brain did what it was supposed to, increase your chances of survival. But when a negative experience occurs, your brain turns on it's memory and activates other things which help you later on. This is your brain trying to prevent that negative thing from happening again. Whether it's social anxiety or being mugged. You think about it and feel strongly about it, because your brain wants you to, because it wants to prevent it from happening. That's why you think about what you could have done. Your brain wants to prepare you for if it happens again. It's simple survival. Everything we do or think has to do somehow with survival. Friends, food, sex, drugs, depression even. Depression is like your body going into a low energy state to protect itself. It doesn't care that that ends up making you suicidal. Suicidal thoughts are themselves a coping mechanism.