The question says it all. Human emotions (sadness, grief, happiness, etc.) can be very strong, but they also “fade away” over time. We explicitly remember all the details surrounding the emotion, but the emotion itself isn’t felt any more. What really happens in our brains to make this happen?
In: Biology
Our brains learn to dismiss stimuli in order to search for new stimuli. The same thing which makes us stop seeing the eye ‘strands’ that we randomly develop or not see our noses even though many people have their noses in their field of vision works on pain (sadness and grief being pain). This likely evolved to ‘see tigers through the trees’ kinda thing.
Put another way: our brain kind of goes ‘ouch ok that’s noticeable’ then after a number of times it just goes ‘oh yeah that thing’ and eventually doesn’t even notice it.
Of course you might get a particularly strong stimulation and re-notice the pain.
Well, jankydog, you see…we never really “get over” things with our brains because our brain isn’t a golf cart. You can crash a golf cart into a tree, or spin out in a bunker, or try to jump the river, but, you’re in a golf cart. Your brain is in you. You are in the golf cart. Your brain is in the golf cart. But your brain is not the golf cart. So you gotta make sure to wear a helmet. Mmmk. Always remember to wear the helmet over your brain when driving or riding in a golf cart. Cuz, if you don’t, there might be an accident and your brains will be outside of where your helmet should’ve been,,,and that’s just, not good. So..if you don’t have your brain, then, you really won’t need to like, ya know, know the answer to your question about what exactly happens in our brains that makes us “get over” an emotion like,,, such n such. But, since you’re only 5, I mean, I guess you won’t be in any golf carts for awhile, but you know, remember what I said…
Grief is a helpless situation, the brain ‘adapts/accepts’ since it has no way of doing anything about it. It has no content to keep worrying, as the situation cannot be otherwise.
As for other emotions, they cannot be permanent, you get what you want, you are happy, you don’t get what you want, you are sad. You are always wanting new things and so the old emotions you felt after getting or not getting what you want are replaced by new emotions from the new wants.
Sadness happens because sometimes a few of your brain cells get real sad and start bumming the other brain cells out. Sadly, the sad brain cells can’t be cured, but over time they *will* die out from alcohol poisoning.
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