Under stress, our focus turns inward, toward ourselves. (Recall that stress can be seen as not getting what we want, as things not going our way, as getting something we don’t want, etc.). Simply put, We get more egocentric in our thinking.

The self-focused DN is active. There is more rumination or self-absorption happening. We sometimes have trouble shifting away from “Sticky” thoughts, which is a term we use in L2B which reduce our focus on everything else. Overall, there is less control over attention.

Being stuck in this unhealthy mental spiral makes us more vulnerable to even more stress and to more serious mental and physical health problems.