Decision Fatigue, or What You Should Know About Glutamate

We exist in a world brim­ming with choic­es. Some are fair­ly insignif­i­cant, like…

What should I wear?  

Or

When should I leave the house? 

Others are more impact­ful, like…

Should I quit my job?

Or

Which col­lege should I attend? 

But all come at the men­tal cost of deci­sion fatigue. Decision fatigue is real, often the result of excess glu­ta­mate, an exci­ta­to­ry neu­ro­trans­mit­ter that helps our brain make log­i­cal, sound deci­sions. Glutamate caus­es an overex­ci­ta­tion of our brain cells. This helps us learn, decide, and remem­ber. Think of glu­ta­mate as the chem­i­cal spark behind thought, the silent archi­tect of our dai­ly choic­es. Yet, in our era of end­less options, glutamate’s role becomes both empow­er­ing and exhaust­ing. Enter deci­sion fatigue, a very mod­ern psy­cho­log­i­cal epidemic. 

It’s impor­tant to remem­ber that our brain hasn’t evolved all that much in thou­sands of years. Anthropologists believe that our ear­ly ances­tors made around 2,500 deci­sions a day. 

Are the berries on that bush safe enough to eat? 

Can I trust that human I just met? 

Which path should I take? 

Where should I sleep? 

Every time our ances­tors were faced with a deci­sion, their brain released some glu­ta­mate to help them quick­ly run a pro/con list to make a log­i­cal choice that might help them survive. 

This worked pret­ty well for sev­er­al thou­sand years. But today, social psy­chol­o­gists esti­mate we make around 35,000 dai­ly con­scious choic­es. Whoa. We exist in a world of abun­dance, which requires lots of men­tal bandwidth. 

How should I com­ment, move, look, act? 

Who should I mar­ry, befriend, work with, invite?

When should I sleep, work, leave, eat? 

What should I wear, eat, read, say, watch, click, buy?

Every sin­gle choice swamps the brain with glutamate. 

While glu­ta­mate is essen­tial for learn­ing and mem­o­ry, too much of it can be tox­ic. Genetically exces­sive glu­ta­mate is asso­ci­at­ed with Alzheimer’s, stroke, ALS, autism, OCD, mul­ti­ple scle­ro­sis, migraines, and epilepsy. 

But we have some con­trol over our glu­ta­mate lev­els too. When we scroll end­less­ly on our phone, we spike neur­al activ­i­ty, flood­ing synaps­es with glu­ta­mate. Over time, this con­stant excite­ment can lead to deci­sion fatigue, anx­i­ety, mood swings, and even neur­al (brain cell) death. 

In a world where infor­ma­tion flash­es across our screens at a dizzy­ing pace, it is easy to get lost in end­less scrolling. Social media, though built to con­nect us, often traps us in loops of mind­less con­sump­tion, over­stim­u­lat­ing our brains.

Glutamate needs to be bal­anced by GABA (Gamma-Aminobutyric Acid), the main inhibito­ry (or relax­ing) neu­ro­trans­mit­ter. If glu­ta­mate is the gas ped­al for your brain, then GABA is the brake. A few of the sci­en­tif­i­cal­ly-proven ways to increase GABA are yoga, med­i­ta­tion, and dai­ly expo­sure to sunlight. 

What I’m say­ing is this. When you’re feel­ing over­whelmed, set your phone down. Take a stretch, take a breath, take a moment, and go out­side. Touch the soil before you touch the screen.