The Battle Within: Autonomic Nervous System

You are not actually in control of your own body. There is a silent war happening inside

you right now called the Autonomic Nervous System, and it runs everything without you asking.

It’s a constant tug-of-war between two modes. The Sympathetic side is your fight

or flight response, dumping adrenaline to make your heart explode with energy. The Parasympathetic

side is rest and digest, forcing you to chill out and process lunch.

Pharmacology is basically just hacking this switch. We use drugs to trick your nerves

into thinking you're running from a bear or sleeping in a hammock, proving that your

reality is just a chemical reaction.