On Inhibitions

Inhibitions are interesting. We usually think of them as bad. They cause problems. Inhibitions make us not do things we think of, and we often have far more regrets over things we didn't do than things we did do that ended up bad.

So many people seem to enjoy chemicals that suppress our inhibitions, most notably alcohol. People are their "true selves" when drunk. They're more honest. They do the things they want without a care in the world.

But how many people say the world is a better place when everybody is drunk? Some people become rowdy. Some become violent. Others become cripplingly depressed. Society does not function well when people are uninhibited.

So what do inhibitions do for us? Well, we know they prevent us from doing things we think of. And a lot of ideas we come up with are incredibly stupid. People think to put their hand in fire, to jump down onto train tracks. People's minds tell them how easily they could murder somebody and get away with it (no clue how accurate it is, but the brain tells us we could so easily do it). All of these are pretty awesome ideas to avoid doing.

Inhibition is a pretty cool tool. It allows our minds to be creative and to explore realms of possibility, but to not make those thoughts a reality. Inhibition prevents harm. The problem is that we do not always know when something will be harmful. Sometimes inhibition prevents us from having experiences, from gaining knowledge. And at that point you have to out-think your own brain. You have to learn when its impulses are valid and when they are bogus. If you can master that, you should be sitting pretty.