Why the Bad is More Memorable than the Good

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I can say with confidence that everyone has gone through the process of staying up at night and thinking of all the bad things that have gone on in their life. It's like your brain has stored every episode and season of all the bad moments in your life and is playing them on a loop. It's almost like the good things, like compliments, laughs, etc., don't really matter at night. But the embarrassing and hurtful moments are played on a flat-screen HD TV.

All this overthinking is because you have an overactive mind. This leads to recalling all events--specifically the bad ones--more vividly. Your brain isn't out to get you; it's just trying to do what it was built to do.

This is also called negativity bias, which is our likeliness to register negative experiences but also to remember and dwell on those negative experiences. Because of this bias, it's difficult to think of anything else because it stores those bad experiences and memories in a deep place, which allows them to constantly replay in your head.

Days, weeks, and months can go by and your brain can start looking for something negative, it can be either real or something completely made up. When you're alone, especially at night, your brain tries to solve all your problems and overthink everything. You might be thinking, "What could I have done differently?" "What should I have said?" or "I shouldn't have done that." It really is annoying, especially when it's 3 in the morning.

Although it's difficult to forget bad memories, your brain isn't remembering them to punish you, but it's actually just a survival technique.