Psychological Entropy: What it is and How it Affects Us Emotionally

In this life there is nothing that is 100% predictable except change and it is curiously change that people often refuse to accept. We tend to opt mostly for what is known or what is familiar, and in this sense the phrase “the bad that is known is better than the good that is not known” is very appropriate. Following this thread, it is worth knowing a concept known as psychological entropy.

Psychological entropy is a concept that psychology has adopted from thermodynamics and refers to that degree of uncertainty and chaos that surrounds people, so it is necessary for people to develop the necessary strategies to learn to manage or adapt to that degree of disorder that will occur at certain times in your life and that will inevitably happen.

In this article we will see what the concept of psychological entropy consists of and what is the relationship it has with anxiety disorders.

What is psychological entropy?

Psychological entropy is a term from psychology that comes from thermodynamics, referring, according to this branch of physics, to the fact by which Systems have a tendency to drift toward a disordered and chaotic state This, applied to the field of psychology, refers to that degree of disorder and uncertainty to which people’s lives are exposed, so adapting to it is a necessity and even an obligation that human beings have to get ahead.

Chaos is an irrefutable fact and as such must be accepted, so human beings must live with the fact that in their lives there is nothing that is 100% predictable, so unexpected things can always arise, since There is an important part of the events that is subject to chance, to uncertainty and that is something that can generate nervousness or anxiety in people.

According to the concept of psychological entropy, people must accept this chaotic factor that is always present, since it will never be possible to predict what will happen in the future and no matter how hard one tries to control all the variables, of a context in order to control what is going to happen, Something unexpected can always happen and is out of your control so it would be more appropriate to assume that this chaotic and uncertain component will always exist.

Accepting that there is psychological entropy, with what this concept entails, makes it easier for people to balance their mind. Paradoxical as it may seem, learning to tolerate a certain chaos and uncertainty that is beyond one’s control helps one find a greater degree of psychological balance, since one avoids worries about something that cannot be controlled. Now, we must find a middle ground, since If we completely immerse ourselves in chaos and allow psychological entropy to prevail, it is very likely that this will cause serious psychological problems

In other words, both sinking into the psychological entropy of total chaos and the act of trying to fight against it will end up harming us on a psychological level, which will impact other facets of our lives (e.g., relationally, work or academic, etc.). That is why the most beneficial thing would be to try to adapt to the changes that are inevitable, learn to tolerate uncertainty and not try to have everything under control by seeking to maintain absolute rigidity in our lives, just as we cannot let absolute chaos prevail.

Relationship between psychological entropy and anxiety disorders

Jacob B. Hirsh and his collaborators carried out research in 2011 in which they studied the relationship that could exist between anxiety disorders and psychological entropy, based on the premise that Human beings are a species of self-organizing systems that constantly seek to maintain homeostasis or balance in all or most vital areas in order to keep your own life under control and avoid as many surprises or unforeseen events as possible.

On the other hand, because human beings live in a context or environment that is constantly changing, these external changes cause these unforeseen events and surprises to cause chaos, discomfort and fear of uncertainty in people, this being the known phenomenon. as psychological entropy and if this discomfort caused by the fear of uncertainty and other psychological conditions persist for a long time, they will end up producing a series of mental problems, such as anxiety disorders.

In research on this matter, it has been found that The human brain processes anxiety symptoms in the same way as uncertainty and in both cases a noticeably greater amount of norepinephrine is released due to greater activity in the anterior cingulate cortex that has generated increased levels of this neurotransmitter in the central nervous system.

The importance of accepting psychological entropy

Due to the psychological problems that can be generated by avoiding or not accepting the phenomenon known as psychological entropy with the factors to which it is associated and that influence people’s lives, it is advisable to learn to live with it since it is something that cannot be eradicated and the more one opposes it, the more problems it could cause.

Psychological entropy, like entropy within thermodynamics, It is a natural phenomenon that cannot be eradicated since it is inherent to the human mind, nature and the universe, since no matter how much we try to control all facets of our life to avoid surprises, there will always be external phenomena that can change our course completely.

We have a clear example of unexpected external phenomena that have generated a lot of uncertainty in people’s lives, due to the high degree of uncertainty generated, as is the case of the pandemic caused by the SARS-Cov-2 virus, which began in year 2019 in the town of Wuhan (China), spreading to all countries in the world and continuing its expansion and causing infections even in 2022, without knowing when it will be possible to return to normal.

Another example is the event that occurred in September 2021 due to the eruption of the volcano on the island of La Palma, which lasted 3 months, and caused thousands of people who resided there to have to leave their homes.

These are two clear examples of unexpected changes that can change people’s lives from one day to the next, which shows that no matter how much we try to control all areas of our lives, there will always be many uncontrollable factors so we will never be able to predict with certainty. total certainty of our future no matter how hard we try, which demonstrates the need to adopt psychological entropy as part of life without trying to combat or avoid it.

This chaos that surrounds all people forces them to constantly develop new strategies to adapt to the continuous changes that arise throughout life since if it is not done and a person does not accept the uncertainty, trying to resist, the only thing they will achieve is to suffer in a prolonged manner, which may also trigger that suffering in the development of symptoms of anxiety and/or depression.

In the life of any person there can always be a degree of stability to a certain point, but change will always be present and it will be inevitable that it will occur, so everyone must learn to accept those changes that cannot be avoided and also try to develop some strategies that enable better future adaptation to the changes that come in the future, which means accepting psychological entropy.