wispfox

Hmmmm. Thinking about it, it might be in part, we HAVE to pay attention to minor, niggling things that people with more gas in the tank can freely ignore, because the consequences for them are less extreme. If they skip a walk, maybe they'll just feel a little blah, and that's no big deal, while we need to conserve every scrap of sanity we can, and "a little blah" is thus more expensive. (And the AWARENESS of that makes us more alarmed about it, like how someone with little money will agonize over buying a book.)

(See also: why there are many things people do for recreation that we just flat-out cannot do safely. Weed, for instance, is a fine fun thing for many people, but we have low enough sanity that introducing ANY unknown psychoactive chemicals is likely a bad idea. Ditto corporeal sex: a fun diversion for many, an express train to Crazytown for us.)