Your essay is well written, I agree with the premise of it and you clearly know a bit about biology. But I still think it's important that when we make these general claims of scientific fact we point to the giants whose shoulders we're standing on. Maybe it's just the ex-scientist in me, and if so, apologies. I appreciate you found a cortisol related article to prove your point, and I agree it's an odd choice as the abstract, which I'm assuming is what you read as well, seems to state little other than pleasantries are forgotten when under a chemically induced stress response.