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The
amygdala regulates the
autonomic nervous system and
interprets contexts as potentially
threatening (like the pumpkin in
this picture) and then send a
distress signal to the hypothalamus.
The hypothalamus is the
communication center with the rest
of the body in times of stress and
gets the autonomic nervous system
activated to respond with the fight
or flight response. BOO!!!….were you
scared?? Here is the issue with the
human body - if stress persists,
then the same response that is
healthy in times of acute threat
happen over and over giving an
altered stress response - defined as
chronic stress!
With
chronic stress, regulatory
mechanisms in the brain and body
become dysfunctional. The central
nervous system stops regulating the
responses as efficiently. Specific
brain areas start having issues like
anxiety and depression symptoms.
Finally, there are systemic effects
like dysfunction of the organs and
muscular systems also causing
physical pain. Worse yet, the more
chronic stress lasts, the amygdala
gets larger in size and becomes more
reactive to stress responses while
the prefrontal cortex (the front of
the brain) actually shrinks in size
and the result is decreased
reasoning to stress responses and
limited higher brain function. In
fact, the American Medical
Association reports chronic stress
as the #1 proxy killer disease -
very scary!
How
do you know if you are stressed? A
great book by Stanley Rosenberg
called Accessing the Healing
Power of the Vagus Nerve
explains ways to determine if the
physical body is stressed with great
self-help exercises for anxiety,
depression, trauma and autism -
really an excellent
read.
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