08/06/2022
Tao of equus by Linda kohanov 2
Physiology of Stress
(The baby bond: how to raise an emotionally healthy child. By Dianna Hine)
Particularly traumatic or repetitive stressful experiences in childhood actually shape the brain' structure. These responses not only dictate how the brain becomes organized but can interfere with the kind of development important to learning.
Severely abused children consistently associate the feeling of stress with negative, even life-threatening outcomes. Unless this pattern is counteracted and other brain pathways are created, these people continue to respond to the slightest sense of pressure or uncertainty as emergency, immediately falling into flight, fight or freeze mode.
When someone is in the flight or fight mode, the cerebral cortex becomes less active to prepare the body for instinctual troubleshooting responses. Reasoning and other higher thought processes are a much lower priority at that moment. If you're trying to change the behaviour of a child who becomes combative at the slightest sign of stress by trying to appeal to his sense of logic, you're working at a serious disadvantage because the reasoning part of the brain isn't working properly at that moment.
The problem for humans/animals who've survived extremely traumatic situations... this level of stress can damage the brain. The higher thought functions useful in regulating and modifying behavior are not encouraged to develop, and the fight, flight and freeze responses become dominant.
Powerful hormones like cortisol are released in the brain in response to stress. Some researchers have actually referred to cortisol as "brain acid" because it destroys these cells. In brain scans you can see dark holes of inactivity in brain of children who have experienced significant trauma or long term stress. The brain centers affected are functions related to thinking, memory, impulse control, and emotions.
To be encouraged to develop traits such as thoughtfulness, cooperation, respect, and intellectual curiosity, a person requires a secure and consistently responsive environment.
Resilience to stress is affected by how secure and safe (the child) feels with his or her caretaker.
Insecure children will continue to suffer from elevated levels of hormones like cortisol in contexts that simply don't faze the well-adjusted child. Other situations young children find distressing: such as when they are around repeated screaming and fighting, even if it's not being directed at them, or when they are cared for by a parent who is depressed and disengaged.
People who've grown up facing these challenges are more prone to score lower on intelligence test and do poorly at school, not because they are "stupid", but because their heightened responses make it difficult for them to function in situations others consider only mildly stressful. Short tempered, intimidating teachers who habitually put students on the spot plunge the emotionally unstable student into the flight, fight, freeze mode, a process which literally shuts down higher thought processes. The low self esteem resulting from failing tests scores and embarrassing classroom encounters further impairs learning as peers and role models categorize these people in increasingly negative terms.
People whose trainers/teachers believed them to be superior actually did better from the outset, and raised their achievement scores far above those of the "unintelligent" or emotionally insecure. People in positions of authority have a significant effect on those entrusted to their care/work environment.
Too many stress hormones flooding our system every day over years can cause numerous diseases and disorders. High blood pressure and damaged organs tell us the flight or fight response has been forced to go too far. There is just so much stress a human/animal is equipped to endure.
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