At Kings Island, the amusement park where I live, there’s a roller coaster named Diamondback. You come out of the gate and up a massive hill, before plummeting 215 feet toward the ground at eighty miles per hour.
It. Is. Amazing.
But then I get off the roller coaster, go to my car, and drive home; and in theory, the rest of the day shouldn’t be as eventful as that coaster ride, what happens when it is? What happens when our lives become so full of extreme ups and downs, that we lose the peace and security of normalcy?
Neuroscientists at the University of California-Berkeley have found that chronic stress can damage the brain, and actually change the ratio of grey matter and white, as well as the size and functionality of the amygdala.
What does this mean?
Cortisol is nicknamed the “stress hormone”. It is what is released into the brain when you experience long-term or chronic stress. Prolonged exposure to cortisol in the brain is believed to hard-wire pathways between the hippocampus and amygdala in a way that causes the brain to become predisposed to a constant state of fight-or-flight. The fight-or-flight response, also called the “acute stress response”, is how we respond to certain situations. You fight, or you run-but along with that comes a variety of physiological components as well. These responses can include increased heart rate, increased rate of breathing, constricting blood vessels, and tightening muscles. This happens because adrenaline and norepinephrine are released into the body.
To put it simply, stress can cause us to operate under a constantly heightened sense of awareness and/or fear, and when we experience stress over and over again, or for prolonged periods of time, we are chemically training our brain to always be in a state of alarm.
From here, one of two things can happen. First, this can create a vicious cycle of more stress. Stress causing stress, so to speak. This is what happens when we have a bad day at work and then come home and get into an argument with those at home. You aren’t really mad that they didn’t do the dishes, but stress triggers stress because of your fight-or-flight response.
The second thing that happens is that now, scientists believe, chronic stress can cause stem cells in the brain to change into a type of cell which produces myelin that sheaths nerve cells. And while this is necessary for the brain, over-exposure to myelin can inhibit the nerve cells from reabsorbing cortisol-leading to a constant state of fight-or-flight.
Additionally, it is theorized that chronic stress decreases the number of stem cells that mature into neurons (because they are instead transforming into myelin-producing oligodendrocyte cells) and potentially provide an explanation for how chronic stress also affects learning and memory. This information is provided via Psychology Today.
So consider this…riding Diamondback a handful of times a year is a blast, and one of my favorite things, but consider what it might do to my brain if I rode it every day. Consider the changes that would happen to my brain chemistry and what that could lead to in my everyday life.
Consider what happens when soldiers are in combat every day, or for multiple days and weeks and months over a year and a half deployment. Consider what happens to the husband’s and wife’s brain chemistry when they’re constantly in a state of fight-or-flight due to arguing, fighting, and being stressed out by each other. These are the aspects of a roller coaster type lifestyle that we must try to level out-because just like the Diamondback, they’re tolerable in moderation, but detrimental once it becomes your new norm.
Neuroscientists are still working toward conclusive evidence as to what exact changes the brain undergoes during chronic stress, but what we do know is that prolonged fight-or-flight has serious and permanent effects on your brain.
In my previous articles, you’ll have read about the years of my life I’ve spent deployed overseas, perfectly good aircraft I’ve jumped out of, and a home life that’s produced chronic stress. I know that my fight-or-flight is constantly triggered, and heavily weighted towards fight. I know because of this, I have created problems in my own life. I have constantly taken the harder path, even when there was no reason to. By understanding the chemistry of my brain, and the possible changes that have taken place over the years due to various stimuli, hopefully I can recognize the symptoms when they start and change my actions. The same indicators that make me love high adrenaline activities are the same ones that cause overreactions in otherwise normal situations. Now, I know this, and after all, knowledge is power. Hopefully, power can lead to change. So do the research and learn all you can. And this summer I’ll see you at Kings Island…you can find me in line for the Diamondback.
#WordsThatMatter
Weekly Pursuit of Happiness
This week I had some ups and downs, which prompted me to research the effects of stress on the brain. The ability to understand why we are the way we are can prove invaluable in the effort to find happiness.
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This post is republished on Medium.
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Photo credit: Stephen Hateley on Unsplash