Summary of Melanie Greenberg, Ph.D.'s The Stress-Proof Brain

Everest Media

Description

Please note: This is a companion version & not the original book.
Sample Book Insights:
#1 Stress is a part of life, and it’s here to stay. You can’t avoid it, but you can learn to cope with it. The skills you’ll learn in this book will help you manage stress more effectively so that life stressors become manageable challenges rather than insurmountable threats.
#2 Your stress response was designed to help you survive immediate threats. When you use a system designed for acute, life-threatening stress over a long period, it can create wear and tear on your mind and body.
#3 Your brain has the ability to change and grow new neurons, which explains why your childhood environment can affect your response to stress decades later.
#4 The emotions of fear and anger are created by your body’s physiological stress response, combined with your perception of the situation as a threat. When your amygdala perceives a threat, it initiates fight or flight mode.

Sujets

• Santé et bien-être
• Bien-être émotionnel
• Bien-être
• Bien-être
• Bien-être
• Bien-être
• Stress Management
• Self-Management
• Self-help

Informations

• Publié par: Everest Media LLC
• Date de parution: 30 avril 2022
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781669397113
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 1 Mo

Extrait

Insights on Melanie Greenberg and Ph.D.'s The StressProof Brain
Contents Insights from Chapter 1 Insights from Chapter 2 Insights from Chapter 3
Insights from Chapter 1

#1

Stress is a part of life, and it’s here to stay. You can’t avoid it, but you can learn to cope with it. The skills you’ll learn in this book will help you manage stress more effectively so that life stressors become manageable challenges rather than insurmountable threats.

#2

Your stress response was designed to help you survive immediate threats. When you use a system designed for acute, life-threatening stress over a long period, it can create wear and tear on your mind and body.

#3

Your brain has the ability to change and grow new neurons, which explains why your childhood environment can affect your response to stress decades later.

#4

The emotions of fear and anger are created by your body’s physiological stress response, combined with your perception of the situation as a threat. When your amygdala perceives a threat, it initiates fight or flight mode.

#5

The parts of your brain that shape your emotional and behavioral response to a stressful situation are your amygdala, hypothalamus, hippocampus, and prefrontal cortex. The prefrontal cortex puts together information from these structures to create a planned, motivated response to stress.

#6

Your amygdala is a small almond-shaped structure that acts as your brain’s alarm system. It receives sensory information and decides whether an event is emotionally important. If your amygdala senses a threat, it rings a mental alarm bell to tell your hypothalamus to ready your body to respond.

#7

Your hypothalamus is the operations manager of your brain, and it is responsible for initiating and coordinating your hormonal response to stress. When alerted by your amygdala, your hypothalamus releases corticotropin-releasing hormone, which signals your pituitary gland to secrete adrenocorticotropic hormone into your bloodstream.

#8

Your hippocampus is a small seahorse-shaped structure that stores your conscious memories in an organized way. It retrieves memories from the past that may be relevant to your stressor. Your prefrontal cortex accesses these memories so that you can use past experience to inform your response to stress.

#9

Your prefrontal cortex, which is the CEO of your brain, helps you solve complex problems, control your impulses, and calm down intense emotions. It helps you shift your attention and adapt to new, uncertain, or changing situations.

#10

Your stress response is a cascade of chemicals that travels through your body and sends messages to your organs and glands, your large muscles, and even your immune system. You’ll learn how the sympathetic and parasympathetic branches of your nervous system regulate your physiological stress response.

#11

When your amygdala notices a stressor, it signals your hypothalamus to release epinephrine and norepinephrine into your bloodstream, which prepares your body for fighting or fleeing. If the stress response goes on for a long time, it can be toxic to your body.

#12

When a stressor persists for more than a few minutes, your hypothalamus signals your pituitary gland to release adrenocorticotropic hormone, which signals your adrenal glands to release cortisol. Cortisol elevates your blood sugar and stimulates your liver to produce glucose, which is used by your brain to support attention and alertness.

#13

Your stress response is initiated by your amygdala, and it is distributed throughout your body by your autonomic nervous system. Your ANS has two branches: your sympathetic nervous system and your parasympathetic nervous system.

#14

Your brain and body are wired to respond to stress with activation and action, but if you can’t get away or defend yourself, the only thing left to do is numb yourself to the inevitable pain.

#15

The stress response in your brain and body is affected by neurotransmitters and hormones that affect both your body’s reactions and your emotional response to the situation.

#16

Stress can affect your brain’s ability to transport and use glucose, which can negatively affect your memory and mood. It can also strengthen connections between your amygdala and hippocampus, predisposing you to a chronic state of emergency preparedness.

#17

When your heart is exposed to repeated surges of epinephrine due to chronic stress, the lining of your blood vessels can become damaged, raising your risk of hypertension, stroke, and heart attack.

#18

Cortisol is a hormone that is released in response to stress. It increases your appetite, interferes with sleep, and causes you to eat more unhealthy foods when you’re tired. Over long periods, chronic stress can increase your blood sugar and cause your body to hang on to excess fat.

#19

The immune system is a complex network of cells and chemicals that is activated in response to a pathogen. When faced with a harmful virus or bacterium, it releases inflammatory cytokines to fight off the attacker. Too much stress seems to make your immune system insensitive to the signaling function of cortisol.

#20

The effects of chronic stress on cellular aging are highly dependent on how you perceive your stress.