Caution! Your Brain May Be Shrinking

This morning I read an interesting, and on some levels disturbing, study organized in 2012 at Yale University’s Department of Neurobiology.

Extensive testing and brain imaging conducted on 103 otherwise healthy individuals showed that exposure to stress can reduce gray matter in critical regions of the brain that regulate emotion and important physiological functions.

The professor discussing the findings went on to say that their findings suggest these differences are apparent soon after stressful events occur and may serve as warning signals of future chronic diseases, such as hypertension and diabetes.

“The brain is dynamic and plastic and things can improve — but only if stress is dealt with in a healthy manner,” the professor said. “If not, the effects of stress can have a negative impact on both our physical and mental health.”

So experiencing stress makes it harder to deal with future stress! Sounds like a vicious cycle to me.

Don’t be too discouraged; because there are a few important things to keep in mind here:

1. This study focused on what we traditionally think of stressful events in our lives – death in the family, divorce, loss of job and the like. These events are universally stressful.
2. The data from the assessment I use defines stress as a reactive behavior triggered by an unmet need. That means for one; what causes me stress may not be stressful to you at all and two; you can learn to avoid that stress by making sure your needs are met. Or three; learning techniques to pull yourself out of that reactive behavior as soon as you are aware your behavior is changing for the worse.

Make managing your stress a higher priority and your brain will reward you by functioning properly.

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“The greatest weapon against stress is our ability to choose one thought over another.”     -William James