How stress and worry physically change our brains

2024 Author: Malcolm Clapton | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 03:44

After psychological trauma, we become different people - it's true.

Serious shocks and chronic stress affect many aspects of life: loss of appetite, disturbed sleep, mental health in general suffers. However, few people know that psychological influences can injure the brain. In a literal sense: they cause quite distinct physical damage to the gray matter.

As a recent study published in the journal Revue Neurologique shows, acute stress reactions and chronic mental disorders triggered by the same severe stress disrupt two key brain systems - they are conventionally referred to as "protective" and "cognitive".

This can affect how the brain reacts to threats, including the simplest everyday problems and conflicts. The ability to restrain emotions, memorize and process information also changes.

There are three areas of the brain that respond to stress the most.

How stress changes the brain

The amygdala becomes hyperactive and increases in size

The amygdala (amygdala) is a region of nervous tissue that is primarily responsible for emotions. In particular - for fear and anger.

This zone plays an essential role in the work of the self-preservation instinct. The main task of the amygdala is to process information from the senses and detect threats. The response to the recorded external danger is either anger (the first part in the famous "fight or flight" reaction) or fear.

Sanam Hafiz Doctor of Psychology.

In people who have experienced severe psychological trauma, the amygdala can become hyperactive.

This means that the amygdala starts triggering the fight-or-flight response at any time, even if the person is not in danger.

This causes tension in the sympathetic nervous system: the heart pumps blood more actively, muscles tense up, breathing quickens, a person becomes very attentive to little things, his feelings are exacerbated. In everyday language, this state is called "on edge." Psychologists have their own term - seizure of the amygdala.

The result of the seizure of the amygdala can be a panic attack, a surge of emotions and aggression, stress. The more overactive the amygdala, the more often and more easily it is excited, the more the nervous system is depleted.

A person becomes irritable, quick-tempered, aggressive, cannot pull himself together. Stress becomes chronic, which can lead to sleep problems and the situation is exacerbated.

Changes in the amygdala also occur at the physical level. A study published in the Journal of Head Injury Rehabilitation found that combat veterans with PTSD had an enlarged area of the brain compared to those without PTSD.

The prefrontal cortex is impaired

The prefrontal cortex is a more “intelligent” part of the brain, which normally suppresses the excessively emotional impulses of the amygdala.

The amygdala feels a negative emotion - the same anger or fear, and the prefrontal cortex evaluates this emotion rationally. Weighs whether the danger detected by the amygdala is really so great and whether it is really necessary to disturb the parasympathetic nervous system.

For example, if you are going to a meeting with your boss, looking forward to a runaway, the amygdala just strives to include a "fight or flight" reaction.

But the prefrontal cortex tells you that visiting your boss is not a pleasant thing, but not fatal. Thanks to this, the amygdala calms down, and you pull yourself together.

However, a study published in the journal Neurobiology of Stress reports that both acute and chronic stress weaken the prefrontal cortex by physically decreasing the number of active neurons in it.

As a result, she loses the ability to control the reactions of the amygdala. Any danger, even an imaginary one, begins to be perceived by the brain as a mortal threat - and reacts to it accordingly.

The hippocampus shrinks and malfunctions

The hippocampus is the area of the brain that is primarily responsible for storing memories. It also helps to distinguish past experiences from the present.

Mental trauma disrupts the function of the hippocampus. It manifests itself in different ways for different people. For example, someone may forget part of their past, but the memories of the traumatic event will remain vivid and clear.

Others will panic every time the environment around them even slightly resembles the one in which they were in the process of being injured.

This happens because the brain loses the ability to clearly distinguish between past and present. But special effects with memory are not limited to.

Sanam Hafiz

In people with PTSD, the physical size of the hippocampus is sometimes significantly reduced. This damage is caused by the constant anxiety and stress in which they live.

The smaller the hippocampus, the worse it performs its functions. This means that the more difficulties with memory and rolling panic a person will experience.

What to do if the brain is injured due to mental trauma

There is no specific way to repair the brain from damage caused by acute or chronic stress. But there is still one definite point: you need to see a doctor as soon as possible. Best of all - to a psychotherapist.

Sanam Hafiz

If the trauma is left untreated, repairing damaged areas of the brain - such as the hippocampus or the amygdala - will become more difficult over time.

The doctor will examine you and ask you about your symptoms and experiences. And based on this, he will develop an individual treatment plan. It will include psychotherapy or medication, or a combination of both.