Disclaimer!
Please note that, many concepts discussed below are oversimplifications of the true workings of the brain. It is a good practice to not take anything for granted when learning neuroscience due to the subject's complex and obscure nature.
Today we’ll examine stress from a neuroscience perspective. We’ll start by defining what stress actually is in biological terms, then explore why we evolved to feel it. After that, we’ll look at what happens when stress becomes chronic and dysregulated, and finally, we’ll discuss evidence-based strategies to reduce its harmful effects.
A key idea throughout this session is that stress is not inherently bad. It is an adaptive survival mechanism. Problems arise when the stress systems that evolved for short-term survival become chronically activated in modern environments.
INFOGRAPHIC
LET'S PLAY
Additional resources for the curious mind!
Below are some resources that you can read and watch to explore any concepts that interest you:
-
TED video on how chronic stress affects your brain:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WuyPuH9ojCE&pp=ygUMc3RyZXNzIGJyYWlu -
Very cute video on stress by Psych2Go (channel that has a lot of good mental health videos):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5mBSjhTrUFs&pp=ygUMc3RyZXNzIGJyYWlu -
A more comprehensive article on the biology of stress and its effects:
https://sci-hub.ru/10.1038/nrendo.2009.106