Anyone who has ever fretted over an exam or a looming deadline at work

knows what stress feels like. As it turns out, stress can be a good thing,

helping our bodies and brains stay sharp and alert, ready to react to any
surprises life throws in our way. But, chronic stress can wreak havoc,
triggering a host of maladies including heart disease, high blood
pressure, depression, and anxiety.

Neuroscientists are beginning to reveal how chronic stress exacts such a

hefty toll. In doing so, they are piecing together how parental stress
affects offspring, the biochemical hallmarks of stress in children, and
how specialized brain cells influence fear and anxiety responses.

The response to short-term stress is critical for survival. It powers the

“fight-or-flight” response that allows animals to respond quickly to
danger signs. When we’re startled, or acutely stressed “fear center” of the
brain, called the amygdala activates our central stress response system.
Known as the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenalcortical (HPA) axis because
it is comprised of the hypothalamus, pituitary gland, and the adrenal
cortex, this stress response system regulates hormones, particularly the
stress hormone cortisol. By rapidly increasing glucose levels, speeding
the heart rate, and increasing blood flow to the muscles in our arms and
legs, this stress response allows us to respond to a threat.  After the
danger has passed, the system works to return hormone levels to normal.

When stress becomes chronic, this system is amped up all the time. The
same hormones that are so important for the fight-or-flight response can
lead to digestive issues, trouble sleeping, and a weakened immune
system, making a person more susceptible to viruses like the flu and
chronic health problems.
“Because stress changes the way the brain’s neurons communicate with
each other, chronic stress can cause our brains, nervous systems, and our
behavior to adjust to a vigilant and reactive state,” says Bruce McEwen, a
neuroscientist from Rockefeller University.

That constant vigilance can lead to devastating mental and physical

health conditions for the person experiencing it. It can also affect their
offspring. It is well-established that maternal stress has deleterious
effects on her offspring. But Jennifer Chan from the University of
Pennsylvania wanted to know how a father’s stressful experiences would
affect his offspring. So, she studied male mice that experienced mild,
chronic stress. The offspring of those mice had a “blunted” hormonal
stress response — an effect linked to disorders like post-traumatic stress
disorder (PTSD). She found stress changed the expression of genes in
sperm and altered its maturation. That may have altered the brain
development of their offspring.

“If we can understand how parental experiences impact offspring

health,” Chan says, “Then we may be able to identify those parental
experiences as risk factors, and in the future this could lead to earlier
interventions for children who may be at risk.”

Because our brains are still developing throughout childhood and early
adulthood, pediatric trauma can be especially damaging. While working
to find new therapies for stress disorders like PTSD, Brianna Mulligan at
the University of New Mexico discovered that changes in DNA
methylation, a process by which genes are turned “on” or “off,” in
children who had experienced trauma. These abnormal DNA
methylation signatures may help physicians identify children who are
suffering from trauma. And, since DNA methylation is reversible, it may
be possible to develop aid trauma recovery treatments capable of
reversing the methylation.

Researchers are exploring other avenues to develop treatments for

PTSD. An intriguing one involves non-neuronal brains cells
called astrocytes. Long thought of as mere support cells, astrocytes also
play a role in the brain’s immune response. Meghan Jones, of the
University of North Carolina, found chronically stressed mice possessed
elevated levels of a molecule called interleukin-1-β (IL-1) in the
astrocytes of the hippocampus, a brain area critical to learning and
memory.

IL-1 is known as a cytokine, a class of molecules regulating the brain’s

response to illness. When Jones and her colleagues blocked the receptor
for IL-1 and exposed them to chronic stress, they did not develop
characteristic fear and anxiety.

Many studies offer early clues to how stress causes negative effects and
potential pathways to prevent those effects. And, that is something that
McEwen says should spur optimism that one day we will be able to
prevent the effects of chronic stress and PTSD.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3697199/

https://www.mayoclinic.org/tests-procedures/resilience-training/in-depth/resilience/art-20046311

Stress, both physical and psychological, is attracting increasing attention among neuroresearchers. In the
last 20 decades, there has been a surge of interest in the research of stress-induced manifestations and
this approach has resulted in the development of more appropriate animal models for stress-associated
pathologies and its therapeutic management. These stress models are an easy and convenient method
for inducing both psychological and physical stress. To understand the behavioral changes underlying
major depression, molecular and cellular studies are required. Dysregulation of the stress system may
lead to disturbances in growth and development, and may this may further lead to the development of
various other psychiatric disorders.

Resilience: Build skills to endure hardship

Resilience means being able to adapt to life's misfortunes and
setbacks. Test your resilience level and get tips to build your own
resilience.
By Mayo Clinic Staff

When something goes wrong, do you tend to bounce back or fall apart?

When you have resilience, you harness inner strength that helps you
rebound from a setback or challenge, such as a job loss, an illness, a
disaster or the death of a loved one. If you lack resilience, you might
dwell on problems, feel victimized, become overwhelmed or turn to
unhealthy coping mechanisms, such as substance abuse.

Resilience won't make your problems go away — but resilience can

give you the ability to see past them, find enjoyment in life and better
handle stress. If you aren't as resilient as you'd like to be, you can
develop skills to become more resilient.

Adapting to adversity
Resilience is the ability to roll with the punches. When stress,
adversity or trauma strikes, you still experience anger, grief and pain,
but you're able to keep functioning — both physically and
psychologically. However, resilience isn't about toughing it out, being
stoic or going it alone. In fact, being able to reach out to others for
support is a key component of being resilient.

Resilience and mental health

Resilience can help protect you from various mental health conditions,
such as depression and anxiety. Resilience can also help offset factors
that increase the risk of mental health conditions, such as being
bullied or previous trauma. If you have an existing mental health
condition, being resilient can improve your ability to cope.
A Very Happy Brain

Tips to improve your resilience

If you'd like to become more resilient, consider these tips:

 Get connected. Building strong, positive relationships with loved ones

and friends can provide you with needed support and acceptance in both
good times and bad. Establish other important connections by
volunteering or joining a faith or spiritual community.
 Make every day meaningful. Do something that gives you a sense of
accomplishment and purpose every day. Set goals to help you look toward
the future with meaning.
 Learn from experience. Think of how you've coped with hardships in
the past. Consider the skills and strategies that helped you through rough
times. You might even write about past experiences in a journal to help
you identify positive and negative behavior patterns — and guide your
future behavior.
 Remain hopeful. You can't change the past, but you can always look
toward the future. Accepting and even anticipating change makes it
easier to adapt and view new challenges with less anxiety.
 Take care of yourself. Tend to your own needs and feelings.
Participate in activities and hobbies you enjoy. Include physical activity in
your daily routine. Get plenty of sleep. Eat a healthy diet. Practice stress
management and relaxation techniques, such as yoga, meditation, guided
imagery, deep breathing or prayer.
 Be proactive. Don't ignore your problems. Instead, figure out what
needs to be done, make a plan, and take action. Although it can take time
to recover from a major setback, traumatic event or loss, know that your
situation can improve if you work at it.
When to seek professional advice
Becoming more resilient takes time and practice. If you don't feel
you're making progress — or you don't know where to start — consider
talking to a mental health provider. With guidance, you can improve
your resiliency and mental well-being.

Articol

Oricine a tremurat vreodată la un examen sau la un termen limită la serviciu, știe cum se simte
stresul. }n astfel de situații, stresul poate fi un lucru bun, ajutându-ne corpul și mintea să
rămână alerte, gata să reacționeze la orice obstacole pe care viața ni le așează în drum. Însă,
uneori, hazardul sau înlănțuirea unor evenimente, ne oferă experiențe extreme, în care ne
percepem amenințate integritatea personală , viața noastră sau a celor dragi. În aceste
situații , stresul devine cronic, epuizând resursele organismului. Răspunsul la stresul pe termen
scurt este esențial pentru supraviețuire. El alimentează răspunsul „luptă sau fugi” care permite
tuturor animalelor să răspundă rapid la semnalele de pericol, activându-se „centrul fricii”, numit
amigdala care, la rândul ei, pune în funcțiune sistemul de răspuns la stres , cunoscut drept axa
hipotalamică-hipofizară-adrenocortică (HPA), alcătuită din hipotalamus, glanda hipofizară și
glandele suprarenale și reglementează hormonii de stress, adrenalina și cortizolul. Când
stresul devine cronic, acest sistem este activat și amplificat în permanență. Aceiași hormoni
care sunt atât de importanți pentru răspunsul de luptă sau fugă pot determina o serie de de
maladii, inclusiv boli de inimă, hipertensiune arterială, depresie, anxietate, fragilizarea
sistemului imunitar și creșterea vulnerabilității în fața bolilor . Numeroase studii s-au concentrat
pe găsirea celor mai eficiente modalități de a gestiona stresul. De la exerciții fizice, până la
tehnici de mindfulness toate s-au dovedit a fi eficiente pentru o perioadă de timp, în funcție de
durata și intensitatea stresului. Ceea ce a constituit o descoperire majoră a fost identificarea
neuro-hormonului rezilienței la stress, oxitocina. Supranumit și ”hormonul îmbrățișărilor”, este
modalitaea prin care natura și evoluția ne-a înzestrat cu antidotul stresului cronic. Acesta ne
face mai empatici, mai dornici de conexiune și apropiere de semeni, mai dispuși să ajutăm sau
să ne lăsăm ajutați, moment în care crește secreția de oxitocină și diminuează răspunsul
maladaptativ la stres al organelor interne. Reziliența nu va face ca problemele noastre să
dispară, dar ne poate oferi capacitatea de a pune experiențele în perspectivă, de-a da sens a
ceea ce trăim, de-a găsi plăcere în viață și de a gestiona mai bine stresul. Când stresul,
adversitatea sau trauma ne lovesc, încă mai simțim furie, durere și spaimă, dar suntm capabil să
continuăm să funcționăm - atât fizic, cât și psihologic. Cu toate acestea, reziliența nu înseamnă
să înlăturăm stresul, să fim stoici sau să ne descurcăm singuri. De fapt, a fi capabil să ne
apropiem de ceilalți pentru sprijin este o componentă cheie a rezilienței.

În concluzie, pentru a deveni mai rezistenți și mai adaptați în fața stresului poate însemna să
petrecem mai mult timp dând sens existenței noastre și construind relații sănătoase cu semenii
în detrimentul evitării cu orice preț a disconfortului emoțional.

Bibliografie

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3697199/

https://www.mayoclinic.org/tests-procedures/resilience-training/in-depth/resilience/art-20046311
The Untold World of Oxytocin, Stress, and Life
Adversity
Affiliate Disclosure

Oxytocin is not just a "love" or "cuddle"

hormone - it is a powerful anti-stress hormone that lowers cortisol, blood
pressure, and more.

It turns out that oxytocin works alongside stress hormones to help maintain
homeostasis during times of stress and inflammation (1; 2).

Textbooks typically refer to oxytocin as a bonding hormone that is released

during breastfeeding, or after an orgasm. But there are many other triggers of
oxytocin release such as warm temperature and touch, smells, sounds and
other social cues (3; 4).

The release of oxytocin is also not limited to just the pituitary gland in the
brain; it can be released from the uterus, ovaries, testes, blood vessels, and the
heart (5).

As you can see, there's a lot more to oxytocin than just love, sex and bonding.

Socially, oxytocin is known to dial down your fear response and increase your
emotions of trust, empathy, and the urge to bond with others. Its wider array
of activity is suggested to be related to its anti-inflammatory and antioxidant
properties (6).  It may also help modulate pain perception (7).

When you lose relationships or do not adequately maintain your

social networks, your oxytocin balance may be disrupted - putting
yourself at higher risk for the inflammatory effects of stress and
fear.

Stress itself is not necessarily negative - Facing stress without a support

network around you can be very inflammatory to your health.

Oxytocin may demonstrate the missing link between why the same stress can
be both good and bad depending one’s social circumstances.

"Tend and Befriend" versus "Fight or Flight"

Typically when we think of stress, we think of cortisol, but there is now

evidence that in some stressful situations, oxytocin is released along with
cortisol - initiating a “tend and befriend” response to stress, as opposed to a
traditional “threat” or “fight or flight” response.

The “tend and befriend” response is mediated by oxytocin and natural opioids
produced by the body and may also have unique interactions with female
hormones. While aspects of the stress response are shared among males and
females, the female response to stress more closely follows a “tend and
befriend” profile (8; 9).

From an evolutionary perspective, tending or nurturing oneself and offspring

as well as befriending others and expanding and maintaining social networks
is advantageous. Social isolation on the other hand, is largely a predictor of
disease and poor quality of life (10).

Benjamin Franklin - who was as well-known for his social adeptness as he was
for his civic and engineering - once remarked “Man is a sociable being, and it
is, for aught I know, one of the worst punishments to be excluded from
society.”

The active nurturing of relationships among family, friends, and your greater
social network is important for a number of health outcomes - the interactions
being driven by the interplay of inflammation, stress hormones, and oxytocin
(11). These findings may help explain why some psychiatric disorders occur
more commonly in one sex over another, and this new understanding may
help improve treatment approaches (12).
The “Goldilocks Effect” of Adversity

Too little adversity AND too much adversity may disrupt oxytocin balance,
while experiencing just enough stress helps to maintain oxytocin balance.

Oxytocin may underlie certain mechanisms as to why facing adversity early in

life may both help or hinder coping mechanisms later in life (13). The
researchers Seery, Holman and Silver looked at accumulated life adversity and
its effect on various health outcomes (14). Their published work in The
Journal of Personality and Social Psychology revealed a “U-shaped” curve of
adverse health outcomes.

The “U-curve” reflected that both too little and too much adversity can
negatively affect health and social outcomes, while facing moderate adversity
actually helps to strengthen health outcomes.

Those who experienced moderate levels of adversity had lower rates of

depression, less post-traumatic stress symptoms, and higher reports of life
satisfaction.

Individuals who had earlier exposure to adversity were also the least affected
by recent adverse events. The findings lent hard data to the old saying “What
does not kill us, makes us stronger”.

How do We Promote Healthy Oxytocin Release?

It is one thing to understand that oxytocin is a missing hormonal link in our

stress response, but how do we actually use these findings in our daily lives
to ensure that our stress response is helpful rather than detrimental?

Stanford professor Kelly McGonigal, PhD shared a few strategies in her

book The Upside of Stress- a highly repeated theme in her discussion was
having a positive mindset regarding stress:

“...viewing a stressful situation as an opportunity to improve your skills,

knowledge, or strengths makes it more likely that you will have a challenge
response instead of a fight-or-flight response. This, in turn, increases the
chance that you will learn from the experience”

You can “choose” which hormonal profile a stressful event takes - by being
mindful during it, and looking at the event as an opportunity to grow.
Additionally, reaching out to help others experiencing the same stress can be a
useful strategy (15). There are a number of examples of how reaching out to
others such as through volunteering, or providing disaster relief, can help one
cope with a stress response even if they themselves were subjected to the
emotional trauma or disaster event.

Even a 10-minute journaling exercise where you reflect on your core values
and motivations, can change how you face stressful events. Ultimately, such a
simple exercise like that could change someone’s life-long trajectory of
academic performance, career success and more.

Giving your life events greater meaning through the making of aspirational
goals, and the routine reflection on your core values allows you to cope better
with the inevitable hiccups along the path of life. These strategies help to keep
your life feeling connected to a greater, “we’re all in this together” purpose.

What shouldn’t I do if I want to keep my oxytocin nice and

balanced?

Watch the news.

Interestingly, watching or reading news about stressful events is also one of

the worst things you can do when it comes to stress. It is one of the most
commonly reported triggers of stress, and; the habit of continually watching
negative news has been suggested by research to lead to more feelings of stress
than the stress felt by those who actually experienced the negative news being
reported! We also often watch TV alone.

Watching TV exposes you to endless propaganda and marketing initiatives -

all designed in one way or another to hinder your ability to make rational
decisions and thoughts through priming, emotional triggers, and more.

And, guess what?

It works - even more so in those of us who think we are immune to it. The
subconscious mind says “Yes!” to everything that comes across it, so be
extremely careful of what you’re feeding it.

Whether you believe me or not, at least understand this next point.

Your mind subconsciously assesses every offer that comes across your mind,
whether you want it to or not - and that processing alone depletes you of your
daily willpower reserves.
Does sex really sell?
The short answer is yes.

Pornography disrupts the mind in a negative way because our subconscious

mind naturally considers each image as a real, potential sexual partner -
triggering dopamine pathways and increasing the chances that you’ll make
risky decisions and act on risky urges.

While pornography is an extreme example, the mind reacts the same way
when it reads or hears about the next 25% off, clearance sale, or “limited time
offer”, or sees an image of a juicy cheeseburger (or other “food porn”) - and
aside from moral and ethical discussions, psychologically - all can be
detrimental to your physical, psychological, social and emotional health.

My fiance comments that when we watch sports games together (as opposed
to, say, The Bachelor), many of the commercials are scantily dressed women
having an awesome time eating hamburgers - see the connection?

During the superbowl, companies go to increasing degrees to trigger emotions

out of you - and then plant their logo or product right in your face when you’re
emotionally vulnerable. It works!

Examples include: the Budweiser lost puppy ad, the controversial Nationwide
“Because I died due to an accident” commercial”,and  just about anything
from GoDaddy...

Now when you see these things in commercials, or on the news, point at it and
think to yourself, “Hey, that’s pornographic!” You will be better off to turn it
off and keep your subconscious mind from seeing it.

It sounds crazy, but it’s not too far off when you consider what’s going on
chemically in your brain.

It puts your brain on edge - priming it to deal with stress and to evaluate
decisions from an emotional state of mind instead of a rational state of mind.
And, you and I are not the exceptions.

The best strategies for coping with stress (and

maintaining oxytocin balance) are as follows:
 Exercising or playing sports
  Praying or attending a religious service
 Reading
 Listening to music
 Spending time with friends or family
 Getting a massage
 Going outside for a walk
 Meditating or doing yoga
 & Spending time with a creative hobby

The worst strategies?

 Gambling
 Shopping
 Smoking
 Drinking
 Eating
 Playing video games
 Surfing the Internet
 & Watching TV or movies for more than two hours.

What makes the first list so much better?

These activities promote the release of hormones like serotonin, GABA and,

you guessed it, oxytocin.

The second list contains largely reward-centered activities which

trigger dopamine release - and the hard-to-please anticipation of future
reward. You feel good until the reward fails to come again, or the dopamine
rush wears off. It leaves you feeling unsatisfied and unfulfilled.

You can notice that you actually feel isolated and “on edge” following these
activities. That’s actually your brain being anxious for your next dopamine
rush.

This is why the brain tends to push us toward the dopamine-yielding activities
in the short-term even though we “know better” internally that the serotonin,
GABA and oxytocin-yielding activities above will serve us much better..
What’s So Bad About Dopamine?

Dopamine has also been misunderstood. Most think of dopamine, as your

“feel-good” reward hormone, and it is to a degree, but not for the reasons that
you think.

Dopamine doesn’t lead directly to the experience of pleasure. It mediates

the anticipation of pleasure - which is very different. The anticipation of
pleasure is an important human emotion - because it drives motivational
behavior.

I have found anticipation to be quite a dangerous emotion. In the anticipation

of reward is a seed of disappointment if the event does not lead to the
excitement you envisioned. On the other hand, the anticipation of
disappointment can sometimes create a self-fulfilled prophecy - and you will
actually find an otherwise pleasurable event to be disappointing.

The solution for anticipation is to strengthen mindfulness - this protects you

from the anxiety of being too caught up in the future, and also protects you
from the regret and depression that can come from being stuck in the past.

Your mindfulness muscles can be strengthened by meditation exercise for as

little as 5 minutes a day over an 8 week period of time. If you were to choose
just one habit to implement in your life - I would choose daily meditation of at
least 5 minutes. This habit can include various forms of meditation such as
deep breathing, yoga, and more.

The more you can habituate activities from the first list - the more balanced
and stress-free you will feel - the less disrupted your oxytocin balance will be,
and the less negative stress you will experience.

Instead, you will feel courageous, connected, supported, and you will be less
likely to develop a range of inflammatory diseases over the course of your life.

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