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| Can Stress Damage The Brain? |
Yesterday is History, Tomorrow is Mystery.
Welcome to My Web Site!
HypnosisItWorks.com
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EdwardJohnWilson.com
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EdwardJohnWilson.com
Each new day brings with it a chance for a new beginning. The choices you make today
don't have to be influenced by what happened to you in the past. Today, right now, this
very moment, is your only moment of power. Right now is the only opportunity you have
to begin changing the undesirable patterns in your unconscious mind that keep you
trapped in the past. This is what my Wilson Method Empowerment Hypnosis© helps
you to do. Use this moment, right now to make a new and better choice for you.
Edward John Wilson, M.Ed., L.P.C., C.Ht.
don't have to be influenced by what happened to you in the past. Today, right now, this
very moment, is your only moment of power. Right now is the only opportunity you have
to begin changing the undesirable patterns in your unconscious mind that keep you
trapped in the past. This is what my Wilson Method Empowerment Hypnosis© helps
you to do. Use this moment, right now to make a new and better choice for you.
Edward John Wilson, M.Ed., L.P.C., C.Ht.
What an intriguing question! This question was so intriguing to me
personally that, when I saw the advertisement for the book “Does Stress
Damage The Brain?” by J. Douglas Bremner, M.D., I was motivated to
buy it.
Dr. Bremner is a psychiatrist and he is the Director of the Emory Center
for Positron Emission Tomography (PET Scans) at Emory University
Hospital and he is the Director of Mental health Research at the Atlanta
Veterans Administration Medical Center.
The answer to this intriguing question turns out to be an indisputable
“Yes!!!” Through his research, Dr. Bremner has clearly demonstrated
that stress does, in fact, damage the human brain and it does so in two
rather different ways.
Damage From Trauma
One way is through traumatic stress and the other way is through
chronic stress. Traumatic stress may not apply to you since fewer than
25% of Americans have experienced traumatic stress first hand.
Traumatic stress might involve a situation where a person is in fear for
his or her life. This is the kind of thing that happens to soldiers in war
or civilians when they are in a very serious accident or attacked as in a
robbery or mugging or the witnesses and survivors of the terrorist
attacks on September 11, 2001. It can also happen as a result of any
type of physical or emotional abuse including spousal abuse, parental
abuse or sexual abuse.
The result of traumatic situations such as this is something called “Post
Traumatic Stress Disorder.” With PTSD, as it is typically referred to, a
former soldier might experience flashbacks where it seems as if they are
re-living a life threatening experience. With civilians, PTSD tends to
focus more on significantly increased levels of anxiety and often in sleep
disturbances sometimes including very serious nightmares. Since a
smaller percentage of people ever suffer from PTSD, it is not as
common as something like depression or anxiety disorder. However,
since the September 11th terrorist attacks, PTSD has shown up not just
in people who were there on the scene but also in people who only
witnessed the tragic events on television.
Damage From Chronic Stress
The other way in which stress damages the brain is so very common that
it could apply to any of us. As I said earlier, this pathway is through
chronic stress. The key measure of the stress response involves the
measurement of the stress hormones Adrenaline and Cortisol.
You probably already have familiarity with adrenaline. That's the
response you experience when you are startled or find yourself in a
threatening situation. As you know, adrenalin speeds up your heart rate.
You can feel it. Adrenalin also increases blood flow to your skeletal
muscles and to your brain.
This is all part of the “Fight, Flight, Freeze Response.” Its purpose is so
you can think more quickly and clearly about how to deal with the
situation and so you can have the energy and strength to defend
yourself or to run for your life. The emotions of anger, shame and fear
always seem to produce an adrenalin response.
You've probably already figured out that the adrenaline response is,
evolutionarily speaking, a very primitive response. In other words it was
quite appropriate for us when we lived in caves but not so appropriate
for us in today's world where we usually no longer have to defend
ourselves physically. Chronically high levels of adrenaline are known to
raise blood pressure and can take a huge toll on your body contributing
to heart and kidney disease, heart attacks and strokes.
Cortisol is another matter entirely. Cortisol is your body's own natural
steroid. As such, Cortisol decreases the inflammation response and it
dampens the responses of the immune system. Cortisol also causes
significant changes in the brain. That's why people who are under
chronic stress typically find that they cannot think as clearly as they
used to. A chronic overreaction to stress overloads the brain with these
powerful hormones that are intended only for short-term duty in
emergency situations. Their cumulative effect damages and kills brain
cells.
To learn more about the effects of Adrenaline and Cortisol on your
body, try this link to The Franklin Institute. It will open in a new
window.
The Solution
The big question is not just whether stress can damage your brain,
which it obviously can, but rather what to do about it. This is where
stress reduction training through hypnosis comes in. Back in the late
1960s Herbert Benson, M.D., conducted research into the human
relaxation response. His first book, “The Relaxation Response,”
explains his findings. Simply put, Dr. Benson proved that the human
body does indeed have an involuntary relaxation response but unlike
the stress response which is automatic, the relaxation response is not.
The relaxation response is one of only two natural ways to reduce the
two most destructive stress hormones that your body produces: Cortisol
and Adrenaline.
What Dr. Benson demonstrated is that through hypnosis it is possible to
trigger this relaxation response and decrease your body's stress
hormone levels.
This is where what I do comes in. I can teach you hypnotic methods of
triggering your body's own relaxation response and I can also help you
to change the perceptions in your unconscious mind to reduce your
stress response.
Stress is generally recognized to be caused by your mind's perceptions
of the danger associated with any given situation. Through my hypnosis
it is possible to change your unconscious mind's perceptions to the
kinds of situations you typically experience in your life so that your
stress response is simply not triggered in those situations.
personally that, when I saw the advertisement for the book “Does Stress
Damage The Brain?” by J. Douglas Bremner, M.D., I was motivated to
buy it.
Dr. Bremner is a psychiatrist and he is the Director of the Emory Center
for Positron Emission Tomography (PET Scans) at Emory University
Hospital and he is the Director of Mental health Research at the Atlanta
Veterans Administration Medical Center.
The answer to this intriguing question turns out to be an indisputable
“Yes!!!” Through his research, Dr. Bremner has clearly demonstrated
that stress does, in fact, damage the human brain and it does so in two
rather different ways.
Damage From Trauma
One way is through traumatic stress and the other way is through
chronic stress. Traumatic stress may not apply to you since fewer than
25% of Americans have experienced traumatic stress first hand.
Traumatic stress might involve a situation where a person is in fear for
his or her life. This is the kind of thing that happens to soldiers in war
or civilians when they are in a very serious accident or attacked as in a
robbery or mugging or the witnesses and survivors of the terrorist
attacks on September 11, 2001. It can also happen as a result of any
type of physical or emotional abuse including spousal abuse, parental
abuse or sexual abuse.
The result of traumatic situations such as this is something called “Post
Traumatic Stress Disorder.” With PTSD, as it is typically referred to, a
former soldier might experience flashbacks where it seems as if they are
re-living a life threatening experience. With civilians, PTSD tends to
focus more on significantly increased levels of anxiety and often in sleep
disturbances sometimes including very serious nightmares. Since a
smaller percentage of people ever suffer from PTSD, it is not as
common as something like depression or anxiety disorder. However,
since the September 11th terrorist attacks, PTSD has shown up not just
in people who were there on the scene but also in people who only
witnessed the tragic events on television.
Damage From Chronic Stress
The other way in which stress damages the brain is so very common that
it could apply to any of us. As I said earlier, this pathway is through
chronic stress. The key measure of the stress response involves the
measurement of the stress hormones Adrenaline and Cortisol.
You probably already have familiarity with adrenaline. That's the
response you experience when you are startled or find yourself in a
threatening situation. As you know, adrenalin speeds up your heart rate.
You can feel it. Adrenalin also increases blood flow to your skeletal
muscles and to your brain.
This is all part of the “Fight, Flight, Freeze Response.” Its purpose is so
you can think more quickly and clearly about how to deal with the
situation and so you can have the energy and strength to defend
yourself or to run for your life. The emotions of anger, shame and fear
always seem to produce an adrenalin response.
You've probably already figured out that the adrenaline response is,
evolutionarily speaking, a very primitive response. In other words it was
quite appropriate for us when we lived in caves but not so appropriate
for us in today's world where we usually no longer have to defend
ourselves physically. Chronically high levels of adrenaline are known to
raise blood pressure and can take a huge toll on your body contributing
to heart and kidney disease, heart attacks and strokes.
Cortisol is another matter entirely. Cortisol is your body's own natural
steroid. As such, Cortisol decreases the inflammation response and it
dampens the responses of the immune system. Cortisol also causes
significant changes in the brain. That's why people who are under
chronic stress typically find that they cannot think as clearly as they
used to. A chronic overreaction to stress overloads the brain with these
powerful hormones that are intended only for short-term duty in
emergency situations. Their cumulative effect damages and kills brain
cells.
To learn more about the effects of Adrenaline and Cortisol on your
body, try this link to The Franklin Institute. It will open in a new
window.
The Solution
The big question is not just whether stress can damage your brain,
which it obviously can, but rather what to do about it. This is where
stress reduction training through hypnosis comes in. Back in the late
1960s Herbert Benson, M.D., conducted research into the human
relaxation response. His first book, “The Relaxation Response,”
explains his findings. Simply put, Dr. Benson proved that the human
body does indeed have an involuntary relaxation response but unlike
the stress response which is automatic, the relaxation response is not.
The relaxation response is one of only two natural ways to reduce the
two most destructive stress hormones that your body produces: Cortisol
and Adrenaline.
What Dr. Benson demonstrated is that through hypnosis it is possible to
trigger this relaxation response and decrease your body's stress
hormone levels.
This is where what I do comes in. I can teach you hypnotic methods of
triggering your body's own relaxation response and I can also help you
to change the perceptions in your unconscious mind to reduce your
stress response.
Stress is generally recognized to be caused by your mind's perceptions
of the danger associated with any given situation. Through my hypnosis
it is possible to change your unconscious mind's perceptions to the
kinds of situations you typically experience in your life so that your
stress response is simply not triggered in those situations.