The human brain handles all the complex neuro connections that make us human. Your brain is the container for the soul, love, and your sparkling personality.
It controls how we breathe, the speed of our heartbeat, how our senses react, and how we regulate our thoughts and emotions.
Your brain is the supercomputer of the best creation ever made, YOU!
But a stressed brain struggles to cope. Add in a stressful lifestyle and you’re poking holes in a rowboat.
Your brain is subject to the environment you are in, just like the rest of our body. And that includes a stressful lifestyle.
We stay in the water too long; we get soggy and gross. –Yup, we get raisin syndrome. And if we stay in it long enough, we feel like wet bread. EWW!–
Just like those soggy toes, when you stay stressed for long term periods, your brain will learn to adapt.
But when loving and accepting people surround us; we develop a positive view about the world and ourselves.
Negativity, hate, trauma, and grief surround us, and it will fill us with anxiety, depression, self-esteem issues, negative thoughts, and more.
This post includes:
- How Stress Changes Your Brain
- What Causes a Stressed Brain?
- What are the symptoms of a stressed nervous system?
- An article recommendation to help you start changing your thought patterns and combat stress
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How Stress Changes Your Brain While Living in A Stressful Lifestyle
My childhood was pretty great! I had great parents and amazing friends.
But, I suffered a few traumas in my life. And trauma changes you.
I survived a natural disaster, survived abuse from outside my home, and I survived my attempted murder during a home invasion.
Before, I was a happy, chatty, loving girl. But trauma changes you.
Trauma changed how my nervous system perceives the world. That’s the story of how I got PTSD.
That’s when my brain changed. It saw a threat everywhere. I became hyper aware of my surroundings. Doubt and suspicion clouded my once happy mind. And I quit looking for happiness in my life.
My formerly happy and hopeful brain adapted to my situation and helped me thrive in a hostile environment.
My stressed brain was now trying to keep me alive, even when no threats were there. But trauma isn’t the only thing that can change your brain chemistry.
A stressed brain just weighs you down.
What Causes a Stressed Brain?
I don’t mean to be sarcastic, but life.
Yes, anything your brain considers stressful in life can be a trigger for long term stress.
Those with higher stress jobs tend to have more stress, but a high stress job isn’t the only factor in stress in the brain.
Your brain can become stressed from:
- finances
- social media
- body chemistry
- poor nutrition
- injury
- noise
- trauma
- relationship
- and so much more.
Do any of us live a low stress life in this modern age? Probably not unless you live off the grid.
-Me thinking about moving to a no name place with lots of land and dozens of pups running around.–
What are the symptoms of a stressed brain?
When you become stressed, the brain adapts. But it’s probably not in a way you like.
It can cause you to have symptoms like:
- Sleep Issues
- Negative or Intrusive Thoughts
- Exaggerated Startle Response
- Mood Swings
- Body Aches
- Headaches
- More Frequent Illness
- and more!
“Stress results in acute and chronic changes in neurochemical systems and specific brain regions, which result in long-term changes in brain ‘circuits,’ involved in the stress response.”
Traumatic stress: effects on the brain by J. Douglas Bremner, MD*
Resources for Combating Stressed Brain
As I mentioned earlier, I lived in the land of stressed brain after suffering from one trauma after another.
Retraining your brain isn’t easy, but it CAN BE DONE!
How? By Using the ACT Method.
The ACT Method teaches you how to:
- Anticipate Your Triggers
- Create an Alternative
- Train Your Thinking
Your brain has to relearn to search for hope and safety, and not to spot tigers everywhere. Learn more about the ACT Method and Grab a Free Thought Distortions Worksheet too!
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