Tag: stress response

Book review: What Happened to You by Oprah Winfrey and Dr. Bruce D. Perry

Conversations on Trauma, Resilience, and Healing

This book starts out with making sense of the world where it explores the hierarchical organization of the human brain using an upside-down triangle to model four layers (brainstem, diencephalon, limbic, and cortex) representing the basic organization of the brain. Next up is seeking balance where Dr. Perry explores the impact of our early relational experiences on our self-regulation which is based on the Tree of Regulation (regulation, relationship, and reward).

Moving on to how we were loved which explores how what happens to a person as an infant has a profound impact on the capacity to love and be loved which revisits the concept of fight or flight. In the spectrum of trauma, Dr. Perry highlights the four symptom clusters of PTSD which are intrusive, avoidant, individual experiences change mood and thinking, and alteration in arousal and reactivity as the stress-response networks come overactive and overly reactive.

In connecting the dots, Dr. Perry explains that much of human invention and practices are transmissible, including the negative aspects of humankind, certain psychological traits, emotional characteristics, and behavior patterns. With coping to healing Oprah and Dr. Perry explore the manifestation of dissociation as a coping mechanism when stress-response systems are activated. He highlights the five states—calm, alert, alarm, fear, and terror—explaining how dissociation occurs when fight or flight is impossible. Also highlighted are why victims of abuse are usually drawn to situations where they are abused.

In post-traumatic wisdom, they discuss the misconception that children are resilient. He uses the metaphor of a hanger being bent and the inability to be returned to its original shape and the more it is bent and straightened the weak points finally break. They discuss the importance of connectedness in helping us achieve resilience or “bounce back.” Our brains, our biases, our systems explore trauma informed care and how language is getting in the way of progress by turning it into a buzzword. Relational hunger in the modern world focuses on how our world is relationally impoverished and that the disconnection makes us more vulnerable and that our ability to tolerate stressors is diminished because our connectedness is diminishing.

This book, written in interview format features a plethora of stories from both Oprah and Dr. Perry that shouldn’t be missed to get the overall knowledge. They aim at reframing our approach to trauma and understanding how important relational connectedness is in promoting healing. Read the book in its entirety by getting it here.

Until my next post, why not check out my YA novels about mental illness, memoir writing, novel in verse, or even my Native American mystery series on Amazon, or follow me on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, Goodreads, LinkedIn, Bookbub , BookSprout, or AllAuthor.

Book review for The Upside of Stress: Why Stress Is Good for You, and How to Get Good at It by Kelly McGonigal

Synopsis: What is stress? It is how we react when something in our life is threatened. If you experience too much you death risk can increase. But that’s only if you view stress as a negative. People who don’t view it as a negative have a very low risk of death because “mind over matter.” Being positive can be beneficial since it impacts how healthy you are because it plays a large role in our feelings, behaviors, and thoughts.

The book discusses how different stress responses help us connect, age, and grow. While fight or flight has its place, stress can help us work through challenges and become better people. The author writes that when life is stressful, it frequently is more meaningful. Even thinking about stress differently can help us cope with it. Resilient individuals can recognize that life goes on, no matter how stressful things get because more often than not, they went through hard times in the past. The author includes many examples and studies to back up her points.

So how do we benefit from our anxieties? Embrace them. Repeating positive mantras channels stress and turns it into strength. Embracing it can prevent us from getting into the anxiety-avoidance cycle. And when we have real interactions with other, stress becomes something different. It turns into knowledge, confidence, and courage. So, a better way to deal with stress is to reach out to other people.

When we see the ways stress can benefit us, we can bounce back from it more effectively. So, when we take a moment to evaluate how the situation is ultimately good for us, thinking through the problem at hand will help us better deal with the stress and help us in the future. While I enjoyed this book, the author’s Ted Talk was also good. To read this book in its entirety, get it here.

Until my next post, why not check out my YA novels about mental illness, memoir writing, or even my Native American mystery series on Amazon, or follow me on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, Goodreads, LinkedIn, Bookbub , BookSprout, or AllAuthor.

Book review for Why Zebras Don’t Get Ulcers: The Acclaimed Guide to Stress, Stress-Related Diseases, and Coping by Robert M. Sapolsky

Synopsis: Why Zebras Don’t Get Ulcers vividly explains the biology behind stress and its impact on our lives, functioning as an effective way to deal with immediate problems, while also posing serious health risks in the long run. The author also offers plenty of practical tips on how to keep stress under control.

Humans, unlike zebras, feel and create stress with the help of our complex brains by envisioning problems in the future (conjuring up intense situations like traffic jams, upcoming deadlines, the mortgage payment, or tense arguments) which other mammals don’t experience. From a evolutionary perspective, sustained psychological stress is a very recent phenomenon. Stress then is not only bad in itself but has effects on our cardiovascular system, insulin production, reproduction, and our overall health.

The author goes into how stress originates as an acute response to physical crises, but also imaginary things. Our brains autonomic nervous system (two systems that work in opposition to each other) manages the way we respond to and recover from stress. The way these systems interact is crucial to how we respond to stress. When under stress, the body prioritizes short-term, high-cost actions over long-term projects. These protective measures, while helpful, also are taxing on the body in the long run. Stress speeds up our blood flow, making us more likely to develop arterial and heart diseases. Then the stress of transferring energy in the body increases the risk of diabetes which can lead to other illnesses. Stress produces changes in the brain that resemble depression and make recovery from trauma more difficult.

Our intricate reproductive system is easily affected by stress, leading to problems for both men and women. Stress is unavoidable, so understanding and balancing our stress response systems is key. We need to take responsibility for the things we can control and providing social support can have a strong stress reducing effect.

The book has detailed how isolated instances like fleeing predators or pre-test anxiety contribute to stress; but poverty, goes beyond isolated incidents and thereby causes chronic stress. Note that our place in society affects stress levels and has a great impact on resistance to illness and mortality rates. The author points out a study of elderly nuns that lived in the exact same conditions for fifty years which had disparity that endures even after out of poverty and stays in the body through old age. Income inequality promotes lack of trust and social cohesion, which translates into worse health for the wealthy and the poor. Just constantly comparing yourself to those around you can create stress even for the rich.

This book did well at describing the physiological processes in regard to how stress is handled in the body and how we can relieve it. I especially enjoyed how both giving and receiving social support is an extremely effective preventative measure against stressors which is why married people are generally more healthy than single people. All in all, we need to find a personal outlet for stress and do it regularly. Read this book in its entirety for a plethora of examples making it easier to understand and remember. Get it here.

Until my next post, why not check out my YA novels about mental illness, memoir writing, or even my Native American mystery series on Amazon, or follow me on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, Goodreads, LinkedIn, Bookbub , BookSprout, or AllAuthor.