Stress / Anxiety and the Brain

By Dr. Dennis Maness, HealthWalk MindSoul Division

While sitting at the desk, a cold sweat, a nervous rush, a sinking feeling, even brain fog hits. Our thoughts are more difficult to compose. Our thoughts come a little slower then we feel a rush as anxiety sets in. This happens at all levels from the board room the classroom to the locker room.

While a certain amount of stress is good for us as it helps motivate us, prepares us for things we have to face, and sometimes give us energy to take action when we need. That adrenaline rush serves us well under certain circumstances. Anxiety is a natural reaction to those very real stresses that come from a variety of sources such as home, school or work.

How much anxiety does it take to affect our performance, productivity or personal life? It doesn't take a specific threat -- only the possibility of crisis -- to send humans into anxiety mode. It is in this mode that mistakes happen.

Have you noticed when you are stressed, your ability to make decisions is clouded, your ability to process a thought is slow and your reaction times are slower? When stressed, you are prone to make mistakes and quite often silly, bone-head mistakes.

A study out of Britain states that highly stressed persons had higher rates of clinical colds irrespective of the stress scale, showing that perceived stress and actual life-event stress were equally problematic. Stress, seems to be "associated with the suppression of a general resistance process in an individual leaving them susceptible to multiple infectious agents. In other words, the immune system is compromised with excessive stress. This increases absenteeism and lowered performance at school and in the work place.

Unmanaged stress can cause memory drops, eye strain, muscle tension, brain fog and if still uncontrolled, can cause fight or flight. At this stage, the blood immediately goes from the frontal lobes of the brain to the back of the brain which is your survival center. Blood thickens, the heart beats faster, mental clarity becomes more difficult and for many, their vision becomes more of a chore. Your blood leaves the digestive centers and goes to the large skeletal muscles to give you maximum strength to outrun the saber tooth tiger that is causing you all the stress. Over time, depression can set in.

Many of the people I work with are stuck in this fight-or-flight state of mind. The survival component of their brain is overactive while the executive brain lobes are in neutral.

How HealthWalk can help:

In HealthWalk’s MindSoul Brain Technologies I utilize the diagnostic aspects of the qEEG and proprietary non-intrusive, relaxing protocols to help my clients balance and harmonize their brain. Most clients will fall to sleep during this procedure. I remove them from the fight-or-flight condition and bring brain activities in the front of the brain back to a more acceptable norm. This however is only part one of the time I spend with my clients.

Next, I position my client in a relaxing chair and in front of a computer monitor in order that my client is able to see their brain activity. I teach them how to respond to a stress thought and manage it before stress can manifest. They learn they have choices. I show them how long they have before a stress thought can manifest. Although this time is only seconds, it is enough time to make intelligent choices. When the choice is made, the stress hormones dissipate.

What can you do?

Determine the real dangers that a situation presents not the imaginary challenges that may never manifest. Imaginary danger only makes things worse.

• Challenge negative thoughts. Ask yourself if this is a productive thought? Is this thought something that is going to help you complete a task or achieve a goal? Instead of becoming paralyzed with fear, reason with yourself the benefits and how this thought is going to help you become a more secure person.
• Is it an imaginary thought that causes you fear? If it is an imaginary thought that causes you fear then you need to speak to the thought by telling it to stop. Take charge of that imaginary thought with a real stop sign. Eventually, the imaginary fear will dissipate.

It is important that react to the stressful thought before it has the opportunity to manifest. Remember, you have choices that will keep you from falling prey to anxiety, stress and fear.

Remember, we at HealthWalk are here and ready to help you through life’s challenging times.

HealthWalk’s MindSoul Brain Technologies March Heroes Include:

• Lady walking normally again and leg pain goes away. A lady client came into the office complaining that her left leg would swell and cause immense pain, making air travel for her job difficult and that she had difficulty walking. After the second MindSoul Brain technology session the pain left her leg. She immediately went to the shopping center across the freeway from the office and walked for over an hour with no pain.
• Young man regains cognitive skills and confidence and is working around the house for the first time in years.
• Executive is sleeping through the night without sleep medication. Prior, he could not turn off the mind chatter and felt as if he never went to bed. Today, the mind chatter is gone; he is resting fine and feels refreshed and energized every morning.
• Our quadriplegic gentleman from last month’s story is now able to stand up every day and was on the television news here in San Diego recently where he was filmed on the beach enjoying assisted surfing.
• From totally stressed to in control. A lady client was so stressed she was unable to sleep, relax and was having a difficult time making it through her busy day. Today, she is back to the gym working out and totally in control of her sleep. She sleeps throughout the night and awakes refreshed.