Children And Stress Dubai | Chronic Stress Can Be Toxic
Children and stress Dubai: Stress affects your child too. Know the causes and effects toxic stress can have and how to help
Children and stress Dubai: Please invest a few minutes of your time to watch the video. Or if you prefer to read, then feel free to skip the video and go straight to the text below:
Children and stress Dubai: To receive information to help your child send me a WhatsApp message on +971525608641
Children and stress Dubai: Normal stress
Children and stress Dubai: The concept of stress is linked to the emotional strain that says it is too much. However, stress is actually a normal reaction of our mind and body to anything that disturbs its balance. In fact, small amounts of stress are essential to learning and living.
A small upset like a test or a snub from a friend can make your heart beat fast, tighten your stomach and interfere with sleep. Nonetheless, this is just part of one’s fight and flight response to help the body counter whatever is causing the disequilibrium.
Physical triggers like hunger, infection or emotional ones like fear activate a series of complex interactions between our nervous systems, immune systems, hormone, and cognition.
The increased heart rate, diverting blood supply to muscles from the gut, widening of eyes all are crucial to survival like running away from a tiger or other dangers.
Unfortunately, one can’t run away from pop-quizzes or a reading lesson. But it does help to study harder or work more.
Children and stress Dubai: To receive information to help your child send me a WhatsApp message on +971525608641
Children and stress Dubai: Harmful stress
Stress becomes harmful when it is too intense or too repetitive. This is of particular importance in children with a developing and thus a more vulnerable brain.
There are three types of stress responses based on the intensity and duration of trauma and the extent to which caring adults support and help children cope. Positive stress response, tolerable stress response and toxic stress response.
Examples of positive stress are those that are experienced normally in a child’s life like the first day at nursery or immunizations.
An environment of stable and supportive relationships, positive stress responses are a growth-promoting element of normal development.
They provide important opportunities to observe, learn, and practice healthy, adaptive responses to adverse experiences.
Tolerable stress occurs when a child is faced with an unusual trauma like an accident, major illness or loss of a parent from death or divorce. The essential part of this stress response is the extent to which protective adult relationship help the child to cope thus reducing the physiologic stress response and limiting the damage it can do to the child.
The toxic stress response is the most dangerous type of stress caused by strong, frequent, or prolonged activation of the body’s stress response systems in the absence of the buffering protection of a supportive, adult relationship.
Some examples are child maltreatment, child neglect, maternal depression. It is believed that toxic stress response disrupts the brain circuitry and metabolic systems during sensitive developmental periods.
These then change the cellular structure and cause physiological dysregulations that can lead to later impairments in learning and behavior and are the roots of chronic, stress-related physical and mental illness in adulthood.
Thus stress that is intense or prolonged where the child does not have a supportive adult environment can damage the body and cause illness and mental problems.
Children And Stress Dubai
Children and stress Dubai: To receive information to help your child send me a WhatsApp message on +971525608641
Children and stress Dubai: Symptoms of stress
Stressed children may complain of recurrent stomachaches, headaches, diarrhea, nausea, eczema or even asthmatic attacks. They may hurt others or themselves by getting into fights or banging their fists on the wall.
They may become withdrawn or like an ostrich refuses to deal with the problem. Or conversely, they become restless and act silly jumping around like monkeys.
Ongoing stress can impair children’s concentration and learning. It can cause mood problems, disorganization, and even logical thinking.
Children and stress Dubai: To receive information to help your child send me a WhatsApp message on +971525608641
Children and stress Dubai: Biology of stress
The body’s response to stress acts through the release of stress hormones like adrenaline and cortisol. The initial effect is increased in heart rate, increased rate of breathing and more blood going to the muscles.
At the same time, there is increased inflammation due to the release of cytokines. The next step is the body’s way to counterbalance this inflammation and sympathetic nervous system response (adrenaline) by activating the parasympathetic nervous system.
Whereas transient increases in these stress hormones are protective and even essential for survival, excessively high levels or prolonged exposures can be quite harmful and lead to a chronic “wear and tear” effect on multiple organ systems, including the brain.
Chronic exposure to stress hormones, whether it occurs during the prenatal period, infancy, childhood, adolescence, adulthood or aging, has an impact on brain structures involved in cognition and mental health.
However, when they occur during critically sensitive periods like prenatally and early childhood, growing scientific understanding indicates later health, learning, and behavior problems.
Thus significant stress in the lives of young children can lead to risky behaviours like substance abuse as well as chronic illnesses later in life.
Hence, altered brain architecture in response to toxic stress in early childhood could explain, at least in part, the strong association between early adverse experiences and subsequent problems in the development of linguistic, cognitive, and social-emotional skills, all of which are inextricably intertwined in the wiring of the developing brain
Children and stress Dubai: Conclusion
Stress, though normal in life can become toxic if it is intense, during critically sensitive periods and can change the brain architecture and result in life-long problems.
Children And Stress Dubai
Children and stress Dubai: To receive information to help your child send me a WhatsApp message on +971525608641
If you like what you have seen or read about children and stress Dubai, please share it with your friends by clicking on one of the social media buttons below.
Go from children and stress Dubai to Pediatrician Dubai homepage
