A short spoken segment by Connor Beaton explaining how acute stress floods the brain with stress chemicals (cortisol, adrenaline), activating the sympathetic nervous system and impairing the prefrontal cortex. He describes a tipping point where stress moves from briefly productive to counterproductive, causing diminished critical thinking, fogginess, elevated heart and breathing rates, and a shift into self-preservation mode.
What happens when you get stressed. Your brain obviously floods with a whole bunch of stress chemicals. You just start to lose the ability to think straight. Those stress chemicals moving through the brain, jacking up your nervous system, moving you into a sympathetic dominant state. These stress chemicals like cortisol and adrenaline will flood your brain and activate the part of your brain that kind of takes the main part of your critical thinking and your deliberate thought more offline. There's a tipping point where they can be productive for a period of time, but then they reach a tipping point where all of a sudden they are counterproductive. That's when your prefrontal cortex, your sort of decision making, your ability to critically think, that all starts to diminish. In these moments you'll find that you're not as present. Things are a little bit foggier. You don't feel very grounded, your heart rate starts to elevate, your breath rate permanent starts to elevate and your whole system starts to go into self preservation mode.
How to Raise Strong, Unshakable Boys in Today's Culture, with Dr. Shefali Tsabary
