Your brain on stress

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Our front lawn is an eyesore. Its an ugly mixture of weeds, a few light-green blades of grass and mostly dirt, and although that combination may be somewhat more acceptable now that Los Angeles is in the midst of our drought, its been like that for years. No question that landscaping is a low priority for us.

With a teenage son with serious developmental disabilities, our limited resources of time and money are often spent taking care of him and paying for experts, such as weekly sessions with a private speech therapist, or for a babysitter, because he still requires adult supervision and assistance at all times.

Like many parents of children and teens with special needs or chronic health conditions, the problem of a time deficit isnt just about the actual hands-on time its also the brainpower that goes into planning ahead, problem solving, plus a fair amount of anxiety and worrying.

It turns out theres actual science at work here. In a recent article called Rethinking Poverty by Elisabeth D. Babcock in the online Stanford Social Innovation Review, Babcock talks about how recent discoveries in brain science can help us understand barriers low-income families (and, by extension, others who are dealing with chronically stressful situations) face in trying to get ahead.

Babcock writes, According to an emerging body of brain science, the stresses that come with being poor negatively affect the strategic thinking and self-regulation skills that people need in order to break the poverty cycle. These skills, known as executive function (EF) skills, are fundamental to our ability to solve problems, to multitask, to juggle priorities, to control impulses, to delay gratification, and to persist in the pursuit of goals.

Other recent discoveries in brain science demonstrate that stress compromises memory, making it harder for people to remember several things at one time. Constant stress can also make it more difficult for people to maintain mental flexibility, to shift back and forth between potential approaches to solving problems, and to weigh the future implications of current decisions.

At Babcocks anti-poverty agency, Crittenton Womens Union in Boston, the staff helps clients cope with what she calls the bandwidth tax of living a highly stressful life by providing them with trained, individualized coaches who help them create new decision-making strategies and, in turn, boost their internal executive function competence.

Previous disability-related studies showed that mothers of teens and adults with autism experience a level of chronic stress comparable to combat soldiers and struggle with frequent fatigue and work interruptions. These mothers also spend significantly more time caregiving than those of children without disabilities. Researchers at the University of Wisconsin-Madison detailed the daily experiences of mothers of adolescent and adult children with autism over a period of eight successive days. On four of those days, the researchers measured the womens levels of cortisol, a hormone released by the adrenal gland in response to stress. Their levels of the hormone were found to be significantly lower than normal, a condition that occurs under constant psychological stress.

So, what can be done to reduce this chronic stress burden? Aside from hiring a coach to help retrain the over-stressed brain, other emerging strategies use a peer-directed, meditation-oriented approach to reduce parental stress, anxiety and depression among mothers who have a child with a developmental disability.

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