How COVID-related stress can disrupt your brain circuits and nine tips to prevent it

COVID-19 has touched each of us somehow. Many now recognize that caring for our mental health is as essential as addressing the virus if we are to emerge stronger, more connected and more resilient. The Ancient Greeks said “know thyself” to live soundly, but it is only now that we have the technology to start understanding how our individual experiences arise from the complexity of our brains. Gaining understanding of our brain responses offers a window into how mental health symptoms arise, and allows us to mitigate the negative effects of the pandemic on mental health. At the Stanford Center for Precision Mental Health and Wellness (PMHW), we are looking at cutting-edge techniques to understand how brain circuits make us who we are – and what happens when they go awry. Brain circuits are like sections of an orchestra; they are composed of many individual brain cells and perform diverse functions on their own, yet must operate in concert with each other to create a harmonious mind. Myriad factors influence the way these circuits operate, for better or worse. Among the most damaging influences on these circuits is chronic stress, wherein parts of your brain that help you with short-term problems (a hungry tiger) are applied to problems with longer timeframes (a global pandemic). Chronic stress on your circuits can be the first step toward clinical depression or an anxiety disorder. We have quantified the ways that different brain circuits can get disrupted or stuck (whi...
Source: SharpBrains - Category: Neuroscience Authors: Tags: Cognitive Neuroscience Education & Lifelong Learning Health & Wellness accelerated accelerated learning Anhedonia anxiety disorder biotypes brain circuits Brain-Plasticity chronic-stress clinical depression Cognitive Fog cognitiv Source Type: blogs