Dr. Robert M. Sapolsky - Stress, Neurodegeneration And Individual Differences

The Grass Traveling Scientist Program presents Dr. Robert M. Sapolsky of Stanford University's Dept. of Biological Sciences in a seminar sponsored by the Dept. of VCAPP and the Northern Rocky Mtn. Chapter of the Society for Neuroscience.

An Interesting Video from the '60s on Suicidal Behavior and Advice on Recognition and Intervention

SUICIDE - THE UNHEARD CRY. Department of Defense. Department of the Army. Office of the Chief Signal Officer presents an analysis of suicidal personalities and the behavior patterns based in a military setting emphasizing that assistance can be offered to prevent suicide attempts.



Producer: National Archives and Records Administration. Creative Commons license: CC0 1.0 Universal

Stanford Professor Robert Sapolsky, posits that depression is the most damaging disease that you can experience. Right now it is the number four cause of disability in the US and it is becoming more common.

Stanford's Sapolsky On Depression in U.S. (Full Lecture)



Stanford University:
http://www.stanford.edu/

Stanford University Channel on YouTube:
http://www.youtube.com/stanford

Stress-less Ideas Hints and Tips

...“Tell your fear to someone else and make sure to be as dramatic as possible, with very descriptive words and emotions. Then, when you’ve told every detail you can think of, start over again. Tell the entire, dramatic story, again with very elaborate descriptions (and gestures). By the third or fourth time, it becomes a bit silly.”  Click anywhere in this sentence to continue reading...

Via:  World of Psychology

What threatens you? What do you worry about?

"When we feel threatened we turn away from soul and become obsessed or egocentric. When we feel threatened, we let the survival instinct take over. When this happens, we cannot think because perceived or real threats shut down the activity of the frontal lobe of the brain where we can think, reason and make choices. Loss of control for many is a common threat and a serious obstacle ..."


The above paragraph is an excerpt from a bi-weekly newsletter I receive.  It is often full of interesting ideas to spark fresh ways of thinking.  To subscribe to the email newsletter click the link below and you will find the newsletter link on the left side, near the top.



Via:  Soul Perspectives

The Road to Resilience

Introduction:

How do people deal with difficult events that change their lives? The death of a loved one, loss of a job, serious illness, terrorist attacks and other traumatic events: these are all examples of very challenging life experiences. Many people react to such circumstances with a flood of strong emotions and a sense of uncertainty. Yet people generally adapt well over time to life-changing situations and stressful conditions. What enables them to do so? It involves resilience, an ongoing process that requires time and effort and engages people in taking a number of steps...Click anywhere in this sentence to continue reading...

via: American Psychological Association

The Brain Is a Co-Conspirator in a Vicious Stress Loop

By NATALIE ANGIER

Published: August 17, 2009 New York Times Science

"If after a few months’ exposure to our David Lynch economy, in which housing markets spontaneously combust, coworkers mysteriously disappear and the stifled moans of dying 401k plans can be heard through the floorboards, you have the awful sensation that your body’s stress response has taken on a self-replicating and ultimately self-defeating life of its own, congratulations. You are very perceptive. It has..."Click anywhere in this sentence to continue reading.

Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction

The UCSD Center for Mindfulness has prepared a number of practices that are available here in MP3 format. Please feel free to download and/or share these guided practices. Click H E R E to be directed to a page that has several guided audio files to aide you into a meditative state of mindfulness.

Perceptions and Time Dialation When Involved in a Stressful Event

After a car accident or other scary experience many people report feeling like the event happened in slow motion. One neuroscientist set out to test whether our brains really see things slowed down in response to fear. This ScienCentral News story shows why he had to scare people in order to do the experiment...Click anywhere in this sentence to continue reading.

Psychological trauma is a type of damage to the psyche that occurs as a result of a traumatic event.

When that trauma leads to posttraumatic stress disorder, damage may involve physical changes inside the brain and to brain chemistry, which damage the person's ability to adequately cope with stress.
A traumatic event involves a single experience, or an enduring or repeating event or events, that completely overwhelm the individual's ability to cope or integrate the ideas and emotions involved with that experience. The sense of being overwhelmed can be delayed by weeks, years, even decades, as the person struggles to cope with the immediate circumstances. Trauma can be caused by a wide variety of events, but there are a few common aspects. There is frequently a violation of the person's familiar ideas about the world and of their human rights, putting the person in a state of extreme confusion and insecurity. This is also seen when people or institutions depended on for survival violate or betray or disillusion the person in some unforeseen way. Click anywhere in this sentence to continue reading...

Via Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia