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How stress impacts the developing brain How does stress effect impulse control? Decision-making? Is the Transcendental Meditation Technique an effective antidote? Dr William Stixrud is a renowned clinical neuropsychologist in the Washington, DC area in the United States. He is an adjunct faculty member at Children’s National Medical Center and a consultant to the National Institutes of Health, Divisions of Neuropsychology and Metabolic Disorders. He specializes in the neuropsychological assessment of children, adolescents, and adults with learning, attentional/executive, and emotional or behavioural disorders. Dr Stixrud also writes and lectures about the effects of stress on the developing brain. In the first in a series of short interviews featured on the David Lynch Foundation website, Dr Stixrud talks about the enormous potential of a child’s brain and the devastating impact on brain development of stress, substance abuse, and sleep deprivation. Dr Stixrud explains the real dangers as kids grow into adolescence—for example, making bad decisions, losing motivation, getting depressed, developing eating disorders or self-injury, and abusing drugs or alcohol. 'All these dangers are highly related to stress,' Dr Stixrud says. 'When kids practice Transcendental Meditation, the more they find they are less reactive to stress. They generally sleep better, they find it easier to eat better and get through life. These kids simply need antidotes to these stresses.' In this interview Dr Stixrud said there is currently interest in the idea that the adolescent brain is very underdeveloped—which means that it has great potential for development. At the same time developing brain systems are more vulnerable—to various chemicals, injuries, and accidents. There are many things in modern life that have a derogatory effect on the developing brain including chronic sleep deprivation, so often seen in teenagers. Chronic stress, Dr Stixrud said, effects those in elite schools who want to be top students and go to an elite college; and in the poorest schools kids' stress levels are three times what they are in the general population. The effect of stress on the brain 'is that the part that allows you to think clearly, basically is shut down. In a real emergency, you don't want to stop and think. If you overthink that is dangerous,' Dr Stixrud said. ‘So Nature's program is that when we start to feel stressed, or threatened or hurt, or worried about something, we're supposed to respond instantly—which means we can't organize our thinking, we can’t put things in perspective.’ 'So it's a dangerous situation for kids and teenagers to be trying to learn, trying to sculpt brains that work well and can see the big picture on life; that have a positive attitude and be optimistic, when they're stressed and tired all the time, because the brain doesn't work that way.' In his experience Dr Stixrud has found that Transcendental Meditation is very good for the developing brain. In his experience teenagers can practise Transcendental Meditation very easily, and when they do, just ten minutes twice a day, ‘their experience is they have a center or core of peacefulness and happiness inside them that they can access. The longer they practice Transcendental Meditation, the less reactive they are to stress,’ Dr Stixrud said. 'When they do get stressed it goes away faster,' Dr Stixrud said. 'They generally sleep better; they find it easier to eat and get through life; and kids simply need antidotes to these tremendous stressors.' What kind of health benefits can Transcendental Meditation provide for children? Like many others, Dr Stixrud is concerned about the epidemic of obesity and diabetes in children. In thinking about these problems people have considered nutritional education and exercise for children, Dr Stixrud said, and yet despite this big emphasis on diet and exercise, people including younger and younger kids, are becoming more obese. Current thinking is that perhaps this is related to chronic fatigue. Research on adolescents has shown that Transcendental Meditation significantly reduces the risk for diabetes; and stress plays a big role in obesity. 'So by giving the nervous system deep rest and by de-stressing kids, we also significantly reduce the risk for heart related problems, obesity related problems,' Dr Stixrud said. Excellence in Action will feature a second article about Dr Stixrud speaking about the priority in education.
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