Who Switched Off My Brain? By Dr. Caroline Leaf. Stress is like a demon in your head. Stress is result of toxic thinking.

Transcription

1 Who Switched Off My Brain? By Dr. Caroline Leaf Session 3: Stress Always deal with your thoughts, good and bad. Stress is like a demon in your head. Satan has access to you through your five senses Once strongholds in your mind that is ground you ve given to the enemy Hosea 4:6 Understand the demon and you can overcome it. The word, Stress, is very common word in people s vocabulary Stress is result of toxic thinking. 1

2 Fear is at the root of Stress. Fear is a spiritual force and cannot cohabitate with faith. Fear is the opposite of faith. The Road to Overload 1. Thinking starts stinking 2. Faith level drops 3. Fear levels increase 4. Fear dominates 5. Feel out of control Stress!!! Fear triggers more than 1400 known physical and chemical responses, and activates more than 30 different hormones and neurotransmitters! Stress reaction you are marinating your brain and your body in chemicals that have been distorted. Stage 1 Stage 2 Stage 3 Hypothalamus 2

3 Stressor 1. External 2. Internal 3. Both You MUST deal with negative thoughts, Otherwise, you will relive again and again! Affects the quality of your life Stress Chemicals - Follow a particular route through your body. Definition of Stress: Stress is the mind and body s response to any pressure that disrupts normal balance. It is an unmanaged reaction. An unmanaged reaction comes from a toxic thought. Everything that you are exposed to becomes a thought in your head. Be selective about what you listen, pay attention to. Garbage (Negative things) puts you into stress. The Road to Overload Stressor Can be internal from the brain Or external what you see or hear which becomes a thought Stressor causes fear Fear is a spiritual force 3

4 Stage 1 Alarm Reaction: Stress Cycle Starts Example: External Stressor = Someone attacking you with a knife or learning something new Internal Stressor = Fear of Rejection How you feel Heart beats stronger Blood rushes to muscles away from the stomach Blood sugar rises Fats are released into bloodstream for energy Chemicals are released to make the blood clot faster Alert strong focused memory building starts Negative feedback loop When Stressed, the hypothalamus excretes a yellow chemical called the fear hormone. Root of stress is fear. This chemical drips down to the pituitary gland and becomes ACTH moves in the blood to the kidneys and the adrenaline gland which secretes adrenaline and cortisol. In the right proportion - will be good Will flow back and bathe the pituitary and tell it to stop flowing. If negative, keeps the cycle continuing and overrides the good chemicals. 4

5 Will marinate your body in stress Molecules of emotion carry feeling and shift into cells of body Not good to happen all the time Stage 2: Resistance: Acute Long-term stress Negative feedback loops are blocked More CRF negative expectations Hormone is secreted from hypothalamus More ACTH fear hormone is secreted from the pituitary More cortisol and adrenalin are released from the adrenal CRF-ACTH loop keeps pumping All electro-chemical feedback loops become disrupted Life is in the blood. Battle in the mind and carries on into the body Mind-body linked How do you feel at Stage 2? Thinking and memory Foggy Lack of creativity Tense Sick Anxious Depressed Overwhelmed Out of control Want to give up Cortisol flows too long will sever your memory branches on your dendrites. 5

6 If this carries on for months, you will need some help. Will put into stage 2 of stress by suppressing emotions Stage 3 of Stress: Exhaustion Stress system never stops reaction Organs don t relax Organ and system breakdown Tissue damage occurs Changes occur at a cellular level Adrenal burnout over-secreted chemicals Constant state of stress Chemicals mutate and eat more of your body harmful to body and allows anything to enter cells and deposits into your cells and you get cellular memory. This becomes implanted and can make you sick. Chemicals have jobs to perform. Viruses are also chemicals and have jobs. Can t get sick until it gets into cells Stress is not just mental stress. Changing your thinking can reverse this process. 6

7 Killer Cells: Immune system secretes cancer killing cells. If you are very Stressed or depressed, killer cells do not work properly allowing the cancer cells to form. Unforgiveness is related to this. Phil. 4:8 Look at principles that Jesus teaches on thinking. How do you feel at Stage 3: All organs are on heightened alert for too long and become exhausted. Adrenal Cortex becomes enlarged Spleen, lymph nodes, thymus and immune system shrink Entire immune system becomes depleted blood pressure increases memory and all mental functions decrease Very ill Feeling of loss of control, failure, trapped, self-doubt Over time the mind simply burns out emotional black hole Even death What you think affects your entire body. Stress chemicals flow through your body in a specific order. 7

8 Long Term effects of Stress: The Sequence of Attack NB!! Root = Fear: starts with a thought! 1. Cardiovascular Problems: a. Angina b. Heart Attack c. High Blood Pressure d. Stroke e. Aneurysms 2. Immune System Disorders: a. Diabetes b. Cancer c. Asthma d. Allergies e. Eczema f. Neurodermatitus g. Crohns Disease 3. Brain: a. Depression b. Phobias c. Panic Attacks d. Fatigue e. Lethargy f. Exhaustion g. Insomnia h. Lack of Peace i. Fogged Thinking j. Poor Memory Genetic weakness will be where the attack will go first. Heart: Satan attacks the life in the blood. Distortion of the truth Choking the life in you 8

9 Immune System: Weakens your defense system Brain: Then the brain is attacked. We all experience these. If pass threshold of the cells then is when a major problem Proverbs 17:22 No where in the Word of God that He tells you to think of bad things. Faith-based things brain releases stronger chemicals than stress chemicals. Eph. 4:26 will make you sick literally if you go to bed angry Luke 21:26 Psalm 102:4 Proverbs 23:7 Matthew 12:34 4. Digestive System a. Constipation b. Diarrhea c. Vomiting d. Nausea e. Cramping f. Ulcers 5. Fertility Problems 6. Affect Growth of Children 7. Muscular Tension: a. Neck b. Throat c. Back, etc 8. Arthritis 9. The common cold: the Rheovirus 9

10 Children: What are we doing to our children? Putting too much stress on children is a form of child abuse! Negative thoughts create the same stress response in children s bodies as in adults the brain circuitry starts changing and rewiring in negative directions. These effects go into adulthood, with all the negative impact on health, intellect and emotions. Stress in Children The brain takes 18 yrs to grow and is extremely vulnerable to stress during this time. Hot Housing forcing rapid brain growth = decreases intellectual performance and increases stress and anxiety in children Patterns of behavior in adulthood are set up in childhood Children exposed to excessive levels of stress in early childhood have a 30% higher chance of developing cancer in early adulthood. The avg. primary school child has a longer day than CEO s of major corporations Children deal with stress using their amygdale (emotional perceptions, instinct, gut reaction) while adults rely more on their frontal cortex (deep analytical thinking and introspection). Damage will show in different forms in different ways from mild behavioral problems to attention deficit, hyperactivity, to complete mental blocking. Children suppress a lot of emotions. De-stress the learning environment Up to 70% of current children are stressed, depressed and even suicidal Children are expert at suppressing emotions and covering up things they cannot explain, in true volcanic mode. It s only a matter of time before an explosion can occur. Stress will negatively impact development EG reading Suicide is the 4 th highest cause of death in 8-14 yr olds. Want approval of parent; keep the peace so hide emotions Stress experienced by pregnant mothers will carry through to the unborn baby and shunts away 60% of oxygen from the baby in the utero 10

11 A lack of loving touch and support in the first three years of life retards emotional development. Adolescence is the most stressful period in the entire human life cycle. Quality time filled with love is the best healer. Isaiah 26:3 Phil. 4:6-7 Prov. 3:4-7 Prov. 4:20-22 Thinking is distorted because of original sin. Word of God is life! Fill your brain with life! Undo Stress by the Word of God. The 13 Steps to Detoxing 1. Capture those thoughts 2. Frame your world with your words 3. Express those emotions 4. Take responsibility and take control 5. Dream on 6. Think forgiveness 7. Love-tune into your heart 8. Monkey-hug 9. Play and laugh a lot 10. Exercise 11. Diet 12. The Spirit Aspect 13. Relax 11