The Effects Of Toxic Stress On Children’s Brain Development

The healthy development of children can be affected by the excessive or prolonged response of the body and brain systems to stress. In fact, toxic stress can have detrimental effects on learning, behavior and health throughout life.

Learning to cope with adversity is an important part of healthy childhood development. When we’re threatened, our bodies are primed to respond by increasing heart rate, blood pressure, and stress hormones like cortisol.

When a young child’s stress response systems are activated in an environment of supportive relationships with adults, these physiological effects are dampened. The result is the development of healthy stress-response systems.

However, if the stress response is extreme and long-lasting, and the child sees these dampening relationships compromised, the result can weaken brain systems and structure. The repercussions can last a lifetime.

In the absence of responsive relationships with adult caregivers, a child’s stress response systems are put on high alert and remain there. The cumulative cost increases the likelihood of developmental delays, learning problems and behavioral problems in children, as well as diabetes, heart disease, depression, drug abuse, alcoholism and other major health problems in adults.

childhood stress

Early childhood experiences play an important role in how the brain develops and how it functions. Interactions with the child and their environment affect long-term learning, behavior and health. For the development of a healthy brain structure, it is critical that the child has receptive caregivers and that they develop positive relationships that help them learn to manage stressful experiences.

In general, the stress response is a physiological response to an adverse event or demanding circumstance and includes biochemical changes in the neurological, endocrine, and immune systems; however, stress is not always a negative phenomenon; it can be positive, tolerable and toxic.

A positive stress response is essential for a child’s growth and development. Positive stress responses are rare, short-lived, and mild.

The child is supported with strong social and emotional buffers, such as tranquility and parental protection. The child acquires motivation and resilience for each positive stress response so that the biochemical reactions return to baseline.

Tolerable stress responses are more severe, frequent, or sustained. The body responds to a greater degree and these biochemical responses have the potential to adversely affect brain structure.

Child Toxic Stress

Toxic childhood stress is an abnormal response to stress that is a disorder that results in a constant increase in cortisol levels and a persistent inflammatory state in which the body is unable to normalize these changes, regardless of the disappearance of the stressor.

Toxic stress results in prolonged activation of the stress response, with a failure of the body to return to baseline levels at altered constants. The lack of support, tranquility or emotional attachment on the part of caregivers can impede a normal response to stress.

Toxic childhood stress is a very serious problem. Children suffering from toxic stress are at risk for harmful health effects that may not manifest until adulthood. These adverse effects include inadequate adaptive skills, inadequate stress management, unhealthy lifestyles, mental illness and physical illness.

The more adverse the childhood experiences, the greater the likelihood of developmental delays and subsequent health problems such as heart disease, diabetes, substance abuse, and depression.

brain development and toxic stress

Children experience external behaviors such as aggression and internal behaviors such as anxiety and depression. The problem is that these behaviors are not unique to children whose development has been affected by stress and trauma, and often people around them only see an aggressive child at work, not a child who is trying to make someone else notice the constant pain. that you are experiencing.

The trauma that toxic stress causes and its effects can also have the subtle effect of normalizing. Children who do not have a broader view of the world may think that domestic violence is normal or that street violence is as natural as rain.

In terms of development, a child who is experiencing adversity is at risk for permanent changes in brain structure, epigenetic alteration and altered genetic function. The long-term health implications and developmental effects are critical and include an increased risk of stress-related illnesses.

The toxic stress response affects the neuroendocrine immune network, and the response leads to a prolonged and abnormal release of cortisol. The resulting immune dysregulation, which includes a persistent inflammatory state, increases the risk and frequency of infections in children. Furthermore, the toxic stress response is believed to play a role in the pathophysiology of depressive disorders, lack of behavioral regulation, post-traumatic stress disorder, and psychosis.

It is also known that adults who experienced difficulties in early childhood also experience more physical illness and poor health outcomes. These health outcomes are varied and include alcoholism, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, depression, cancer, obesity, increased suicide attempts or ischemic heart disease, among many other processes.

Experts recommend creating policies that minimize the effects of toxic stress on children. Some suggestions include: making specialist care more accessible – for caregivers who do not have sufficient knowledge and skills to help young children who have symptoms of toxic stress – and increasing support for existing intervention programs.