JoAnn+Deak

**Joan Deak -- http://www.deakgroup.com****

 * STRESS AND TRAUMA**

Stress has been given a bad name. It's not bad, it is just a negative emotion, and negative emotions are designed to kick the system into gear to get rid of them.

Keep stress from becoming trauma, which is extremely difficulty to kick out of the system.

Stress is the body's //instinctive// response to protect itself. Stress is phenomenological, because it is in the eye of the beholder.

Comfort -- Stretch -- Stress

Need to start changing our language in schools, since parents and kids want us to make everything comfortable and stress-free. Stress is not a bad thing, and we cannot eliminate it. Comfort causes problems -- learning in the total comfort zone does not change the brain, which is a muscle. Like exercise, it needs to be pushed. Missteps and mistakes create stress, which activates the HPA which releases steroid hormones (the body's fight or flight instinct) and neurotransmitters like dopamine. A certain degree of stress actually helps move things from working memory to short term memory and, maybe even to long term memory. You want a healthy degree of stress in classes. Stress is a huge part of what helps us learn and grow and is not detrimental to the system -- quite the opposite, unless such stress is overwhelming.


 * Three major responses to neurotransmitters:**
 * 1) Amygdala activated, which signals the hippocampus to store emotionally loaded experience in long-term memory.
 * 2) Suppresses activity in fronts cortex: interference with short-term memory, concentration, inhibition and rational though.
 * 3) Short quick or moderate stress is fine, but excessive stress shuts things down and interferes with learning


 * Types of Stress**
 * Acute -- comes from demands and pressures of the recent past and anticipated demands and pressures of the near future.
 * Episodic -- type A personality or worry wort or perfectionist. Not good stress, as it take little to push into danger zone.
 * Chronic -- grinding stress that wars people away day by day, year by year. No light at end of tunnel.


 * Symptoms of Stress**
 * Acute: tension headache, upset stomach, sleep issues. Can be part of everyday life. Deal with it.
 * Episodic: short tempered, irritable, hostile, insecure, control issues, high blood presses. teachers who are inflexible may be like this.
 * Chronic: depression, suicide, homicide, stroke, cancer, flat affect, damaged neurons.

Eustress -- this is positive stress. Think of it as the opposite of distress. May temporarily cause mild distress, but the brain actually grows from this. "Do you want your child to be the best thinker he/she can be, able to deal with life's difficulties, and have positive long term growth?"

What causes most boys to feel stress (80%) causes only about 20% of girls to feel stress and visa versa.


 * What to Do**
 * Acute -- walk into it, just do it, meet it head on! Boys when under stress produce testosterone, which girls don't, which contribute to their meeting acute stress head on. Boys better at dealing with acute stress, whereas girls will allow it to develop into episodic or chronic stress. When women given testosterone, they reported less stress, clearer thinking. Girls' biology will mean that they will tend to avoid stress, while boys confront it head on.
 * Episodic -- coping mechanisms (living with your temperment or trying to change it). Can't change temperment, so support students who are tempermentally high stressed through helping them manage stress.
 * Chronic -- change the system. Change the person or the situation. Have until about age 10 to change the person; after that it is about providing students with the strategies they need to compensate or changing the environment's requirements (like number of pages of reading) on the student.


 * What To Do**
 * Remove extraneous stress
 * Reduce overall stress
 * Increase coping strategies

Middle school sent out survey before school to see what students were feeling stressed about.

Yoga/meditation/exercise Sleep/nap/rest Time out (late start, no homework weekend, mental health days) Self talk, chanting, pep rallies North Star (a passion that every student must have outside of schoolwork and friends) Music The "green blanket" (every student needs an adult at the school who they can go to for support and advice, someone who makes them feel better)
 * Research supported strategies of stress reduction or coping**