Why stress makes you dumb.
Have you ever wondered why you, under stress, become dumb?
Ever wondered why an intelligent person like you, who are educated may even have a degree an ordinarily sane and logical rational person, suddenly turns out of control over something that later you know is stupid.
Like a total stranger cutting you up while you are in a car (road rage), or if things are not going your way, you get angry, upset depressed and moody. You go from an adult to almost a child throwing a tantrum.
Many relationship problems are caused by over emotional responses that are flabagasting and incredibly frustrating to other people.
Even worse when you get nervous, worried or frightened or stressed you have problems thinking clearly and your IQ drops.
You know what happens if you have not developed emotional control when your emotions get away with you, or someone says something you disagree with, and you’re triggered into something very unpleasant. And bang suddenly you lose all sense of reason, and say, or do something that makes you look a total idiot.
You have gone from being calm, intelligent and articulate and within a few seconds something has taken over, and your IQ has dropped, and you are behaving like an irrational spoilt child. We have all done it.
Would you like it to be different?
The problem is that when you make decisions or speak in this state, you are dumb, literally the stress chemicals make you that way. Why?
Stress is a big problem in today’s life, and yet the ways to reduce it and be more in control of your emotions and be emotionally calmer do that you have fewer frustrations and annoyances in life can be so simple.
However, until now, you may not have even considered it. Despite what you may have been taught, you and only you are responsible for how you feel.
It is a biological fact that has been proven in the lab many times, that when you are frightened which is another way of understanding being in a stressed response you are dumber, you suddenly do not have access to all your higher brain functions. A lot of research has and is still being done in this area.
Children and adults do it to themselves all the time they go into an exam or interview and just can’t think of the answers when it is all over, and they get outside they know the answers. Now that the stress is over they can think again.
So why does getting stressed make your IQ drop?
Some Very Basic Biology of Your Stress Responses.
In some area of the mind, you have noticed some danger or threats real or just something you made up. A possible threat to your life, food source, security or more usual your ego and self-concept.
This can be real, or it can be an imaginary fear, something that you have created in your own mind. This sets off one of your bodies protection mechanisms the HPA axis, your hypothalamus-pituitary-axis.
This then sends a signal to your pituitary gland, it sends a message to your adrenal glands, this fires off your fight, freeze or flight responses. Now remember this threat can be real, or it can be something you have imagined, or even made up in your own mind.
Your body now begins to change the way blood is sent around your body and brain. Being stressed changes how your brain receives blood and how much it gets, and which parts light up and which shut down.
Your forebrain that controls your logic and reasoning works far slower than your hindbrain your subconscious mind, In an emergency, you need to act quickly, and your conscious mind is just not able to do this, so it gets turned down, it does not work as well.
Think about it. Remember a time when you were driving your car, and a child ran out in front of you, or something similar. If you had to consciously work out your speed, angle, child’s weight, your deceleration, you would not have been able to do it. You would have hit the child. You just can’t think fast enough. But the other part of your mind can so it takes over.
So under stresses, your subconscious mind will actually pull blood away from your logical and thinking part of your brain. To stop you thinking because if the danger is real, your thinking is to slow.
So the stress chemicals and responses are designed to enhance your survival. But you get dumber. You can’t think. Now you know why and more importantly what you can begin to do about it.
Many people are trained to keep their intelligence and respond or react to real life and death situations. Without going dumb. Military, security, police, ambulance, fire service personnel and airline pilots are all trained on how to behave and respond. When it hits the fan.
Many people go into an adrenaline dump and survival mode over the slightest thing. Something that is no real threat. You can also learn how to do the same. It is not difficult to do this. You just have to decide if a more tranquil and powerful emotional life is worth it to you.