In ancient peoples and even now, this hormone is used to signal threat and activate the systems that give us the power to run fast or fight to protect ourselves, the fight-flight response. As a neurotransmitter, it has the job of helping brain cells talk to each other.
When you’re under constant stress and adrenaline is bathing the brain daily, it becomes a “bully” transmitter. Because it’s designed to keep you alive, if adrenaline is present, other, healthier neurotransmitters aren’t allowed to hang around.
For example, if adrenaline is in the brain, serotonin, the brain’s antidepressant, drops substantially. If you’re stressed chronically, the organ in your brain that makes serotonin will go quiet and you’ll develop depression.
Check your kid’s stress levels. It’s a challenge to treat depression in children.
Claudia
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