Stress makes you Stupid

It starts with a Nut. An Almond nut. The Amygdala.

Or so we were told today by our charismatic and entertaining lecturer, who is a psychologist. Everything starts when we are born, everything that we are starts there. How we express ourselves, how we react to stimuli, how we interpret things, how we cope with life events. As we develop, our mid brain develop first; thats where all our autonomic responses are processed. Then comes to the lymbic system where most of our emotions and fears are. Last is our cognitive function such as speech and rationalization. And everything is a learning process that begins when we are born, with our attachments to the people around us and the environment.

So, I am the way I am, because that's how I have learnt and have been since then.

But...

Who am I?





I never like to talk. I prefer typing. To me, typing eliminates most of the emotional side of things, body language, tone; something that I do not handle well. I would probably score good marks on a EQ written test, but put into a real situation I don't think I will be able to convey genuine empathy, sympathy and end up with just apathy.

Which brings to the next part of the lecture: EMOTIONS. :)

The basic idea is that emotions are in the lymbic system and not in the cortex. So when you get stressed or emotional, you aren't thinking rationally. So, as an aspiring General Practioner, we have to learn about how TO handle difficult patients and how WE handle difficult patients.

Then the question arose, to avoid getting stressed and becoming better doctors, do we forgo our stressful studying practises?



When you are stressed, it has been proven that more blood goes to your lymbic system and midbrain than your cortex, to you appear to be less intelligent. STRESS MAKES YOU STUPID

So when you relax, more blood goes to the rest of your brain and you are able to process information better and makes you be less emotional and more rational. THE BRAIN IS LIKE A SPONGE; IT ABSORBS BETTER RELAXED