Pro Parenting Tip: Disrupt the Stress Response

Why is it so hard for your teen to calm down?

When our brain senses danger, it instinctively switches to survival mode, triggering the well-known "fight or flight" stress response. 🚨 This floods our bloodstream with chemicals like adrenaline and cortisol, preparing us for rapid, powerful reactions: increased heartrate 💓, tense muscles 💪, and shutdown executive functioning 🧠. It's a handy mechanism inherited from ancestors who faced man-eating beasts and natural disasters, allowing their bodies to settle back into a calm state once the danger passed.

However, modern challenges often lack a clear resolution, leaving stress chemicals lingering and hindering clear thinking. This persistent state can lead to irritability, depression, and anger, complicating communication, especially with teenagers.

Teens, particularly, struggle to calm down through conventional methods when already stressed. Instructing them to breathe or count to ten may trigger more emotional chaos. 😤

So, what's the solution? Disrupt their stress response. Picture it as inserting a stick into a spinning bicycle wheel, abruptly halting the cycle. 🚴‍♂️✋

Practical ways to swiftly disrupt a spiraling thought process:

• Say Something Unexpected: Pose questions like "What was that?" or "Did you hear that?" to divert focus and interrupt their current train of thought. 🤔
• Use Big Words: Challenge cognitive processing with complex vocabulary like "Why are you acting recalcitrant?" or "I'm getting discombobulated." 🤓
• Hand Them an Ice Cube: The cold sensation jolts them out of fight or flight, releasing endorphins that counter the stress response. ❄️
• Offer Something Tart: Sucking on a lemon or sour candy assaults taste buds, disrupting senses for a momentary escape from stress. 🍋😖
• Spray Some Peppermint: A whiff shocks the senses, a quick interruption to their train of thought. 🌿👃

THE BOTTOM LINE Recognizing your teen's natural "fight or flight" state gives you the opportunity to disrupt their stress response and create space for rational communication.