The Stress - Proof Brain offers powerful, comprehensive tools based in mindfulness, neuroscience, and positive psychology to help you put a stop to
unhealthy responses to stress — such as avoidance, tunnel vision, negative thinking, self - criticism, fixed mindset, and fear.
These toxic
stress - induced changes in brain structure and function mediate, at least in part, the well - described relationship between adversity and altered life - course trajectories (see Fig 1).4, 6 A hyper - responsive or chronically activated
stress response contributes
to the inflammation and changes in immune function that are seen in those chronic, noncommunicable diseases often associated with childhood adversity, like chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), cirrhosis, type II diabetes, depression, and cardiovascular disease.4, 6 Impairments in critical SE, language, and cognitive skills contribute
to the fractured social networks often associated with childhood adversity, like school failure, poverty, divorce, homelessness, violence, and limited access
to healthcare.4, 19,58 — 60 Finally, behavioral allostasis, or the adoption of potentially maladaptive behaviors
to deal or cope with chronic
stress, begins
to explain the association between childhood adversity and
unhealthy lifestyles, like alcohol, tobacco, and substance abuse, promiscuity, gambling, and obesity.4, 6,61 Taken together, these 3 general classes of altered developmental outcomes (
unhealthy lifestyles, fractured social networks, and changes in immune function) contribute
to the development of noncommunicable diseases and encompass many of the morbidities associated epidemiologically with childhood adversity.4, 6