Stress Response
Memory defines the way a person experiences the world- their perceptions, structures of their life, and the behaviours they choose consciously or unconsciously. We experience our world through the nervous system (brain, spinal cord, and peripheral nerves). Through the nervous system we coordinate the function of every cell, tissue, and organ in the body, every emotion is expressed, and we reason with which adapts us to stress and creates our conscious reality. Our brain decides what is a stressor- whether it is real or not! To the brain there is no difference between actually being chased by a bear and vividly imagining being chased. The brain's response to stress, called Fight or Flight, is virtually the same. Current medical research states that 95% of all diseases/illnesses are caused by stress. The other 5% are considered to be genetic in nature.
Everyone has a maximum limit for what stress they can handle. When beyond that limit, an assortment of coping mechanisms, including anxiety, addiction (food & tobacco do count), depression, shame, overwhelm, anger, sadness, drug use (all drugs, even prescription), plus countless others are used, including mind chatter. Mind chatter is incomplete thoughts and self-talk when in survival mode as our minds search for potential threats, hazards, answers and rationalizations.
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Disease
Throughout life to maintain a balanced nervous system the brain is constantly changing as a consequence of our emotional experience, physical activity, and the environment in which we live. However, if these experiences and activities cause decreased processing of neurological signals to a critical level, an unbalanced nervous system develops. This leads to dysfunction and disease resulting in decreasing human potential.
An unbalanced nervous system presents either as under-aroused, over-aroused, or unstable. Both the over-aroused and unstable nervous system can become an exhausted nervous system in time. Cognitive and emotional issues often overlap with physical symptoms. By addressing the neurologic area of commonality, we can obtain maximum improvement in concert with the patient's needs.
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Creating Perception
To create our perceptions, we need to perceive and process information storing as memories. The cerebral cortex, the outer layer of the brain, is responsible for information processing, sensation, and voluntary muscle movement. Memories lasting mere milliseconds are called immediate (short-term) memories that are then passed and kept available in working memory for several seconds.
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Storing Perception
The neural connections from the cortex are linked to the emotional context in which they formed. A memory resides in the region of the cortex in which the information was first perceived and processed. Relevant facts and events turn short-term memory into long-term memory. Long-term memory plays an important role in our survival processing knowledge from stimuli to make quick decisions during emotional states, especially fear.
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