Does Your Child Have a Noisy Brain?

Picture this, fireworks blasting, parade music pumping and looking around everyone is having a great time, except your kid, he or she is melting down and screaming with hands over their ears.
For most, the 4th of July in the United States of America is meant for celebrating freedom, fun and fireworks! America declared its independence and fought against tyranny, so we recognize that right of Life, Liberty and Pursuit of happiness. But why are we seeing more and more kids having a hard time processing the celebrations with loud noises and stimulation?
    However fun, fireworks, parades and BBQs are, we also know that this holiday can be dreaded by many. Dog owners have faced this struggle for years. They know the sacrifice of having to stay home and sedate the K-9 companion because if they do not, man’s best friend will freak out and attempt to flee for their lives. The same stress response can be seen in ex-military, trauma victims, and now more commonly with sensory processing disorders in kids. Understanding the nervous system can lead us to better help those that are not able to enjoy not only the 4th of July, but everyday activities that lead to meltdowns.
    Meltdowns and stress reactions to certain stimuli is known as coherence or dysafferentation within the nervous system, more specifically the brain. Our brains and thus our nervous systems are survival MACHINES. Darwin’s survival of the fittest is best observed in sensory processing disorder kids. Those who have been affected with stress, from pregnancy to pandemic, develop survival responses that do not serve them. They have perfectly designed brains that have upregulated within survival mechanisms of the nervous system. Therefore the temporal lobes, the region of the nervous system that processes sound, has become highly sensitized and trained to activate the survival response by activation of the amygdala, the emotional and fight or flight part of the nervous system. Once this starts the cascade of neurochemical reactions goes wild and the parasympathetic nervous system shuts down. Because we are survival machines, our brilliant bodies know that we don’t need to rest, digest, develop, heal or rationally think in danger……we need to fight or run for our lives.
    Traditional model of medicine’s approach is to tranquilize the brain in order to chemically shut it down. But, what if you could naturally rewire it instead, and allow the nervous system to calm itself down. The prefrontal cortex is the logical deductive problem solving part of the brain, and is understood to counteract the fight or flight response in conjunction with the Vagus nerve. Inversely, the brainstem and amygdala are the reactive, survival parts of the brain. Their job is to keep us alive and keep us safe. To them, running away and hiding, and fighting whoever stands our way is their primary purpose. Nothing is wrong with the sensory processing kids, in fact the part of the brain that identifies potential dangers is working exceptionally well. By stimulating the prefrontal cortex, the brain can downregulate the stress response.
Instead of drugging an overactive part of the brain into submission, doesn’t it make more sense to get the other parts of the brain and nervous system to engage in order to catch up, or balance out the other part of the nervous system? The key is unlocking those stuck patterns of overactivity and providing an opportunity for the prefrontal cortex to catch up. In the book “The Body Keeps the Score” there are countless examples of trauma patterns and the physical response of the body holding onto those patterns. The science and art of understanding this complex issue is being able to measure those patterns, identifying the stuck spots. Then the solution is through precision, getting them unstuck and allowing the body to form new patterns.
To learn more about this complex and increasingly more common childhood struggle come to the hour long Perfect Storm Workshop at Symmetry Chiropractic Wellness Center on July 14th at 6:30pm. There is hope for those that struggle and an opportunity to regain the ability to truly express Optimal Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness.