How Stress Damages the Brain

 

When we are stressed, it effectively makes us less intelligent. This is due to the reduction in pre-frontal activity, which in turn is designed to make us more focussed and alert. Essentially, the pre-frontal cortex is the part of the brain responsible for forward planning, creative thinking and other ‘high-order’ brain activity.
When you are being chased by a lion though, it is really not the time to be thinking about the meaning of life!
So shutting down this part of the brain and placing your focus on feedback from your senses makes much more sense.
Of course that’s not particularly useful in the workplace though: and this is why the stress response is so seriously unhelpful when we have to give a presentation, answer a question on the spot or go on a date. This is when we lose all articulation and start stammering and saying useless things.
Slightly longer-term is adrenal fatigue. This is what happens when your brain has exhausted its supply of adrenaline and other stress