How does stress impact a child’s brain?

What does it do to impulse control? Decision-making? Is the Transcendental Meditation technique an effective antidote? Dr. Bill Stixrud would know. Dr. Stixrud is a renowned clinical neuropsychologist in the Washington, D.C. area, an adjunct faculty member at Children’s National Medical Center, and a consultant to the National Institutes of Health, Divisions of Neuropsychology and Metabolic Disorders. He specializes in the neuropsychological assessment of children, adolescents, and adults with learning, attentional/executive, and/or emotional disorders.

In this first in a series of short interviews, Dr. Stixrud talks about the enormous potential of a child’s brain and the devastating impact on brain development of stress, substance abuse and sleep deprivation. Dr. Stixrud explains the real dangers as kids grow in adolescence. Things like kids making bad decisions, losing motivation, getting depressed, developing eating disorders or self-injury, and abusing drugs or alcohol.

“All these dangers are highly related to stress,” Dr. Stixrud says. “When kids practice Transcendental Meditation, the more they find they are less reactive to stress. They generally sleep better, they find it easier to eat better and get through life. These kids simply need antidotes to these stresses.”