CBD, ANXIETY AND FOCUS IN KIDS`

By Dr. Doug Fryday, D.C.
Blogger for InsideOut Lifestyle Soulutions

Anxiety is a natural internal response to the external stimuli of stress that serves a purpose. Good for short periods of time as it puts us in a heightened sense of awareness so we`re prepared for potential threats, but, bad if prolonged. Our goal should be to not dismiss anxiety entirely, just make it a healthy, manageable part of our lives.

Researchers have repeatedly demonstrated that early life experiences are very important for the developing brain. Chronic stress and traumatic events, such as death, divorce, violence, sexual abuse, illness, etc, can significantly alter brain development leading to changes in the fear circuitry and put kids at risk for developing anxiety and depression and ultimately their ability to focus.

When I was growing up things just didn`t seem as overwhelming and we weren`t so quick to be labeling children. It`s a good thing cause I can guarantee I would have been labeled with ADD and OCD, the former a lack of focus and the later the ability to hyper-focus. How can that be? My point exactly about the inadequacies of labeling and the dangers of creating a self-fulfilling prophecy.

Never before have we lived in a time of so much chronic stress! Increase in STRESS, both mental/emotional, chemical, physical and electromagnetic cause an imbalance in the body`s stress response due to the stress load and inability of not only a developing brain to handle it, but, also the adult brain as well!

You have most likely observed a child, teenager or an adult for that matter, that is on the computer with multiple tasks going at once. We now call this multi-tasking which ironically originated from the computer realm. They maybe doing home work or a report for work, eating, listening to music, messaging on FaceBook and texting on the cell phone all at the same time! Looks like me now writing this blog! lol!

It is estimated that a typical teenager will be exposed to as much information, in just one day, as their great grandparents were exposed to in their entire life!

It has been said that one issue of the Sunday New York times contains more information than ALL the written material available to readers in the fifteenth century. We are living in information and toxic overload!

The air we breathe, the water we drink and bath in and food we consume are chalked full of chemical toxins. In fact in a 2004 study researchers analyzed the umbilical cord blood of 10 newborn babies and found they tested positive for an average of 287 toxins. Not only can this be extremely stressful to an immature immune and nervous system, but a fully mature one as well.With these extreme amounts of stress is it any wonder, as a defense or survival mechanism the brain and nervous system go into hyper-overdrive I call this“pedal to the metal syndrome™” and as a result the first symptom we experience is, you guessed it, anxiety!

When our kids survival brain is in charge, they impulsively react with defensive behaviors such as aggression, fight, refuse to cooperate, throw a temper tantrum, withdraw, or even space-out. These defensive behaviors are not limited to our kids brains. Ever been to a minor sports event and witnessed parental behavior? Anxiety can be a real barrier to learning, as it impacts a student`s working memory, making it difficult to comprehend and retain information. Anxiety fluctuates between days and within days, which results in inconsistent performance.The common misconception that children are under lower levels of stress contributes to the fact that adults ordinarily fail to recognize the incidence and magnitude of stress producing anxiety in the lives of children. Often parents and teachers will label the anxiety produced by chronic stress in a child as shyness, frigidity, busy boy/busy girl, etc.

The other problem is that the behavior brought on by the anxious child of low impulse control, difficulty in concentrating and irritating behavior often matches the label of ADD/ADHD.

Understanding a child's behavior in the context of the brain's reaction to stress can provide a parent, teacher or health care professional with insight, empathy and expand their behavior management repertoire including calming strategies.

The good news is that more has been learned about the brain and how to identify and strengthen weaknesses in its response to stress and overall function in the last 20 years than in all of history.

We absolutely know that when the brain is out of balance, the body always follows. We call this sickness and disease. When we re-balance the brain, the body always follows; we call this healing and health.

CDB is literally "brain fuel", it feeds your endocannbinoid system and allows you to de-stress, re-balance and reboots the brain back to normal, producing a feeling of calm and relaxation, eliminating anxiety. CBD does this by attaching to the receptors in the brain that are responsible for producing anxiety and turning them off and at the same time turns on the receptors that produce our happy hormones like serotonin.
The elimination of anxiety allows our ability to focus and concentrate to dramatically improve. Its really as simple as that, naturally and drug-free.