Becoming the Boss of Anxiety– Helping Kids Emotionally Regulate with “HRV”
How did we evolve into a generation flooded with anxiety? We know that increased anxiety and sensitivity is recent, in terms of our own evolution. There are no actual changes in the DNA, rather part of the answer lies in the study of epigenetics (the study of changes in organisms caused by modification of gene expression rather than alteration of the genetic code itself).
This current generation of youth, has altered levels of circulating stress hormones and lower levels of cortisol, a hormone that helps the body to return to normal after an upset or a small “t” trauma. Epigenetic changes often serve to biologically prepare offspring for an environment similar to that of the parents. However, it seems that stress hormone profiles in this generation might make them more susceptible and vulnerable to the effects of stress.
Dr. Richard Sherman (personal communication) explains there is no change in the genes in our kids. Rather methylation of one or more genes has occurred in the multigenerational transmission of anxiety. Methylation is an epigenetic mechanism used by cells to control gene expression and can both turn on and turn off a controller gene depending on the context. To support this finding, Scientific American’s Tori Rodriguez (Feb 12, 2015) reports that descendants of people who survived the Holocaust have different stress hormone profiles than their peers, perhaps predisposing them to anxiety disorders. Multigenerational ancestral trauma may be passed on through the placenta during pregnancy with each subsequent generation a little less able to manage stress.
The good news is that the context in which our kids exist can turn these controller genes on or off. In other words, if the child is born predisposed to anxiety, a loving, understanding environment in which feelings are invited to exist can turn that anxiety off. Realistically, not all contexts can be nurturing and give space for the expression of all feelings. Children must be equipped with resources which they can call upon in order to adapt to the chemistry of anxiety which they might experience in some environments.
Anxiety can generate a respiratory pattern that is shallow, rapid and irregular, sometimes initiating a full blown panic attack. The occurrence of hyperventilation (over-breathing results in more retention of carbon dioxide in the body) exacerbates the reaction. During the stress response, the sympathetic system is activated in reaction to the stressor resulting in an increase in heart rate. The parasympathetic system, on the other hand, slows the heart rate, decreases blood pressure and promotes healthy functioning. Understanding this neuropsychobiological process has led to heart rate variability studies (HRV) through which we have gained access to becoming the boss of anxiety by seeing that in many ways an anxiety disorder is a breathing disorder.
Simply put, heart rate variability refers to the beat to beat variations in the heart rate. Several physiological factors including inhalation and exhalation, influence the heart beat rhythm. This rhythm of HRV is related to the respiratory cycle such that at 6 cycles per minute, HR and respiratory cycles become synchronized and there is a resonance among the respiratory, heart rate, blood pressure and vascular tone systems.
I am finding that HRV training with children is the fastest acting “anxiety tamer” that I have at my fingertips. It is clear that rapid shallow breathing is invoking the stress response and it is experienced as anxiety. The same situation in which the child experiences anxiety may have never been shared by the parents but it may have a been a traumatic event for a grandparent or great-grandparent . Methylation may be responsible for this multigenerational transmission of unresolved trauma and may explain in part some of the differences in sensitivity in our youth.
Parents resolving the trauma passed on by ancestral ghosts is the first step in changing the context to meet the developmental needs of their children. HRV training is a resource for managing the outcome. Becoming the boss of anxiety could be one of the steps toward improving the lot of the generation to come.
For more information on Neurofeedback, Biofeedback and HRV training, please contact the author. Neurofeedback is a type of feedback in real time displaying brain activity using electroencephalography (EEG) to teach self-regulation of brain function
Copyright 2016, Susan Dafoe-Abbey BIS, MED, RMFT, Authorized Neufeld Practitioner. Permission to use this material, either in English or in translation, for educational purposes, is hereby granted.
