Thread about “Stress”.

There is a saying floating around..
“Transphobia Rots Your Brain”.

While this is meant as a observation of how people will assert & believe the most bizarre propositions due to transphobia, there is a scientific base to this saying which is literal. /1

Let’s start with the science.

Robert Sapolsky. Professor of biology, and professor of neurology and neurological sciences and, by courtesy, neurosurgery, at Stanford University.

He studies the relationship between stress & neuronal degeneration. /2

His thesis “The Neuroendocrinology of Stress and Aging” (1984) was unintentionally concurrent to a 20 year study of Whitehall public servants & the relationship between hierarchy & mental & physical health.

The results are outstanding./3

You can fast track this story by watching the National Geographic doco..
“Stress: Portait of a Killer”.

In short, in nature we respond to stress in a flight or fight manner.
You have seconds to flee a predator or stand your ground likely to be mortally wounded win or lose./4

The chemicals responsible for this “burst” action is adrenaline.

But there are also cortisols excreted alongside.

While adrenaline is short lived & burned up in the burst action, cortisols are not./5

Normally this is not a problem as in nature, fear only lasts a few seconds. You’re either eaten or safe within moments.

But primates have a social hierarchy we call patriarchy observed in all primates (& humans).
/6

Humans also create situations where stress, fear & fight or flight are sustained over long periods creating a poisonous soup of unused adrenaline & glucorticoids which attacks health.

These attack telomeres which are needed to avoid DNA from fraying./7

Ok so the science is taken care of.

Perpetual states of fear & stress attack neuronal integrity & shortens age.

So how does relate to transphobia?

Well I’m glad you asked! /8

“Gender Critical” thinking puts people in a perpetual state of imagined fear of being raped or abused by a trans women in the most innocuous areas such as toilets.
/9

There is no proof of this happening of course, in the 70 odd years trans women have used gender appropriate toilets.

There is also the fear that the “trans lobby” is infiltrating gov & corporate management at the highest levels.
/10

They create conspiracy theories around “people deleting tweets” & “Twitter manipulalating likes” prompting daily “Like Checks”.

Always scared, always on guard, always creating false scenarios of oppression. /11

Worried about children being “transsed” likening it to “Nazi experiements”.

This is next level fear.
It is anti-vaxxer level paranoia & all the conspiracies that are born from that paranoia.
Looking at you @bbc @jk_rowling et al /12

So when you hear
“Transphobia Rots Your Brain”

OFC it’s funny but there is actual science behind this in literal terms.
/13

You can view these people as victims because this is really instigated by a few & propagated to the masses of people not quite knowledgeable enough to see through the lies, distortions & sophistry through predatory, narcistic pathways. /end

Addition:

It’s important to not get caught up in their rhetoric to save yourself from fear as well. Get out & enjoy life.

For a glimpse into the sustained fear people in GC circles are subject to, please read. https://twitter.com/amydyess/status/1278228076279721984?s=21