Health & Wellbeing News
Fight, Flight, Freeze, Fawn – Stress Responses
- These are primal, involuntary survival responses designed to protect us from danger.
- Triggered by the amygdala (fear centre in the brain), which releases stress hormones to prepare the body to act quickly.
- In the past, these were helpful for our ancestors facing real threats (e.g., predators).
Today, the same intense responses can be activated by everyday situations (e.g., new places, going to school, changes in routine) even when we aren’t in real danger.
This is because our brains still involuntarily perceive threat and try to keep us safe!
How does this affect people with disabilities?
Autistic people have the same stress responses as everyone else! But because the world is not designed for autistic needs, everyday life can feel overwhelming.
This means autistic peoples’ stress responses are triggered more often than people who are not autistic.
People with intellectual disabilities also struggle with emotional regulation, more than those without intellectual disabilities. This means that their stress responses are triggered more often too.
For people who have trauma histories, as well as an ID and/or autism and/or ADHD, stress responses might be even more common!
Watch these videos to learn more about the fight flight and freeze responses, and how to calm them:
HEALTHY SCHOOL LUNCHES
Whilst most students are bringing well-thought out and nutritious snacks for recess and lunch, there are a few that cause us some concern. The ones that concern us the most, are the ones that don’t offer a lot in terms of nutritional value. The others that concern us are the ones that seem to be full of pre-packed, low nutritional value snack packs which in turn can be quite expensive. Whilst we acknowledge that it can be quite difficult to introduce new foods for some children, here are a few ideas and resources that may assist you.
This article is taken from a web-site called Australia’s Best Recipes. It is free to join and has a huge selection of tasty, affordable and practical recipes for the whole family. The website is located at: www.bestrecipes.com.au
Today I will share one of the many ideas for children’s lunchboxes found at the link below. When you get to the page, you click on the image of the particular item and it will show you the list of ingredients, the recipe and the procedure for preparing the dish.
Lunch box recipes for kids: 31 back-to-school lunches | Australia's Best Recipes
Pre-packaged Lunches/Snacks VS DIY Lunches and Snacks
Lunchbox 1 - Pre-packaged snacks
Total cost of pre-packaged snacks: $5.09 (NB 2022 Prices)Cost over 1 school year (196 days): $997.64
As the diagram above shows, opting for the convenience of pre-packed snacks might save you time when organising your kids’ lunchboxes but can seriously add up over the year. With this scenario costing parents nearly $1,000 (and that’s not even including the cost of the sandwich!).
Lunchbox 2 - DIY snacks
Total cost of pre-packaged snacks: $1.74 (NB 2022 Prices)Cost over 1 school year (196 days): $323.04
Even a quick glance at our DIY lunchbox scenario shows that there are some serious savings to be made for parents who take the time to portion out snacks. For instance, if you went for the prepacked cheese and crackers, that would set you back $3 per pack. But if you took the time to cut up the cheese and portion out a similar amount yourself, you’d be looking at just $0.80 - a difference of $2.20. That might not seem like much but over a full school year that’s $431 more you’ll be forking out for.
