Hillbilly Elegy

put it, the response is great “if you’re in
a forest and there’s a bear. The problem
is when that bear comes home from the
bar every night.” When that happens, the
Harvard researchers found, the sector of
the brain that deals with highly stressful
situations takes over. “Significant stress
in early childhood,” they write, “...
result[s] in a hyperresponsive or
chronically activated physiologic stress
response, along with increased potential
for fear and anxiety.” For kids like me,
the part of the brain that deals with
stress and conflict is always activated—
the switch flipped indefinitely. We are
constantly ready to fight or flee, because
there is constant exposure to the bear,