Stress, whether it’s from neglect at home or the chaos of daycare, has significant impacts on the developing brain. There is critical brain development that happens between birth and age 4 that will shape the rest of their life. We must relearn the importance of mothers and fathers as primary loving caregivers for children.
Day care is causing the ADHD epidemic.
That’s the provocative take from psychotherapist Erica Komisar on John Anderson’s podcast. She argues that putting very young babies into long hours of daycare creates chronic stress that flips the brain’s stress switch (the amygdala) on way too early.
It goes into hypervigilant mode, eventually burns out, and leaves kids in a constant low-level fight-or-flight state, which gets labeled as ADHD.
She says there’s no strong genetic cause for ADHD. It’s largely a response to the environment we’re putting kids in.
This one really made me pause. We’re wiring tiny brains for survival mode before they’ve even had a chance to develop properly.
If much of the ADHD explosion is coming from early chronic stress and separation, then rethinking daycare norms and early childcare could dramatically improve kids’ mental health long-term.
What’s your experience or observation, do you think modern daycare schedules are contributing to rising ADHD rates?