What Every Parent Should Know About the Brain | Raeanne Johnson (Part 1)

What if your child’s behavior isn’t something to fix—but something to understand?

In part one of this conversation, Knikki Hernandez sits down with pediatric nurse practitioner and child mental health specialist Raenne Johnson to break down what’s actually happening in the brain when children experience big emotions, dysregulation, and behavioral challenges.

This episode focuses on the foundation—how the brain works, how neurotransmitters influence mood and reactions, and why behavior often reflects internal processes that parents don’t always see. Instead of reacting in the moment, this conversation helps parents begin to recognize patterns, build awareness, and respond with more clarity and confidence.

Raenne brings both clinical insight and a faith-rooted perspective, helping parents understand that their child’s brain is not a problem—it’s part of how they were designed.

If you’ve ever wondered why your child reacts so strongly, struggles with emotional regulation, or seems unpredictable from one moment to the next, this episode will give you a clearer lens.

In this episode, we discuss:

• How the brain influences child behavior and emotional responses
• The role of neurotransmitters in mood, focus, and regulation
• Why children experience dysregulation and “big feelings”
• How to begin responding instead of reacting as a parent
• What it looks like to support your child’s emotional development with intention
• A faith-based perspective on how children are created and wired

This is part one of a three-part series. In part two, the conversation moves into faith, identity, and what this means for how we guide our children day to day.

Support The Show

 If this conversation is shifting how you see your child—and how you want to respond moving forward—these are resources connected to that same work:

Turning The Tide Tutoring — Academic coaching for students who think differently, focused on helping them build clarity, confidence, and strong thinking so they can actually understand how they learn.

Acting With Pippi — A space where kids develop confidence, voice, and emotional expression—because how a child sees themselves matters just as much as how they perform.

Your Wish Is Your Command — A resource for deepening awareness around thought patterns, perception, and intentional response—the same kind of thinking that shapes how we show up as parents and guides.

Turning The Tide Tutoring
Sponsored by Turning The Tide Tutoring — empowering students and parents to grow and thrive.

Acting With Pippi
Acting with Pippi is acting program that helps youths build courage & presence through performance.

Your Wish Is Your Command
A resource for deepening awareness around thought patterns, perception, and intentional response.

Disclaimer: This post contains affiliate links. If you make a purchase, I may receive a commission at no extra cost to you.

Transcript

Who is Raenne Johnson?

SPEAKER_01 0:00

In this episode of The Gentle Year, we're speaking with pediatric nurse practitioner Ray Ann Johnson about your child's brain. What's actually happening when your child is overwhelmed, anxious, or completely dysregulated, and more importantly, how do you respond in a way that builds confidence instead of confusion? In part one, we break down the neuroscience behind behavior in a way that's clear, practical, and immediately useful for parents. This podcast is powered by Turning the Tide Tutoring, personalized academic coaching for students who think differently, acting with Pippi, where creativity and confidence come to life, and your wish is your command. Welcome to The Gentle Year. We are with Rayan Johnson today. She is an amazing person and she's going to tell us a lot about neuroscience and also how faith and Bible principles are connected to neuroscience. So this is going to be a podcast that is powerful. It's not going to be confusing. It's going to utilize scripture and facts to support those scriptures. And I'm really excited to have her on the show. So, Ray Ann, the mic is yours. Will you please tell us a little bit more about, you know, where you come from and who you are?

SPEAKER_00 1:27

My name's Ray Ann. I've been a nurse practitioner for 12 years. I have three kids and I really love Jesus. And I entered the pediatric mental health space during COVID when everybody was anxious and we didn't know what was safe, what was not safe, what things were were risk worth taking, which things were really hard. And so I started working in behavioral and developmental pediatrics and specialized in ADHD, autism, and anxiety. And then realized after having many parents say, I wish you could come home with me, that my clinical expertise was of value. And I wanted to make tools that they could take home with them. And so Brainwaves Wellness was born out of a desire to serve the mental health community to serve our kids who have big feelings and eat an even bigger God and to just realign our priorities, realign our brains when our feelings seem out of control. And so I made lots of tools and lots of resources that are neuroscience informed and Bible-based. And I cannot wait to bring them to your listeners.

How Does The Brain Work?

SPEAKER_01 2:41

That's really exciting. So thank you for that. I'm really pumped to get into some of this neuroscience. So just gonna start right off the bat here. How does the brain work with a dysregulated child?

SPEAKER_00 2:51

So the brain is so cool. God made your brain and he doesn't make mistakes. But remember, Genesis 3, creation fell and sin entered. And when sin enters, things broke. And sometimes they broke in the percentage of neurotransmitters. So I love talking to even our tiniest learners and explaining what a neurotransmitter is. Neurotransmitter is just a fancy word for a messenger, and they send messages across synapses in our brain. And so sometimes the messages, the messages are a pep rally. We call them excitatory neurotransmitters. Sometimes they stop the train and those are called inhibitory. And sometimes they just change the directions and those are called modulatory. So there's three big bossy neurotransmitters that govern our mood and behavior. There are lots in our brain, but three that I think are the most influential. And I tell kids and families about them because I think having serotonin to blame or having norepinephrine as the culprit instead of like this kid's just really having a hard time. It's a lot more validating for the kid to know what's going on inside. So the three big bossy neurotransmitters are serotonin. Serotonin is made primarily in our gut. And it answers two questions. Am I sad? And if you the answer is yes, sometimes we call it depression. Or am I scared? And if the answer's yes, sometimes we call it anxiety. But because there's an entire enteric nervous system throughout your brain and gut, sometimes we really do feel scared in our bellies. And so explaining that to kids, explaining why they have a somatic response is often really helpful. So serotonin is the first one. The second is dopamine. And I talk about dopamine that he sounds like Tim McGraw. It says, I like it, I love it, I want some more of it. So dopamine is associated with reward and motivation. And so when we have lower levels of dopamine, like in a brain with ADHD, sometimes it's hard to start a task. Sometimes it's hard to complete a task because we got distracted. Sometimes it's hard to put our video games away because they give us a big hit of dopamine. Sometimes it's hard to slow our bodies down. And so giving the bonus of our behavior to dopamine instead of like our kid misbehaving oftentimes relieves a lot of the shame burden that our sweet buddies carry. So serotonin, dopamine, and then the last is norepinephrine. Norepinephrine has one question. It always asks, Am I safe? Am I safe? Am I safe? And it's scanning the horizon, it's scanning for threats. And sometimes it sends off false alarm signals to our amygdala that says we're being chased by a bear, but really, we maybe you just got a bad grade on a test. Or mom said we had to leave the park. And when our amygdala is overstimulated and really rare ramped up, we respond in one of four ways, all brought to you by the letter F. We fight, we flight, we freeze, or we fawn. And so, do you run away? Do you shut down? Do you just concede? Or do you push back? And so all of those are a norepinephrine response. And so those three big bossy neurotransmitters govern our mood and our behavior. Thankfully, it doesn't end there because we know lots of ways to boost the percentage of those neurotransmitters. We know lots of ways to help regulate when we're feeling dysregulated. But I love explaining these to kids and parents so that they have vocabulary when the behaviors are really big.

SPEAKER_01 6:24

Yeah, that was such a great breakdown there. So just to slow things down and recap what you said is that we have three main neurotransmitters that communicate with our brains and our stomachs, our guts all the time, 24 hours a day. And that each one of these neurotransmitters has a role and a purpose. And so the serotonin is produced in the gut. And what you said makes perfect sense because I know whenever I feel anxiety or I feel scared or fearful, I do feel it in my stomach. I feel sick. It's it's it's a very stomach-y feeling. So that makes perfect sense. Then the dopamine, I love the Tim McGraw connection. I'll never forget that. That was really good. So I had a question about the ADHD piece of it. Um, you said something I didn't know. I did not know that ADHD people have lower levels of dopamine. And so can you can you elaborate on something on that?

ADHD & Dopamine

SPEAKER_00 7:24

The low arousal theory of ADHD. We don't know with perfect clarity what theology is because we can't read, we can't monitor inside our brains. But we do know the literature shows something called the low arousal theory of dopamine, which says that all brains have two types of dopamine, tonic, which is all the time dopamine, and phasic dopamine that comes in phases. In a brain with ADHD, your all the time dopamine is low. So you have lower levels of tonic dopamine. And so your phasic dopamine is working so hard. Your brilliant brain is like, I need more dopamine, so I'm gonna poke my brother. I need more dopamine, so I'm gonna move my body. It's just an incredible design. But that's why in a brain with lower levels of dopamine, you're making some dopamine-driven decisions. And sometimes they are a little impulsive, sometimes they are a little unsafe. And so we want to just be aware of dopamine's effects and ways that we can get that dopamine release that aren't harmful to ourselves or others.

SPEAKER_01 8:22

Okay, so that makes sense. So the phasic dopamine for the ADHD brain is on a higher scale, is what you're saying. Whereas the tonic, the the all the time dopamine's not that high?

SPEAKER_00 8:36

So the all the time dopamine is low, and so they're getting more hits of dopamine that are coming in in phases. And so in a brain without ADHD, you have more dopamine available. In a brain with ADHD, there's less all the time available. And so they're working very hard to get more hits of dopamine from their environment.

Hyperfixation and ADHD

SPEAKER_01 8:54

Oh, I see. And so does that also play into when I've had ADHD people tell me before that they will fixate on something. So, like, let's say that there's something that they really, really love. Like, I don't know, it could be Legos for all I know.

SPEAKER_00 9:07

And so for And you get a little dopamine hit from one build, and now you have to build and build and build because dopamine's a seesaw.

SPEAKER_01 9:15

Okay, okay. So they have this English paper that they have to write for their class, but then there's this dope, there's this dopamine producing Lego kit. And people are okay. So what does that brain need? Does it need more structure?

SPEAKER_00 9:30

I think that brain needs a lower barrier to entry. So the English paper feels really big. The Lego kit is very, there's no friction there. It's like they're happy, they love it, it's all the thing. The English paper sounds very hard and daunting. And so I say we should swish cheese the task, meaning holes in it, break it down as little as possible with a positive reinforcement for even the tiniest task. So, like you open word and put your name, great, you get a took a tally. Once you get to 10 tallies, we can go to the kitchen and have a snack. Once so, breaking down the task, having lots of reward and motivation to kind of simulate the dopamine. I also think there's magic in the Pomodoro method. Have you ever used that with your students where you set a timer? Um, it's Italian for tomato, where you set a timer. Yep, you work as hard as you can until it turns off, and then you take a break and then continue it again. So breaking the task down into smaller bite-sized pieces, having a lot of positive reinforcement at several steps along the journey, and then having finite boundaries. It's not you have to write an English paper, it's you have to write for the next 12 minutes and then we have a break. And like you can do anything for 12 minutes, right?

SPEAKER_01 10:40

Absolutely. Yeah, definitely. I think that's a great way to build confidence as well in their own abilities because they can see that they can do it. But does that so okay, whether it's the Pomodoro method or maybe it's a tally method, you know, you put your name tally, so you get that dopamine from putting that mark there. Are are those methods helping that person to build momentum, sort of like a snowball kind of building momentum coming down the mountain?

SPEAKER_00 11:04

100%. Yeah. Okay. These tiny winds help flex the muscles so that we can keep persevering in tasks that are really hard.

What Does the Modern Child's Brain Respond to?

SPEAKER_01 11:12

As you're listening to this and thinking about the brain, how thoughts shape behavior, how patterns get built, I want to share something personal with you. There's a book called Your Wish is your command that I've read and listened to, and the updated version is even stronger than the original. It's one of those rare books that sharpens the way you think. It also trains your mind to see patterns, question assumptions, and actually understand what's driving your decisions. If you're someone who values depth or just who wants to become more intentional and more aware in how you move through the world, this is a book worth spending some time with. I've linked it for you, and yes, it's an affiliate link, but it's one I stand behind because it genuinely changes how you think. Okay, so for a for a parent who's helping their child, whether they're ADHD or or not, the the brain is going to respond to what the most, do you think? Especially, you know, for a very young age group. What did what's what's what is today's young generation going to respond to to most? Because they're growing up in a different world, a very technologically sophisticated world. So what are these brains as opposed to maybe brains of the past responding to not brains of the past, but you know what I'm saying? We're all still here, but you know what I mean, previous generations. So yeah.

SPEAKER_00 12:28

Oh, yeah. We were raised on like Barney and Teletubbies, which were a lot less sensory stimulating than Blaze and the Monster Machine or whatever they're coming up with now. And so I think the the way to moderate behavior in younger ages now is through a token economy. Yeah, and that's gonna be really unique to each kid. Like for my kids, I know like my boys, it would be a Nerf gun. Like that would be their jam. For my daughter, it would be art supplies as their like motivator, or sometimes it's quality time. And so giving them a very clear, because kids are such concrete learners, to give them like a picture of what they're working for. If we do all of our homework five nights this week without pushback, we'll go to get ice cream and have like a picture of an ice cream cone on your refrigerator to remind them what they're working for and having these like small, attainable rewards. I also think we are fighting a hard battle against screens. Like it's hard for me to be more interesting than Paw Patrol. And so my kids just don't watch a lot of Paw Patrol because I don't want them to have this easy dopamine. I want them to have hardfought dopamine, like you just learned to ride a bike or you just ran your first 5K, etc.

How Does 'Easy' Dopamine Impact the Brain?

SPEAKER_01 13:43

Okay. Question. So for easy dopamine, what does excessive amounts of easy dopamine do to the brain? How does it impact it physiologically?

SPEAKER_00 13:52

Uh, it can lead to higher rates of addiction because dopamine is a seesaw and we just get a little hit and we want more and more and more. And so dopamine delivered without work is a false sense of enjoyment. And so think about if you made a home cooked meal, how much more delicious it takes than like the microwave of a frozen soda's whatever. Yeah, or fast food. And so working through all the steps is so much more satisfying, and it's instilling perseverance, and perseverance is such an important skill. And so giving this delayed gratification, there's a a tool we use in our family a lot um called the family catechism, where I have disciplined my kids with Bible verses. So, like, what are your hands for? And they would say, Love and serve. What are your words for? Give grace to those who hear. But one that I teach my boys is what are young men called to have? And the answer is self-control. And so there's a whole list for girls. We have a lot we have to do, like pursuit kindness, purity, literally in tigers into self-control. Like that's it. The boys have self-control. But self-control is a muscle we flex. And so, what does self-control look like in terms of dopamine? It can we work to delay the immediate reward for the better reward? And so, yes, sitting and doing that Lego set right now would be the immediate reward, but foregoing the immediate reward for working hard, working diligently, working to finish that English paper, that is the more important reward. And so, how can we leverage what you are pushing that stone uphill to do the um English paper? But how how strong will you feel when you get it there?

SPEAKER_01 15:45

Absolutely. Yeah, that's really interesting. So the easy dopamine is creating a false sense of enjoyment, you said. And I can definitely see that for sure. And then it's also would you say that it's also not helping to build resilience?

SPEAKER_00 16:02

Not at all.

unknown 16:03

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 16:04

So then when things feel hard, they don't want to do it. But think I can think of a dozen life experiences where I've grown because something was hard and I had to build the resilience, build the muscle of trying again, build the perseverance and how I wouldn't have learned those skills if it wasn't for doing the hard things. And so if it had all come easy, I don't think we'd be where we are today. You have to learn through grit. Yeah. Yeah, I can do that. Grit is ground for growth. That's what I tell my kids a lot. Grit is ground for growth. Absolutely look how much you're growing.

SPEAKER_01 16:41

Exactly. So when it comes to the ice cream image, it could be ice cream or it could be anything. Basketball, a video game, whatever.

SPEAKER_00 16:50

Uh, for me, I buy myself a plant. And I sure do have that on the refrigerator. Every 50 workouts, I get to go to the plant store.

SPEAKER_01 16:57

Oh, stop it. That's positive.

SPEAKER_00 17:01

Yeah, positive reinforcement works across the lifespan.

When is Giving Rewards Appropriate?

SPEAKER_01 17:03

Yeah, facts. You gotta know. You gotta know where you're at. Because and you think about it, right? If you go to the gym and you're working out, don't you kind of want to reward yourself for that win? I mean, you gotta win, for God's sake. You went and you worked out your body. Exactly. That that that deserves something. You know, so um, especially in today's world. So as far as the ice cream example and the rewards, you know, as a as a teacher, I I want to know if I'm fighting the wrong battle. So for me, I do not believe, or at least today, right now in this moment, that may change in five minutes, but at least right now, I don't believe in giving things like extra credit or giving candy or, you know, things like that for kids who raise their hand and all that kind of stuff in class. A lot of people do that. And to me, it's just sort of Pavlovian and behavioral behaviorism at its worst. I just don't like it. And so I believe that if you're gonna do something, you gotta do it. You gotta do it because there's something in you that motivates you and says, hey, this is worth doing, whatever. Anyway, I'm not I'm not gonna stand on my soapbox about that. But what do you think about those types of rewards in the home and in the classroom? And is there a difference between what you're suggesting with the image and the reward after this, you know, this race, this endurance race with the Pomodoros to get the you know the English paper done? Is there a difference between your method and what I'm talking about?

SPEAKER_00 18:26

Yeah, so I completely see your free your point. I remember having a chemistry teacher in high school who I use the phrase like, oh, I gotta quit being an overachiever. I just keep doing he was like, You're not an overachiever, you're just an achiever. If you it's it's just your baseline, like you're you're just achieving what you could. And I was like, I never thought about it like that. Okay, you're right. So I do see the value in like don't reward what's expected. We don't want to give raising your hand in class is a standard of class, like that's a fact of life that we're gonna be active and engaged in conversation. So I see where you're coming from in that. My take is that there are two ways to modify behavior. One is positive reinforcement, one is punishment, and so I lean much more toward positive reinforcement than removal of a good thing. Like I have my kids lost privileges because they weren't behaving 100%, but more often than not, I err to the side of motivating good behavior as opposed to punishing for bad behavior. And that is just a personal philosophy because kids with ADHD are disciplined four times four to one as being complimented. And so for kids that are hearing a lot of negative stop, don't wait, blah, I air to the side of not adding more criticism to their brain. I air to the side of seeing the good, calling out the good, rewarding the good. But how do you get this intrinsic motivation? One thing that I do with my kids, I'm not a teacher, I'm a homeschool mom. But one thing we did was to work together um to earn a prize. And so I can't motivate, I can't make them be nice to each other. I can explain why we should. I can give them all the Bible verses about the one another's and scriptures, but I can't change their heart if it's not in my power, but I can reward it when I see them do it. And so we had a beach day reward last summer and they earned it by earning a hundred tallies. I have three kids and they had to work together to get a hundred. And so they got a tally when I heard them show preference, when I heard them serve one another, when I saw them show kindness, when they went out of their way to like promote unity and be a peacemaker, they got a tally. The unintended side effect is that they then were spurring one another on to love and good deeds because they were trying to get the tallies all together. And so in a classroom, can they work together to fill up the cookie jar to earn the reward? Or can they work together to get to bring a Duffy to class or whatever it is? And so having a team reward is often a really sweet way to help motivate their behavior too.

SPEAKER_01 21:18

Most definitely. It gives them a stronger sense of purpose as opposed to just um getting a piece of candy for raising their hands. Yes.

The Impact of Negative Reinforcement

SPEAKER_00 21:25

You know, and like working together to a big reward, I think is much more satisfying to their growing brains than like a clip chart where they're visibly shamed as the clip goes up and down. Like yeah, I feel like those are really rough. They are, they are pretty brutal. They are also really helpful and impactful because they hold you accountable to not get in the red zone or whatever it is. So I see their purpose.

SPEAKER_01 21:48

I do too. I don't think that they should necessarily be like totally demonized because I know as for me as a kid, if I was in class and it if my teacher moved my you know, sticker clip or whatever to the the red or the yellow section, I Would remember that and I would want to avoid that happening like the plague. So my behavior would be great. But I know that's not going to work for everybody because people are processing it. I mean, we're all individuals, so we're all processing that experience very differently.

SPEAKER_00 22:14

Yeah. I remember being in second grade. So I was probably six, seven. Oh, sorry. Six, seven. I was very, it was 30 years ago. And I remember we were playing this beanbag toss game, and I threw the beanbag too hard and it hit the ceiling tile. And I lost one of the stars on the behavior chart. We had four stars because our team my teacher really loved the Dallas Cowboys. And they were like, Dallas Cowboys stars. And I lost. I remember like weeping as a second grader because it was the first time I had ever lost a star. Um and the teacher didn't make a big deal out of it, but I was like so upset. And so I just think if I remember that 30 years later, surely there's a way to modify behavior without um kind of like making it class-wide consequence.

Receptor Sensitivity & the Dysregulated Child

SPEAKER_01 23:02

Yeah. That's interesting. I'm wondering, you know what? That's a quite that's a conversation for that's a separate conversation. We could have another teacher episode podcast another day. But I do kind of want to again keep diving into the science of this a little bit more. So is there such a thing as receptor sensitivity?

SPEAKER_00 23:22

When you mean like um like rejection rejection sensitivity dysphoria?

SPEAKER_01 23:26

Or like you mean like you've got the neurotransmitters, and again, I'm not like a brain person, but you've got you've got the neurotransmitters, and so if it's communicating a message, then it has to be received, and so the receptor has to receive that message. And so therefore, I'm thinking that there must be a for some kids, maybe who've been overstimulated, for example, that must maybe that's producing some sort of receptor sensitivity and how they process the information that their brain, their stomach, and all these things are communicating to them. So is that a thing? And does that influence child behaviors?

SPEAKER_00 23:59

Yes, that is a thing. The problem is there's no way to test, like I can draw your blood and tell and figure out what your serum serotonin levels are, but there's no way to quantify what serotonin levels are between your neurosynapses. And so it's really based on symptom report. Um, sometimes you can do MRI studies. Dr. Eamon at the Eamon clinics, he is all about imaging for a brain, and he would have lots to say about what you can see in those receptors.

How to Instill Delayed Gratification in Kids

SPEAKER_01 24:31

That's really interesting. Okay. So for kids, uh, I think this is a big topic for parents, particularly, is delayed gratification, delayed rewards, and all of that. Just because everybody, we're moving in a really fast-paced world, and every parent has done this, including I'm not a parent, but I've done this, I've done this with my dog. Like, so I know how common it is. Where if somebody is misbehaving, a child is misbehaving, and the very first thing you want to do, a lot of parents resort to this, and that is okay, if you just behave, I'll take you to go get some ice cream. That that is it's something that kind of has always bothered me because I'm like, is this really the right thing to do?

SPEAKER_00 25:14

Right. No, because behavior is the standard. We're not gonna, I don't think we should reward for the baseline. And so what that would look like, I think a better way to do that is to explain what the expectation is. And so when we go to the park, we're what how does how does what does it mean to leave well is what I would usually tell my kids like as we're driving there. What does it mean to leave well? If we brought a toy from home, what is it, what do we value? And they would say people over things, and I say, okay, so we value people over things. If someone asks to play with that airplane you brought from home, we're gonna share it, right? And they like are reminded of all these things. When mom says it's time to go, when do we leave right away? Those kind of things. And so we practice before and explain all of these things. And I always we had the leave well lollipop. There was like a leave well lollipop bag. So if we did all those things and you made it back to the car, we got a lollipop in the car just because it helped with transition, but not as a like chattermane, here's a lollipop. Can you feel the difference? And like one is meeting expectations that are pre-established. The other is like, I just need to distract and hear. And it's almost like they gave in and gave him a pacifier as a five-year-old to stop the behavior. Does that make sense? The difference there.

SPEAKER_01 26:35

Yeah, it does. I appreciate that. That it that helps me to understand that there is a better way to do this, and that if you're conscious and aware, and not just conscious and aware, but mindful of of how you're approaching this situation, you you really can almost like a Jedi, like you can kind of just influence the situation in the way that you want it to go without having to resort to the last resort.

SPEAKER_00 27:01

Exactly. Like a first then chart is really helpful too. First we put away our laundry, then we can watch TV. First we finish our homework, then we can go play outside. And just giving really clear expectations of what comes next is often really helpful.

SPEAKER_01 27:16

I agree. I I do that as a teacher as well. It's not about like, oh, I'm gonna reward you if you do this, if being the key word here. No, no, absolutely not. When you do this, this is what we'll have. Yeah.

unknown 27:29

Exactly.

SPEAKER_01 27:30

So the little uh tweak there in the leadership style, you know, that's just it's it's it it really does make sense because a weak leader is going to say if a strong leader is going to say when. Right.

SPEAKER_00 27:44

Just it is our kids often have a lot of leadership qualities, but we still have the authority, right? And so just remembering that we have the authority, that we get the final say. I have so many clients who are like, My kid can't swallow pills. I'm like, your kid's 12. I'm pretty sure they can't. Um so you have to you have to have the authority and teach them and those kind of things.

Medication and ADHD

SPEAKER_01 28:09

Yeah. So speaking of pills, a lot of people like listen, I this is just my opinion. I know people are gonna disagree with me or whatever, but like I think that if there are people who absolutely need medication, they should always have the medication that they need. I'm never gonna be against that. I'm never gonna be against that. However, however, I also think two things can be true at the same time, multiple things can be true at the same time. I also think that society has been so programmed to say, something is wrong, I need a drug. And I just I think it's like the first thing that people go to. Not everybody, of course. My mom wasn't like that. So when I was little um in the early 2000s, you know, the drug companies were like pushing Ritalin a lot on people. It was a big thing at that time. And so, and it still is, but it was like even bigger than. And so everybody was like, Oh, Nikki needs Ritalin, Nikki needs Ritalin, because I was like a kid and hyper and stuff. And my mom was like, No, she doesn't need Ritalin. And I'm so thankful. I'm so mom, if you ever listen to this podcast podcast, I am so thankful that you did not put me on drugs. I just can't even tell you. So, um, the the question that I have is sort of what is the role of medication and how it affects the brain and kind of stimulates these electronic, not electronic, but electric reactions and things like that that are going on.

SPEAKER_00 29:24

I have a 20-minute free webinar on my website if you go to brainwaveswellness.com slash ADHD, it's right there. Um, so it will be longer than the sake of this podcast, but a general overview is that the medication management for ADHD is in two silos. The first stimulates this, they're called stimulants, they stimulate the production of dopamine and norepinephrine, and the other is non-stimulants and they block the reuptake. And so the stimulants work acutely for like 12 hours of eight to 12 hours. The non-stimulants work around the clock. The non-stimulants are like a drain plug at the bottom, the stimulants are like the faucet. And so the net result is more water in the tub, but how we got there is different. And by water in the tub, I mean dopamine available, nor epinephrine available. And so I have lots of thoughts on medicine. I think they are a great tool. My threshold for recommending them is if it impacts safety, scholastic, or self-esteem. So kids who are running in traffic are really impulsive, kids who are trying so hard but can't read on grade level, kids who are being picked on or bullied because they can't keep their hands to themselves. So those are when I think about medicine as a tool. But before I get to recommending a medicine, and I need to try things at home first. So, like, how does their sleep look? Is there what's their screen time like? Are they eating a lot of sugar and red dye? Because we know it's a neuro irritant. Are they getting sunshine? Have they sweated? Are they moving their body? Are they in counseling, therapies, tutoring, all the things? What can we do outside before we get to a medicine as an option?

SPEAKER_01 31:02

Okay, yeah, that makes sense. So I have a a friend, she's a functional nutritionist, and I was doing some VA work for her, and she said that uh on her podcast that there's a connection between the gut and the brain. You've also mentioned a similar thing. Yeah. And so I want to know just sort of what what is this? It's got she called it the gut brain axis. And what's going on?

SPEAKER_00 31:22

Or the gut brain biome. It goes by both names, and that there is something called your enteric nervous system that runs throughout your brain and your gut, and they communicate all the time. And so think of it like your brain and your gut are besties. And so what we eat impacts our anxiety. What we think about impacts our stomach pain. And so they are constantly sending messages back and forth all day long, and they're so much more interconnected than we give them credit for, which is often why we can influence regulated behavior or influence emotional lability by changing our diet and improving our gut. Like having a good probiotic is amazing. Omega-3 vitamins are really great, making sure that you're having good gut motility. Like constipated kids are often have more emotional dysregulation than kids without it. So they're so, so, so connected.

Explore Functional Nutrition

SPEAKER_01 32:19

It makes perfect sense though. I don't know why I didn't make the connection until now, but yeah, that makes sense about the emotional issues and the constipation and stuff. I can see that now. Um, so for anybody listening to the show, if you want to uh contact that functional nutritionist that I was talking about, uh go to harmonywithfood.com. She is an excellent functional nutritionist, and everything that she does is all individualized and tailored to you based on testing and science and medical stuff. It's not just generic food advice. Like get more fruits and vegetables in your diet. It's way, way, way deeper than that.

SPEAKER_00 32:52

It's like inflammation and FODMAP and all the things. All the things that's awesome.

The Role of Genetics in Brain Science

SPEAKER_01 32:57

Yeah. So, question um before as we close out this first part of the podcast, we're good because we're going to get into the biblical information in part two. So, for those of you guys who want to sort of know a little bit more about what Rayanne has been talking about, like with the Bible, the expectations, the self-control, the scriptures. And then she talked about, you know, how God created the brain and he didn't make any mistakes and stuff like that. So if you want to get into the biblical discussion that stems from all the science she's talking about, that's going to be coming up in part two. So before we go to part two, Ray Ann, I want to know what role genetics plays in all of this emotional regulation.

SPEAKER_00 33:35

Oh, that's such a great question. So I think there's a big component of nature versus nurture, also. So um genetics, we know that ADHD, anxiety, and depression are all our genetic. There's an inherited trait to it. We know that family history is um if you are anxious, your kid is seven times more likely to have anxiety. We know all of this is genetic, but our kids are also not robots and they see us getting anxious at the park when they climb something really tall. And so it's really hard to tease out what is caught and what is taught. Um, but there is a genetic underpinning of all of those um emotional dysregulation components, but also our kids learn from us. And so when we do our own worry work, when we can do our own regulation work, when we can say, Here, I was really nervous about this, but this is how I overcame it. All of that helps them to have less functional impairments than we did, which is the really good news.

SPEAKER_01 34:40

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 34:40

Our kids can learn from our struggles, which is redemptive, in my opinion.

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Your Wish Is Your Command (Brain science & motivation)

SPEAKER_01 34:44

Yeah, definitely. Well, thank you so much for being here, Rayan. I appreciate all the information that you've shared with us today. And I think that part two of this is going to be fantastic because we're not just gonna get into Bible scriptures, which is, you know, gonna be the meat and potatoes of our next conversation, but people are dealing with stress. There's a lot of stress going on in the world. And so we want to know how do we apply this science and the Bible principles to alleviate some of that pressure and that stress. So looking forward to part two with you. Guys, go ahead and click play on the next podcast and you will have access immediately. So see you on part two of the gentle year, guys. Talk to you later. What you just heard is the foundation, how the brain works, why behavior shows up the way it does, and how to start responding with clarity instead of guesswork. If this episode helped you to see your child or even yourself a little more clearly, that's exactly what the gentle year is here to do. This podcast is powered by turning the tide tutoring, personalized academic coaching for students who think differently, and acting with Pippi, where confidence and creativity grow together. And if you're someone who enjoys thinking at this level, really understanding patterns, behavior, and how to respond with intention, you'd likely get a lot out of your wish is your command. It's a resource that shaped a lot of the deeper thinking behind the conversations like this. In part two, we're going deeper, connecting this science to faith, identity, and practical guidance on how we can lead our children from day to day. Go ahead and press play on part two of The Gentle Year with Ray Ann Johnson.