Page 44 - Advance Copy: Todd Kaufman, Author

TODD KAUFMAN
otherwise, to rewire its connections. This is a both a natural process and a process that can be enhanced through learning. The process is called neuroplasticity.
Neuroplasticity: How To Change Your Brain
Lars was a bright, 17-year-old honour student who loved football. Considering how much time he invested in his beloved game of football, it was amazing he actually had the time to be an honour student! If Lars wasn’t on the field, he was watching the game from the sidelines, working hard at practice with his coach, teaching younger students to play or was on his mobile playing football apps. Lars was very good at the game, and he always wanted to be better. He was extremely focused and committed.
One spring, Lars’ plate started to overflow: One of his siblings started facing health challenges that required the time and care of the entire family, his grandpa who he dearly loved became terminally ill and was considering assisted suicide, and he had to juggle all of this, plus football and school, while bouncing between two families since his parents were both divorced and remarried. Everyone knew Lars to be a great student who could handle it all. But Lars was 17, and no matter how “together“ people thought he was, we all have our breaking point.
In the year leading up to that time, Lars had started to have what he called “red alerts”: He would be sitting in class, and suddenly his heart would begin to pound out of his chest and he would go beet red. He would know that everyone was looking at him and it would always seem to him that the only option was to bolt out of the classroom and to get somewhere else – anywhere else. Yet that somewhere else never seemed to help. His panic attacks would build and they both terrified and embarrassed him. As all of this was going on, Lars would fight hard to do everything, anything, to make it stop.
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