What is stress, anyways ?

Stress keeps us alive, but too much is not good....

Definition of Stress

There are many definitions of stress - but it basically is something that causes our body to react in a defensive manner. Stress usually originates outside our body, but it can also result from a thought or memory.

Let's say you were walking across the street with your child, whose hand you were holding. Thinking you had looked carefully before stepping out in the street, you are sure all is OK. All of a sudden a loud air-horn blasts in your ear. Your hair stands on end, your face contorts into a grimace, and without thinking, you grip your child's hand hard or scoop her into your arms and begin racing to the other side of the street. Your heart is pumping hard, your breathing is fast, your muscles tense against the street and you run faster than you can ever remember.

Flight or fight.....

This is a classic example of the "flight or fight" reaction. Built into our bodies over eons, this reaction works as well now as it did for our caveman ancestors. But as you stand safely with your child on the opposite sidewalk, your heart is still pounding, your breath is ragged, and you feel relieved that you are both OK. But then you look at that truck that nearly ran you both over and suddenly get raging mad, maybe loudly cursing at it, waving your hands in gestures of frustration. And maybe at dinner that night you relay the story to someone else, again feeling the hair standing on end, feeling butterflies in your stomach, and becoming angry all over again. Many nights later you might awaken, startled and disturbed, from a deep sleep, your heart pounding, your breath coming in ragged bursts.

So what just happened? How did your body react so quickly without thought to save your lives? Why did you get angry and flustered all over again just talking and remembering the situation. And why did you dream that incident with startling detail?

How does it work?

Programed into our body, stress sets off an alarm in the brain, which responds by preparing the body for defensive action. When we had more body hair (think way before the caveman) the goosebumps would cause our hair (fur) to stand up to make us look bigger (we can still feel this effect on the back of our necks) and thus more intimidating in case it was going to be fight instead of flight. The automatic grimace on the face would be to make us look more threatening (make the other guy take flight). Heart rate increases, blood pressure increases, blood is diverted away from digestion and into skeletal muscles. Blood-clotting mechanisms are activated to protect against possible injury, and the immune system is shut off to marshal more resources for the emergency at hand. Digestion ceases so blood can be diverted to the brain and muscles. Pupils dilate and the senses of smell and hearing become more acute. Increased perspiration to cool the body, increased rate of breathing to provide more oxygen to the muscles, increased levels of blood sugar for quick energy - all this preparing the physical body for a physical struggle.

So what's wrong with this?

Without this wonderful adaptation to our body, our ancestors wouldn't have lasted long in prehistoric times. They could respond instantly (not only is this reaction automatic, it is extremely fast), and live to see another day. But our system interprets mental and emotional stress in the same way as physical stress. The memory of the horn incident caused nearly the same reaction as the actual event. And the dream did the same. Unlike our ancestors, in today's world we face many, many more situations in the course of a day that can be stressful - pressures at work, children acting up, worries about credit card and other debt, traffic jams, difficult relationship with spouse or partner, and on and on. And the stress doesn't have to be caused by something negative, either - as you can see from the "stress test", marriage, pregnancy, a new job, and a child going off to college can all be stress-causing events.

The General Adaptation Syndrome

Medical researcher Hans Selye described the effects on the body from stress in The General Adaptation Syndrome (GAS). This described the stress syndrome in 3 phases or stages:

1. Alarm Reaction

In the Alarm Reaction stage the body's initial response is to mobilize its stored resourses. The autonomic nervous system causes the body to react as we've described above for the Fight or Flight Response. If the stress is intense or prolonged, we become aware of feeling general muscle tension, stomach-aches, headaches, and in general, feel "stressed."

2. Resistance Stage

In this stage the body is at its peak of preparedness for Fight or Flight. But since all its resources are mobilized, if a new stress occurs (either physical or mental), the body is less able to deal with it. This means that mental or emotional stress can cause our body to be more vulnerable to disease. And if this stress continues over an extended period of time, we enter the next stage....

3. Exhaustion Stage

If the stress continues, the body's resources become depleted and resistance to the stress is reduced. And if another stress occurs, the preparedness is much less, and exhaustion stage is reached more quickly. If we don't cope properly with the stress, we begin to feel "burned out" or "stressed out" and are eventually unable to deal with even minor stresses. Because the strain on the body is so great, excessive stress can shorten our lifespan.

Learn to cope

By learning to cope effectively with the stress in our lives we don't ever have to reach the last stage of burnout, unhappiness with our life, or become ill as a result. You don't have to accept your lot in life as "always having stress" - learn to manage it and find happiness and health! Click here to learn coping skills.

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