Stress Responses and Their Impact on the Body

Fear and #stress are perhaps the oldest emotions felt by living beings as they are processed in the most ancient parts of our brain. They have plenty of uses such as keeping us alive and alerting us to potential threats. Thousands of years ago, stress motivated us to run from our predators, seek out food, water, and shelter, and avoid rejection from social groups, all in the name of keeping us safe. And it clearly worked, because we as a species are still thriving, and stress and fear continue to motivate us daily.

The Change in Our Stressors

As we evolved, so did our problems. We built cities to escape predators and discovered medicine to wipe out infectious disease which meant that we had more time to develop as a society. With busy schedules, a culture based around productivity, and new ways of relating to other members of our community, different problems like traffic jams and triggering debates came to the forefront.?

In this rapid transformation of #stressors, our biology was left behind. Our stress responses stayed the same despite the shift in our daily trials and tribulations. Many of our stressors are now long-term and this takes a toll on our bodies. We are simply not made to endure week-long stress responses and our bodies begin to produce symptoms as a desperate cry for help. They need us to put an end to the threat we are facing through one of our ancient survival responses: fight, flight, freeze, or fawn. But what exactly are these responses and how do they manifest in the body?

Fight

When we meet a threat we feel we can overcome, our body often shifts into fight mode. Many years ago this looked like fighting off a predator, but nowadays (as we don’t usually resort to physical fights), it can feel like anger, competitiveness, or irritability. Our hormones signal to our body that we are going to face our threat head on, and pump blood to our limbs and lungs while speeding up our heart rate. If you’ve ever felt your heart pound or your cheeks get hot with rage, you were most likely experiencing a fight response.?

Flight

When we feel the best option is to run away and create some distance between ourselves and our threat, we move into flight mode. In ancient times (and still today depending on the circumstances) this was fleeing from danger. It may not be common to physically run away from a conflict in the present day, however, we may feel this survival response manifest in avoidance, feelings of #anxiety or panic, and an inability to sit still.?

Freeze

When we feel completely overwhelmed by the threat with no sense that we can overcome it, our nervous system shuts down and we slide into a freeze state. We often associate this state with feelings of numbness, dissociation, feeling stuck, and an inability to make decisions. If you have ever thought of all the work you have piling up and been unable to get started despite a tight time limit, you may have been experiencing a freeze response.?

Fawn

Fawn is the more recently uncovered stress response and it comes from a desire to soothe or please our attacker. We pander to their needs or try to come off as appealing to avoid a conflict. A fawn response can look like #peoplepleasing, codependence or a lack of #boundaries.?

What Stress Does to Your Body

When we are stressed, our brain sends signals down through our nervous system to activate our stress hormones. Its entire purpose is to help optimize our bodily functions to deal with the threat at hand and return us to a place of safety. Typically in the past, pumping blood to our limbs, our heart, and our lungs to give us strength to fight or prepare us for a quick get away was the best way to deal with a threat. However, to accomplish this, we also have to shut down a variety of systems and processes.?

A little stress in your life is normal, even positive, but when this stress becomes prolonged, stretching from a period of minutes or hours to weeks or months, the stress that might have been keeping you safe begins to take a toll. We as a species are not built to experience long-term stress without adequate intervals of recovery. Therefore, when we get stuck in a chronic stress response, our healthy functions are switched off completely which can stop hair and nail growth, lower libido, cause digestive problems and skin issues, and lead to muscle tightness and pain. This can then lead to a whole host of symptoms and our health takes a hit. If you are in a state of chronic stress, this needs to be addressed at the root cause.?

Sometimes the root cause might not be one particular stressor such as your job or your romantic relationship. Instead, the stress may be stemming from maladaptive #copingmechanisms that were formed in childhood. These can be due to either childhood trauma or attachment injuries and can cause us to live in a permanent state of fear and stress.?

How You Can Shift Your Chronic Stress

If we are stuck in a chronic stress response, there are a variety of tools and techniques that can be used to regulate our nervous system. A mixture of top-down (brain retraining, trauma resolution, meditation, etc.) and bottom-up therapies (yoga, qi-gong, somatic experiencing, etc.). This combination allows us to address both thought patterns and sensations in the body to give our healing and recovery a complete and holistic approach.?

When You Need Some Guidance

At CFS School we incorporate a variety of therapies into our program to get down to the root cause of chronic stress and understand our coping mechanisms and thought patterns that may be causing it. If you would like to learn more about our approach, comment below.?