| More people today suffer from stress today than ever before. The pace of modern life is stressful in itself. We expect to manage the major life changes and crises, such as marriage, parenthood, unemployment, bereavement, overwork or ill health, without the network of support that previous generations relied upon. For some, stress may not be related to such specific events, but may have developed in early childhood as a response to difficult situations. This response may have been carried into adult life as the characteristic way of dealing with difficulties.
Stress affects us in many different ways. Some people develop illnesses such as asthma, hypertension, ulcers or irritable bowel syndrome. Some suffer from free-floating anxiety, panic attacks, muscular tension and hyperventilation. Some people respond with obsessive or compulsive thoughts and behaviours, many suffer from a variety of phobias and some suffer from depression. It is estimated that one in four people suffer from stress at some time in their lives and it is one of the most common problems treated by Doctors in the Western world. So what exactly is stress? Our bodies react to stress in a similar way that they react to fear. We experience fear when we have cause to be concerned about our well-being or safety. We experience stress when we are in situations where we feel under threat but are not actually in any immediate danger. When we feel under threat in this way our bodies respond with the Fight or Flight Response. This response, which prepares our bodies to fight or flee, involves a number of physical changes. Our heartbeat increases, our breathing becomes shallow, all of our senses work better, we may have a desire to defecate, our muscles tense to fight or flee, our hands and feet become colder and we begin to sweat to cool ourselves, as all of these changes make us hot. This Fight or Flight Response is our instinctive reaction to danger. This response can be set off by many situations that are not really dangerous or life-threatening. Our bodies however, are reacting as if our lives were actually threatened, and the reaction to such a threat is a powerful one. In a situation which is not life-threatening, these physical changes may be experienced as extremely unpleasant, causing palpitations, pain in the muscles resulting from excessive tension, insomnia, breathlessness, numbness, tingling, dizziness, sickness, fainting, headaches, indigestion, diarrhoea, fatigue, chest pains, blurred vision, nausea and shaking, to name but a few possible symptoms. When there is no enemy to fight or run from, the physical feelings created by the Fight or Flight Response have no release, and so we begin to build up stress. This stress will eventually find an outlet in chronic fatigue, anxiety, panic attacks or a variety of minor physical illnesses. It is possible, however to change our response to many everyday events from Fight or Flight, to relaxation, which is the exact physical opposite to the Fight or Flight Response. We can learn to do this with Stress Mangement Training. |
The Stress Consultancy |
| LEADERS IN STRESS MANAGEMENT TRAINING IN THE UNITED KINGDOM |
| Est. 1995 |
| The Fight or Flight Response |
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