Fight or Flight: The Evolution of Stress
Imagine you are a caveman out innocently picking berries when suddenly you come nose to nose with a sabre-tooth tiger. While you were simply gathering, the tiger was actually hunting, and the sight of you makes his mouth water.
Luckily for you, millions of years of evolution has endowed you with a set of automatic weapons that take over in the event of an emergency. At the sight of the tiger, your hypothalamus sends a message to your adrenal glands and within seconds, you can run faster, hit harder, see better, hear more acutely, think faster, and jump higher than you could only seconds earlier.
Your heart is pumping at two to three times the normal speed, sending nutrient rich blood to the major muscles in your arms and legs. The tiny blood vessels (called capillaries) under the surface of your skin close down (which consequently sends your blood pressure soaring) so you can sustain a surface wound and not bleed to death. Even your eyes dilate so you can see better.
All functions of your body not needed for the struggle about to commence are shut down. Digestion stops and your immune system is temporarily turned off. If necessary, excess waste is eliminated to make you light on your feet. Your suddenly supercharged body is designed to help level the odds between you and your attacker. Consequently, you narrowly escape death by leaping higher and running faster than you ever could before. With the danger now over, you find a safe place to lie down and rest your exhausted body.
FLASH FORWARD to the present day. Despite the huge amount of technological change in the ensuing 25,000 years, you are walking around with essentially the same set of internal body parts as that of the caveman. At this very moment you're in math class waiting for class to start and hunting for your homework. Your principal is out hunting too. But guess what? He's hunting for you.As you settle in for class you hear your teacher say those dreaded words: "The principal would like to see you for a moment in the office." At the thought of the tiger, er, uh...your principal...your hypothalamus sends a message to your adrenal glands and within seconds your body summons all the same powers that your stone-age ancestor needed to fight a sabre tooth tiger.
You can almost feel your blood pressure soar as you take the long walk down the hall to the principal’s office. You remember a rumor you heard about a crack down on discipline. Now your mind is racing, your heart is pumping, your blood pressure is soaring, your mouth dries up, your hands feel cold and clammy, your forehead is perspiring and you may even feel a sudden urge to go (to the bathroom). As you imagine your principal assigning you to detention, the caveman inside of you wants to come out. Maybe you'd like to run and hide or maybe you'd like to kick the trash can, but you can't do either. Welcome to the modern era.
As your principal ushers you into his office and closes the door, you're experiencing a full-blown episode of the fight or flight response. But since you can't fight and you can't flee, all of that energy is pent-up inside of you with no place to go. You feel like you're going to explode. Your principal begins to speak. "Here it comes," you think to yourself. But you're so shocked by what you hear you can't believe you heard it right. "What did you say?" you ask your principal. "We are considering you for student of the month," he repeats.Every time your body triggers the fight or flight response, for situations that are not truly life-threatening, you are experiencing, in effect, a false alarm. Too many false alarms can lead to stress-related disorders like, heart disease, high blood pressure, immune system disorders, migraine headaches, and insomnia.. The above example from the modern era was doubly false since the fight or flight response was in anticipation of an event (getting detention) that never materialized.
Stress is an unavoidable consequence of life. However, just as distress can cause disease, it seems plausible that there are good stresses that promote wellness. Stress is not always necessarily harmful. Winning a race or election can be just stressful as losing, or more so, but may trigger very different biological responses. Increased stress results in increased productivity -- up to a point. However, this level differs for each of us. It's very much like the stress on a violin string. Not enough produces a dull, raspy sound. Too much tension makes a shrill, annoying noise or snaps the string. However, just the right degree can create a magnificent tone. Similarly, we all need to find the proper level of stress that allows us to perform optimally and make melodious music as we go through life.
Imagine you are a caveman out innocently picking berries when suddenly you come nose to nose with a sabre-tooth tiger. While you were simply gathering, the tiger was actually hunting, and the sight of you makes his mouth water.
Luckily for you, millions of years of evolution has endowed you with a set of automatic weapons that take over in the event of an emergency. At the sight of the tiger, your hypothalamus sends a message to your adrenal glands and within seconds, you can run faster, hit harder, see better, hear more acutely, think faster, and jump higher than you could only seconds earlier.
Your heart is pumping at two to three times the normal speed, sending nutrient rich blood to the major muscles in your arms and legs. The tiny blood vessels (called capillaries) under the surface of your skin close down (which consequently sends your blood pressure soaring) so you can sustain a surface wound and not bleed to death. Even your eyes dilate so you can see better.
All functions of your body not needed for the struggle about to commence are shut down. Digestion stops and your immune system is temporarily turned off. If necessary, excess waste is eliminated to make you light on your feet. Your suddenly supercharged body is designed to help level the odds between you and your attacker. Consequently, you narrowly escape death by leaping higher and running faster than you ever could before. With the danger now over, you find a safe place to lie down and rest your exhausted body.
FLASH FORWARD to the present day. Despite the huge amount of technological change in the ensuing 25,000 years, you are walking around with essentially the same set of internal body parts as that of the caveman. At this very moment you're in math class waiting for class to start and hunting for your homework. Your principal is out hunting too. But guess what? He's hunting for you.As you settle in for class you hear your teacher say those dreaded words: "The principal would like to see you for a moment in the office." At the thought of the tiger, er, uh...your principal...your hypothalamus sends a message to your adrenal glands and within seconds your body summons all the same powers that your stone-age ancestor needed to fight a sabre tooth tiger.
You can almost feel your blood pressure soar as you take the long walk down the hall to the principal’s office. You remember a rumor you heard about a crack down on discipline. Now your mind is racing, your heart is pumping, your blood pressure is soaring, your mouth dries up, your hands feel cold and clammy, your forehead is perspiring and you may even feel a sudden urge to go (to the bathroom). As you imagine your principal assigning you to detention, the caveman inside of you wants to come out. Maybe you'd like to run and hide or maybe you'd like to kick the trash can, but you can't do either. Welcome to the modern era.
As your principal ushers you into his office and closes the door, you're experiencing a full-blown episode of the fight or flight response. But since you can't fight and you can't flee, all of that energy is pent-up inside of you with no place to go. You feel like you're going to explode. Your principal begins to speak. "Here it comes," you think to yourself. But you're so shocked by what you hear you can't believe you heard it right. "What did you say?" you ask your principal. "We are considering you for student of the month," he repeats.Every time your body triggers the fight or flight response, for situations that are not truly life-threatening, you are experiencing, in effect, a false alarm. Too many false alarms can lead to stress-related disorders like, heart disease, high blood pressure, immune system disorders, migraine headaches, and insomnia.. The above example from the modern era was doubly false since the fight or flight response was in anticipation of an event (getting detention) that never materialized.
Stress is an unavoidable consequence of life. However, just as distress can cause disease, it seems plausible that there are good stresses that promote wellness. Stress is not always necessarily harmful. Winning a race or election can be just stressful as losing, or more so, but may trigger very different biological responses. Increased stress results in increased productivity -- up to a point. However, this level differs for each of us. It's very much like the stress on a violin string. Not enough produces a dull, raspy sound. Too much tension makes a shrill, annoying noise or snaps the string. However, just the right degree can create a magnificent tone. Similarly, we all need to find the proper level of stress that allows us to perform optimally and make melodious music as we go through life.
