Consider these three different scenarios.

A sales rep is having a difficult time during the recession. The last three months sales were disastrous. He is about to meet an important, big new client and this could be an opportunity that could save his career. Success will decide whether he still has a job or not.

 

A man is desperately and madly in love with this attractive and popular woman. He cannot see a future without her but there are other men trying to attract her attention. The table is set for two, the ring is in his hand and the red roses lie near by. Any moment she will knock on the door and he will go down on his knees and and he does not know what her answer will be.

 

Late at night a woman is walking home. The streets are poorly lit. The sound of footsteps ahead of her make her uneasy. She can see a group of people wearing hoodies walking towards her. Behind her she now hear more footsteps. She turns around to see a group of youths walking towards her.

 

Although there is potential danger in only one scenario, a person becomes very focussed and alert. This is the fight and fright reaction.

 

This is a reaction in humans and animals that developed a long time ago to protect us from life threatening dangers. The hormones adrenaline, noradrenaline and cortisone are released during the reaction.These hormones cause a remarkable change in the body.

 

The heart rate speeds up, the breathing become faster and deeper, the mouth becomes dry, the pupils dilate, skin becomes cold and clammy and hairs on the back of the neck stand up.

 

You may even want to vomit, open your bowels or urinate. This is the brain trying to lighten the load to move faster during ‘flight’.

 

These changes are preparing the body for action. You become alert and aware. Your senses are very sharp. Your hearing, sense of smell and your sight are all sharpened. Your body is primed and ready to go.

 

Your rapidly beating heart pumps more blood to the muscles and brain. By breathing faster and deeper, more oxygen is transported by the blood to the muscles and brain. In addition blood is shunted away temporarily from other important organs such as the kidneys, immune system and the gut to enable more blood to the muscles.

 

The fight and fright reaction is primeval, developed in early humans to survive amongst dangerous reptiles and mammals. Unfortunately the brain cannot differentiate between real and percieved dangers or threats. The reaction is the same.

In all three scenarios above, the fight or fright reaction is triggered.

 

Panic attacks are severe episodes of the fight or fright reaction and, to the individual during an attack the threat or danger is very real. Rationality suddenly disappear and there is no where to run to or no one to fight.

 

In stress, the fight or flight reaction is triggered even thought there is no threat to our lives and can harm the body. Persistent stress caqn cause disease.

 

Understanding how the fight or fright reaction is triggered in stress will help you make some sense about the symptoms of stress you experience with stress.

 

 

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