BRAKE THE STRESS: Survival mechanism impairing health
KC Lovely Reyes
The widely used term “stress” describes the variety of things which is too large for the brain to counter all at once, activating a stimulus which dictates how the body would process.
Stress is not all the ‘bad things’ which it is considered to be. This type is called “eustress”, the kind which causes hormones to spike and regulates the pulse, making it faster.
This positive stress is felt during times of excitement—namely during roller coaster rides, competitions, and even during a first date.
While eustress functions without the feeling of threat or fear, its counterpart makes use of these in order to produce a feeling that might overwhelm a person.
A difficult situation—whether caused by the environment such as impending exams and looming work deadlines, or psychological, such as the persistent worry about failure—triggers a spurt of stress hormones that produce coordinated psychological changes.
These stressful incidents make the muscles feel tense, the heart to pound fast, difficulty catching up with breathing, and beads of sweat appear all over the body.
When someone experiences incidents of stress, the amygdala, a part of the brain that concerns emotional processing, sends a distress signal to the hypothalamus.
Hypothalamus functions as a command center of the brain which communicates with the rest of the body through the nervous system to activate cortisol. The ‘fight-or-flight’ response.
This response is likened to the function of a gas pedal in a car, providing the body with a sudden burst of energy in order to respond to perceived danger.
When the danger has passed, the parasympathetic nervous system functions like a brake, promoting the ‘rest and digest’ response which calms the body down.
People are most likely unaware when these changes happen because they occur so swiftly.
The wiring of these parts are so efficient that the amygdala and hypothalamus start this cascade long before the brain’s visual centers can fully process what is happening.
Stress is a stimuli which triggers the survival mechanism of the body in order to act and escape situations that are deemed dangerous.
When this feeling lingers in the body for too long, making it continuous, the direct impact it has will worsen. This occurrence is called “chronic stress.”
While stress is beneficial in some situations, the frequent exposure to stressful events will lead to the decline of both physical and mental health, as well as the impairing of the immune system, reproductive system, and on how the brain would store memory.
Challenges in life are inevitable but by regulating the negative responses one has in a certain situation, it can act as the brake to stop stress.