Stress helps you meet your daily challenges and motivates you to reach your goals, ultimately making you a smarter, happier, and healthier person. However when you are stressed, what body reactions or clinical manifestations do you often experience? After studying the endocrine system and the stress response, can you explain how these clinical manifestations occur?
These days, I have been feeling stressed and sometimes burned out, but when I experience stress, things like headaches, faster heart rate, sweating, rapid breathing, and abit of dizziness. After studying the endocrine system, the way that the body responds to stress is through 3 stages. The first stage is the “Alarm reaction stages”, in this stage, this is where the initial symptoms the body experiences when under stress. Fight-or-flight which is a psychological response to stress. When this happens, it prepares you to either flee or fight to protect your life. Heart rate increases, adrenal glands release cortisol (a stress hormone), and you receive a boost of adrenaline which increases your energy. The second stage is the “Resistance stage” where the body begins to repair itself. It releases a lower amount of cortisol, and your heart rate and blood pressure begin to normalize. Some signs in this stage are irritability, frustration and poor concentration. If the resistance stage continues for too long of a period without pauses to offset the effects of stress, this can lead to the exhaustion stage. The final stage is the “Exhaustion stage”, this stage is the result of prolonged or chronic stress. Prolonging stress can really drain your physical, emotional and mental resources to the point where your body no longer has strength to fight stress. Signs of exhaustion include: fatigue, burnout, depression, anxiety, and decreased stress tolerance.
As much as possible, let us not reach the exhaustion stage and find things that can really help lower our stress.
References:
Higuera, V. (2018, October 6). What Is General Adaptation Syndrome? Healthline. Retrieved October 13, 2022, from https://www.healthline.com/health/general-adaptation-syndrome