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?
Stress is arguably one of the most common physiological phenomena that any human being experiences. May you be young or old, stress is most likely etched within our system as we deal with numerous activities and circumstances that may be stressors on a daily basis.
On a personal note, I experience profuse sweating, uncharacteristic coughing, raised heart beating, sweaty and shaky hands, hyperactivity, and sleeplessness whenever I deal with stress. I usually experience most, if not all, of these manifestations when I get stressed with my academic requirements, personal decisions, and even in relational conflicts with my family and friends. Before, I only saw these as normal reactions of my body since dealing with stress is quite normal to result in cues that may be tangible or intangible to myself or with the people around me. I am indeed aware but do not fully understand how my body systems, specifically the endocrine system, works to eventually bring about such manifestations when dealt with stressful situations.
From what I have learned from the module, the stress response of the endocrine system undergoes three major stages: (1) the fight or flight stage, (2) the resistance stage, and (3) the exhaustion stage. During the first stage, numerous body systems are actively involved whenever a stress stimulus is perceived by our body. The nervous system detects such stimulus which signals the muscular and cardiovascular system to trigger a succeeding response that may either fight or escape from the impending stressor. The second stage then proceeds in counteracting the perceived stressor/s with the hypothalamus initiating the anterior pituitary gland in releasing a series of hormones namely corticotropin-releasing hormone (CRH), growth hormone-releasing hormone (GHRH), and thyrotropin-releasing hormone (TRH). As the anterior pituitary gland secretes these hormones, they intentionally combat the stressor perceived within our system until it reaches a point that the flight-or-fight response no longer causes distress and returns the body in its natural homeostatic conditions. In case the second stage is not able to fully address the stressor and is able to use up all of the resources of the body, the third and final stage then occurs. This is the exhaustion stage where the body resources and hormones used up in combating the stress stimulus run out resulting in fatigue manifested in the physical aspect of our body. If not addressed accordingly, this can escalate into worse conditions relative to stress disorders.
Ultimately, the endocrine system gave me a deeper perspective as to how stress response is very vital in my life. It made me realize that experiencing stress is normal, though should not always be considered experiencing for. This chapter helped me understand how stress is dealt with in a more complex and physiological manner and how I can better improve my coping mechanisms so that when stressful situations come my way, I know why I act the way I do and how I can deal with it more effectively.
References:
- G. J. & Derrickson, B. (2014). Principles of Anatomy and Physiology. New York, USA: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
- The Endocrine System: The Adrenal Glands and the Stress Response (2020). Visible Body. Retrieved from https://www.visiblebody.com/blog/the-endocrine-system-the-adrenal-glands-and-the-stress-response