Throughout my existence, I experienced being stressed because of different stressors, be it the environment, events, and others. Oftentimes, I deal with eustress because the stress I experience pushes me to my limits in order to achieve my goals on a daily basis. Recounting the times when I experienced stress, I would say that my body undergoes different reactions to it; allow me to cite some. Increased heart rate, more frequent breathing, being more alert, nausea, headache, irritability, and restlessness are some reactions and clinical manifestations I often experience.
These clinical manifestations happen because our body’s homeostatic mechanisms are attempting to hamper the stress we’re experiencing. Stress responses are the order of bodily changes evoked by stressful conditions, which occur in three stages: fight-or-flight response, resistance reaction, and exhaustion. During the fight-or-flight response, the body’s resources are quickly deployed for immediate physical activity, wherein huge amounts of glucose and oxygen are brought to the organs like the brain, skeletal muscles, and heart, which are the most active in blocking the danger. Thus, this is when we experience increased heart rate and are highly alert. Consequently, a resistant reaction, a longer response, is initiated by hypothalamic-releasing hormones, which involve corticotropin-releasing hormone (CRH), growth, hormone-releasing hormone (GHRH), and thyrotropin-releasing hormone (TRH). After the fight-or-flight response has dissipated, the resistance stage takes place and helps the body fight the stressor. However, if the stressor persists, this stage is prolonged, which causes our body to experience irritability. Moreover, this is the stage when our body goes back to its normal state; hence, the blood pressure and heart rate are lowered. However, our body still remains alert which explains why even if the stressor is gone, the pounding of the heart is still present for several minutes. If ever this stage fails to overcome the stressor, our body goes into the stage of exhaustion. In this stage, the body becomes so depleted to the point that it can no longer hold the resistance stage. Due to long exposure to high levels of cortisol and other hormones present in the resistance stage, the muscles, immune system, gastrointestinal tract, and pancreatic beta cells are negatively affected, and health conditions may develop like depression, anxiety, and fatigue.
To wrap it all up, our body, indeed, is subjected to stress day by day; however, not all stress that we experience is negative, because there are stressors that allow us to maximize our capabilities and potential as a person. Thus, understanding this aspect of the endocrine system is very important for us to understand how our body responds to stress and monitor if we still regard stress healthily or not.
References:
Tortora, & Derrickson. (2012). Chapter 8: The Endocrine System. In Principles of anatomy and physiology (13th ed.). Pp 713-714.
What Is General Adaptation Syndrome? (2022, January 11). Verywell Mind. Retrieved October 14, 2022, from https://www.verywellmind.com/general-adaptation-syndrome-gad-definition-signs-causes-management-5213817