Stress and your nervous system
The stress response is a series of neurological and hormonal events, beginning in the brain in response to danger.
With acute stress, the Amygdala (in the brain) perceives danger and sends a distress signal to the Hypothalamus (the hormonal command centre in the brain). This triggers the Sympathetic branch (often called the gas peddle) of the Autonomic nervous system, readying you to respond.
Our 'get-out-of-danger’ friend, Adrenaline, supports the Sympathetic nervous system’s ‘fight, flight, (freeze, fawn)’ response. Suddenly, our heart rate is up and there’s more sugar and fat available in our blood stream. We have the resources to get to safety.
Once the danger has passed and our Amygdala perceives ‘safety’, the Parasympathetic branch of the Autonomic nervous system acts like a ‘brake pedal’, bringing the body back to baseline. You might have heard me refer to it as the ‘rest, digest, reproduce’ arm of the nervous system.
Chronic, low grade stress leads to the Nervous system never getting the ‘safety’ signal, leading to a chronically dysregulated nervous system.
Here is what the body feels like when the sympathetic nervous system is ready to act:
Signs of the ‘fight’ response include urge to attack, stomp, kick, punch or cry, a tightness in the jaw, teeth grinding or a knotted sensation in the stomach.
During the ‘flight’, we are ready to run. Adrenaline keeps us going, when we would normally need to stop. Examples of this are feeling restless, constantly moving, feeling tense, trapped or fidgety, feeling numb in your arms and legs, dilated pupils or darting eyes.
There are also two stress responses without major actions, ‘Freeze’ and ‘Fawn’:
‘Freeze’ includes awareness of your heart beat, decreased heart rate, a sense of dread, pale skin and feeling ‘stuck’, stiff, heavy and cold.
‘Fawn’ includes being overly helpful, agreeable, over-dependent, vulnerable and being fixated on the happiness of others. It sometimes happens after the ‘fight, flight, freeze’ response.
Chronic, unresolved stress leads to the production of cortisol by the adrenal glands, leading to feeling revved up and on high alert. Appetite increases. This response keeps the ‘gas pedal’ of the stress response on. It can be calmed by triggering the ‘Brake pedal’ or the parasympathetic nervous system’s relaxation response.
This relaxation response can be individual it can be triggered by:
Gentle exercise (yoga, Taichi, Qi Gong, walking),
Social support and spending time with loved ones
Breathing techniques (like abdominal breathing, the quick breath, box breathing etc), grounding techniques or meditation techniques. (more on these to come in a later blog)
Humming, singing, reading, reciting poetry aloud, prayer and Mantra.