How Your Stress Response Works

The stress response refers to the physiological and psychological changes that happen in your body as a result of stress. When you feel stressed, whether you face a real threat or merely think you are facing a threat, your body experiences a collection of changes known as your stress response. You may have also heard it referred to as your fight or flight response. 

Some stress is normal and can even be helpful. The stress response helps us be alert and ready to deal with the things we need to tackle. Once we deal with these acute stressors, our relaxation response kicks in, and we return to normal. But sometimes, stress lasts longer than it should, and this prolonged stress response can seriously affect our mental and physical well-being.

What Happens During the Stress Response?

When your body's stress response is triggered by some type of stressor, a series of reactions occur. Hormones such as corticotropin-releasing hormone and adrenocorticotropic hormone are released. This causes your body's sympathetic nervous system to stimulate the adrenal and pituitary glands, causing the release of cortisol, adrenaline, and other substances.

When your stress response is triggered, a series of changes occur within your body. They include:

• A quickening of your pulse
• Redirection of blood away from extremities and instead to major organs
• Rapid breathing
• Changes in blood pressure
• Muscle tension
• Dilated pupils
• Trembling
• Cold sweats
• Flushing or paling of the skin as blood moves from your extremities
  

Stages of the Stress Response

There are three stages that often occur in the stress response:

• The alarm stage occurs when your body responds to the source of stress. The nervous system is activated, triggering the cascade of physical reactions that you are probably familiar with.
• The resistance stage involves your body working to return itself to its normal state following the stress reaction. You'll slowly calm down, and your heart rate and blood pressure will return to normal.
• The exhaustion stage happens when your body keeps experiencing the first two stages without relief. It's what you may know as chronic stress.

What Triggers the Stress Response?

The stress response is intended to give you a burst of energy, so you can fight off attackers or run away from them effectively.

The stress response has an important evolutionary basis. It helped our ancestors, who faced numerous physical threats, to stay safe. In these times, the main threats faced were physical in nature and short-lived (such as predators or other environmental dangers).

These triggers can involve any situation where the demands involved may exceed our ability to cope. Some examples include:

• Work deadlines
• Conflict in relationships
• Divorce
• Financial challenges
• Moving
• Being unhappy with your job
• Feeling insecure about your job
• Discrimination
• Illness
• Mental health problems
• Caring for family members
• Daily life challenges
• Worrying about world events
• Struggling with changes

How the Stress Response Can Affect You

The stress response can affect you in various ways, including in the short and long term. Such effects can also be good or bad. On the plus side, the stress response can help us be prepared to face challenges and do our best. 

But there also comes a point where too much stress makes it harder to do well. If you are too tense or nervous, for example, you might find it difficult to focus or do the things you need to do.

Your Stress Response Might Not Match Your Needs

One problem with the stress response is that sometimes it triggers changes that aren't helpful for our situation. For example, the stress response can give you a burst of energy and strength, which isn't useful if you're in a work meeting and need a flash of wisdom or mental clarity.

Sometimes the effects of the stress response can make it more difficult to perform well in a stressful situation. For example, you might feel so nervous during a presentation that you aren't able to do your best.

It Can Lead to Chronic Stress

The stress response can actually cause harm if it leads to a state of chronic stress. This type of stress happens when our stress response is triggered, and then our body doesn’t go back to its normal state via the relaxation response.

Chronic stress can have serious effects on your physical health and psychological well-being. It is associated with problems such as:

• Anxiety and depression
• Headaches
• Heart problems and stroke
• Metabolic disorders
• Weakened immunity
• Gastrointestinal problems

It Affects People Differently

It is also important to remember that the strength of the stress response is related to the perceived threat level rather than an actual physical threat. This is why two people can experience the same situation and have different stress reactions to the same thing; some people perceive a threat, whereas others don't.

We Sometimes Misjudge the Threat

Also, because of this, we may experience a stronger stress response when someone is rude to us in a high-stakes social situation than when driving a car in busy traffic, where our chances of being physically hurt are greater. 

This is why we can experience significant stress levels when speaking in public, even though there's no actual physical danger (and relatively little social danger). That doesn't stop us from feeling threatened. Our hands might shake, our stomachs turn, and our bodies sweat as we face (what feels to us) to be a terrible threat.  

This also comes into play when we have negative experiences in our childhood that become stress triggers later in life. We feel we may be hurt similarly, even if we aren't in danger. 

How to Manage Your Stress Response

Chronic stress is serious stuff. After all, it's hard to function normally in your daily life when it seems like your mind and body are always on edge.

That's why it’s so important and healthy to find a collection of strategies that can help reverse the body’s stress response and bring it back to its natural state.

Think of it as your stress relief toolbox! Having these tools can minimize the number of times your stress response is triggered unnecessarily throughout the day.

Use Some Quick Stress Relievers

Finding relatively quick and effective ways to calm your body and mind can help you to reverse your body's stress response. This is a great first line of defense for stress, and there are many strategies that can work, such as:

• Doing some breathing exercises
• Writing in a journal
• Taking a walk
• Having a glass of water
• Visualizing a calming scene
• Relaxing your muscles with progressive muscle relaxation
• Using aromatherapy to calm your senses
  

Build Long-Term Stress Relief Habits

Maintaining longer-term habits that help build resilience toward stress may take more time and effort, but it can really pay off in the long run. Such habits can include:

• Regular exercise
• Getting enough sleep
• Eating a balanced diet
• Building a strong social support system
• Engaging in positive self-talk
• Building your self-efficacy
• Developing effective coping skills
• Learning how to accept your emotions
• Being more optimistic and reframing stressful situations

Once they become regular features in your lifestyle, these habits can make you less reactive to the stress you encounter. 

Shift Your Perspective

If you can change the way you look at the stressors in your life, you may find that some of them don't trigger the same reaction after a while. This is because the way you perceive things, as mentioned earlier, can either minimize or exacerbate the level of threat that seems to be involved.

For example, if you tend to take an all-or-nothing approach, you're more likely to feel stressed out and disappointed if things don't go as planned. 

Build Your Resources

Your stress response can be triggered when you feel you don't have the resources to manage the challenges you face. Building your personal resources can shift the balance of what triggers this response.

When you have more personal resources to draw upon, you also have a greater trust that you can handle what comes. Fortunately, you can take small steps to help yourself build these resources relatively easily. 

Strategies that can help you feel more capable of dealing with stressful situations include:

• Acknowledging your talents and accomplishments
• Using positive affirmations to boost your confidence
• Taking time to take care of yourself
• Seeking help or advice from others when you are feeling overwhelmed

Finally, consider talking to a mental health professional if you struggle with stress. They can help you figure out what's triggering your stress response and work with you to develop new stress management coping skills.