How Is Stress Affecting Your Health?

Stress is something that we normally consider to be “negative” in our life, but reality it’s different, stress is an innate defense mechanism in all living beings. When we live in stressful situations, our body activates the mechanism of “fight or flight”, thanks to it, we have various physiological reactions that allow us to focus on what the body understands as a dangerous situation and face it, either by fleeing or fighting.

When we have this defense mechanism turned on, we can notice changes such as:

• An accelerated heart rate. This is because the heart pumps blood faster to provide oxygen to our extremities and boost our energy.
• Paleness on the face. The body sends a larger portion of blood to the arms and legs, and removes it from the face and head to avoid large blood loss in case of being injured.
• Mental fog. When we are stressed we don’t think clearly, the body is focused on putting its energy into fighting or fleeing, not smart thinking.
• Stomach discomfort or lack of appetite. The body is not paying attention to hunger, the stomach does not receive enough blood and oxygen to function normally since it is mostly being sent to the legs and arms.
• Insomnia. Our body feels that it needs to be alert to the danger, so we don’t sleep or we have a very light sleep.

This same defense mechanism exists in animals, with a big difference, imagine this situation:

A deer is quietly eating and is attentive when it hears the crackling of the nearby branches, at that moment it notices the presence of a predator, runs with all its energy until it manages to escape from its threat, and once safe, it continues to eat peacefully without thinking about it again.

And we all question “but, I’m not running away from a beast!” It is true, but by nature, our defense mechanism evolved with our ancestors to think that you are, let’s not forget that human evolution originated thanks to the fact that the human being knew how to defend himself from his predators in the past, at the same time, he became a predator of others.

Our body does not distinguish a physical danger from a psychological danger, if we are stressed by the financial situation, due to a family conflict or by the workload, our body will still think that a lion is chasing us and will activate all the necessary mechanisms to survive.

But… That’s Fine, Right?

Not really. In the case of humans, we do not manage to disconnect from the fight-flight mechanism so quickly, we usually stay in the stressful situation again and again, although we have already overcome it, let’s look at this example:

A girl is walking home after work, on the way, she is found by a huge and furious dog that begins to bark at her, the dog looks aggressive and she starts to run as fast as she can trying to run away from him, the dog chases her for a couple of blocks until she manages to take refuge, she doesn’t even know how she did it but her body gave her what she needed to run away. She takes refuge in a shopping place for a few minutes crying agitated and scared, until she decides to leave, and continue her way home. When she gets home she meets her sister and tells her the story, remembering every detail and adding some more, since her memory is somewhat confusing, when talking about it, she feels how her heart accelerates and fear invades her again, she is aware that she is out of danger, but her body is having the same physiological reactions as when she was chased by the dog.

What happened to the girl in the previous example is that, she activated the fighting or flight mechanism when escaping from the dog, but unlike the deer, she remembers the event over and over again, making the body relive the stressful situation, and the more she remembers it, the more damage it causes. Unconsciously, we become addicted to stress hormones such as cortisol and adrenaline.

Exactly the same thing happens when we are under psychological stress, if we are in a financial problem or in the middle of a family conflict, our body remains in an alert state with its stress mechanisms, and when that situation becomes chronic, the body begins to fail, since it is a mechanism that should only be activated temporarily. These failures can lead us to an endless number of diseases.

If you feel that you are constantly attacked by thoughts or stressful situations, find help, psychological therapy can be a great support, but it is also important to maintain mindfulness and relaxation practices, to dispel intrusive thoughts and give your body the rest it needs from addictive stress hormones.

Thank you for reading this article, I hope it can help you to better understand the importance of keeping stress under control… before it’s too late.