Why chronic stress can make you sick
The fight/flight response is key to understanding the consequences of stress
Stress for Success
March 17, 2009

You’re driving down the highway when suddenly a car cuts you off almost causing an accident! You slam on the brakes, scream obscenities while adrenaline courses through your system! Your heart’s in your throat!

This is your body’s fight/flight response preparing you to defend against any and all danger—real or perceived. All survival mental and physical systems are on high alert like:
Faster heart beat
Faster, shallower breathing
Heightened vision and hearing
Muscle tension and much more

Triggering your stress response does no significant damage if your body returns fairly quickly to a balanced state to recover from the energy drain. Humans are incredibly resilient to their daily dose of stress.

The danger is that today’s fast-paced lifestyle triggers the fight/flight many times a day if not an hour leaving too many with an elevated stress response all day, most days. If your body doesn’t have time to recover from one triggering event to the next you end up in a near constant state of tension making you more vulnerable to everything from:
§ Insomnia to indigestion
§ Exhaustion to heart disease
§ Diabetes to depression and more

So, protect yourself from chronic stress, elevated stress that lasts for four months or longer, like:
§ A traumatic event like a hurricane and its aftermath
§ Chronic illness
§ Long-term care-giving
§ On-going financial stress
§ Hotheadedness and impatience
§ The American lifestyle of working entirely too much and resting far too little

Because modern stress is mostly mental, not physical, requiring mental solutions not physical attacks or retreats you have to slam on the brakes of your fight/flight energy. Over time this takes its toll on you physically and emotionally.

Much of the damage from chronic stress comes from the fight/flight hormone, cortisol. Even small hassles that aren’t worth risking your health over or simply stewing about stress contribute to the accumulation of symptoms.

Dr. Robert Sapolsky, author of “Why Zebras Don’t Get Ulcers”, explains the damage of chronic stress: “No single disastrous effect, no lone gunman. Instead, kicking and poking and impeding, here and there, make this a bit worse, [make] that a bit less effective. Thus making it more likely for the roof to cave in one day.”

For example, your in-laws call; the sound of their voices sets you on edge. Do you realize that your stress response just ordered your stomach to diminish or stop digesting? Digestion isn’t essential for fighting or fleeing so it’s shut down or slowed while your heart and lungs rev up to defend against an attacking tiger. Could this explain why indigestion is so common today? Yes!

Which stressors are you spending your vital energy on? A difficult boss? Financial stress? Coping with change? Who pushes your buttons? Certainly, some of these are worth your energy, while others are not so it’s vital to pick and choose your battles.

Next week we’ll consider ways to get more rest away from your stress, the key to protecting yourself from chronic stress.

Jacquelyn Ferguson, M. S., of InterAction Associates, is a trainer and a Stress Coach. E-mail her at www.jackieferguson.com or call 239-693-8111 for information about her workshops on this and other topics or to invite her to speak to your organization.