Our Stress Response Cycle
Have you ever finished an exam, walked out of the exam room, and still felt your body buzzing or your heart racing? Like it’s in your ears and its trying to bust out. This is because our stress response activated, but it never fully completed.
Let’s walk through an example:
You walk into your exam room, seat yourself down, and the invigilator tells you to begin writing. The exam (stressor) activates your stress cycle and you may experience a rapid heart rate, sweating palms and armpits, and racing thoughts (yup, this is stress). You spend a few hours writing, noticing these changes in the body. Finally, you finish, walk the exam booklet up & hand it in, and walk out of the exam hall (yay, the stressor is gone). You walk down the hall, out the door, and to your car. You’re sitting there and you still feel your rapid heart rate, sweating, and racing thoughts. What is happening?! Well, even when the stressor is gone, the stress persists.
*An important note about stressors: they can be real or perceived, and they can come from external or internal sources. Our body can perceive negative self-talk as a threat.*
Our stress cycle has 3 stages we progress through.
Alarm: This is our immediate response to the stressor (exam). This is our fight or flight response! Our amygdala sends signals to our hypothalamus, transporting this new information to the rest of our body using our nervous system (specifically, our parasympathetic nervous system). Adrenal glands release hormones like adrenaline and cortisol, which activate the physiological changes we experience like rapid heart rate and sweating. Our alertness increases!
Resistance: When the sense of danger passes, our parasympathetic nervous system pushes its natural ‘brakes’ that work to reduce the stress response. Your alertness might not change immediately, as you scan your environment and assess safety. If the stressor persists, or it feels unsafe, our body tries to adapt to the stress and tries its best to get back to its resting state. Our hormones (like the adrenaline and cortisol) try to return to a stable level, and we try to fix any damage caused by our alarm stage. When we are in this stage, we night notice cognitive and emotional changes like poor concentration, increased irritability, and increased frustration.
Exhaustion: If the stress persists for longer than expected, we actually end of using all our resources and our ability to cope with the stress reduces. We can’t complete the stress cycle. If this happens, we might notice decreased immunity and physiological impairments like chronic fatigue, anxiety, depression, insomnia, or burnout.
How to Complete the Stress Cycle (Simplified and Accessible)
Physical activity: running, walking, dancing, hiking, cycling, swimming, lifting weights
Laughter: Visit a stand-up comedy club, visit your funny friends, put on your favourite comedy movie
Affection: Hugging, kissing, hand holding, cuddling, and yup, you guessed, it, sex
Creativity: Writing, painting, drawing, knitting, gardening
Cry: Put on a sad movie, put on a sad song or playlist, cry with a trusted person, go to a private space to cry (if you’re at work, a bathroom, closet, or your car works just fine)
Remember, our stress response wants to keep us safe. When we learn more about our body’s natural responses, we can learn to work with it, not against it.
