Our stress hormones (catecholamines) are there to protect us because they facilitate the fight and flight response. When adrenaline predominates we get scared and run and when our noradrenaline predominates we get angry then stand and fight. In either case there is a cascade of physical reactions.
Our pulse quickens, more blood is pumped into our arms and legs, our breathing gets shallow and rapid, pupils dialate, physical senses become more alert, the muscles in your neck go into a rigid guarding mode, fine motor skills diminish and some times we become scared stiff like a statue. In the short term stress hormones enhance our immunity and are physically energising.
In the longer term our catecholamines don’t serve us as well, long term heightened stress hormone levels weaken our immunity to disease, raises blood pressure, causes neck tension, create relationship conflicts and makes you tired. High sustained levels of the stress hormones can also fatten you, keep you awake at night, make you emotionally over react and deplete your libido. High stress levels can trigger heart attacks, strokes and platelet clots in our blood stream
Moderate stress levels are a normal response to a foreign situation and it can help us learn new things and can even be exciting. Stress becomes problematic when we are unable or unwilling to calm down properly, it’s like over-revving your car’s engine, it will wear out and break down sooner than it otherwise should. In yoga it is believed that the body has a finite number of breaths and heart beats, the sooner they are used up the quicker you die.
Some of the ways we attempt to cope with stress can become part of the problem- smoking, gambling, drinking, drug taking and other forms of risk-taking behavior might make us happier in the short term but long term it further compounds health risks.The challenge for us is to only use our stress hormones when necessary.
The feel good hormones like serotinen, oxytocin (the cuddling hormone) and dopamine on the other hand make us feel relaxed, loved and happy. It is basically a balancing act between fear and love.
Exercise, massage, acupuncture, aromatherapy, hugs, patting a dog, singing, laughter, meditation, slowing your breathing, the colour green, being creative, anti depressants, being creative and breathing deionized air (as found at waterfalls and at the sea side) all help to lower high stress levels. There are actually many things we can do to calm down and lighten up.
Stress can be strangely addictive though, in acute work environments like hospital casualty wards, accident rescue, combat and policing a hyper-realism can make ordinary and safe work boring and uninteresting. We call these people adrenaline junkies, they almost seem to be that way out of choice at times.
The stress that comes with job insecurity, homelessness, financial pressure, poor health, family breakdown and the death of a loved one is much harder to enjoy (even for an adrenaline junkie) but cope we must particularly for our children and grand children. No matter how difficult life gets if we don’t use coping strategies like those above we have even more to stress about.