Arousal has its drawbacks…


I'm not very keen on that Selye fellow. He did some horrid things to rats. No wonder they got so stressed.

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Sometimes a speedy response to a dangerous situation could save your life. At such moments, the activation of the body’s resources in the fight-flight response is just what is needed. You react to the threat and deal with it swiftly. Hopefully, you find a way to ward it off (fight) or to remove yourself from the vicinity (flight). In its sympathetic fashion, the sympathetic branch of the autonomic nervous system has roused you and provided you with the energy and resources you needed for instant action. Remember, by the way, that not every part of your body is activated. Some processes, such as digestion, are suppressed. Well, for those few seconds of danger, digesting your last meal is not a high priority.

The parasympathetic branch of the autonomic nervous system then takes over, calming the body and returning it to its usual, more moderate state of arousal. This process takes much longer, which is why after a fright you may feel your heart still beating quickly several minutes later.

Now here’s the rub: sure, the fight-flight response might help you in a moment of intense danger, but it’s not healthy to be in a highly aroused state for prolonged periods. Arousal is a high-maintenance state! It requires great resources of energy. In the “shock” phase of Selye’s alarm reaction phase, for instance, people can experience headaches, fever, fatigue, sore muscles and diarrhoea. Later, after the body’s defences have stabilised, these symptoms pass, but the body’s resistance to new stressors is still diminished in the stage of resistance. Finally, if stress is prolonged and the body’s resources are seriously depleted, as in the stage of exhaustion, there may be serious health problems and a reduced immunity to disease.

To sum up arousal: a high level helps you to react fast in a crisis. But prolonged high levels of arousal can be harmful to your health. That’s why coping strategies that allow us to revise our cognitive interpretation of a stressor from “threatening” to “challenging” or “benign” could advantage us in the long run.

Not that I’ve ever been all that good at such reappraisals. That’s why I took up knitting.

Kind regards,

Ms Green

 

 
Here’s a short sharp introduction to the fight-flight response: