Our Stress Response

When entering the room you are very aware of your beating heart. Your stomach and chest may ache. Was it what your ate for dinner last night? You had struggled to get to sleep with worries circling in your mind about today's exam. Sweaty palms? Headaches? Moody? Tempted to casually run out of the room and head for the hills before the exam starts? Create a new identify for yourself and move to Russia?  I think we've all been there.

Well not to toot our own horn, but the human body is quite magnificent. I do admit when experiencing the above scenario we may not agree.

A stressor, the thing or situation causing you stress, can be real or imagined. As real as a very hunger bear chasing after you that one time you happen to be in the woods or perhaps the thought of opening up your exam tomorrow morning and not being able to answer any of the questions. Whatever the stressor may be, when you are confronted with it part of your brain known as the Amygdala receives this sensory information. The amygdala is commonly associated with the flight or fight response and contributes to our emotional processing. From here a message is sent to another location in the brain, the Hypothalamus. The hypothalamus produces hormones and is able to communicate with the rest of the body affecting things like behaviour. It receives information from the body, for example a change in blood pressure and adjusts to return the body to homoeostasis- a dynamic stable state. From here breathing, blood pressure and heart rate can be altered.

As noted above when feeling stressed you may feel your heart beating out of your chest, this can be attributed to your Sympathetic Nervous System. Don't be fooled by the word sympathetic and associating it with your body relaxing, this system in fact triggers the-fight-or-flight response, allowing you to respond to these perceived dangers. This burst of energy or accelerator pedal is activated by the hypothalamus leading to the that release of adrenaline you may feel during an exam or running away from that pesky bear (hasn't he got something better to do?).

Put another way, turning on your car is the amygdala receiving information of a possible threat. Your right foot, the hypothalamus, then hits the accelerator, the sympathetic nervous system, providing a burst of energy to your car, your body to either fight or run away.

That burst of energy or adrenaline entering your bloodstream leads to your heart beating faster, extra blood being pumped around your body to muscles and other important organs. This is your body getting ready. You may also start to breath faster, with extra Oxygen sent to your brain to improve your alertness. Your senses such as sight and hearing may even be heightened.

This cascade of events happens so quickly and without us even knowing. Of course this cascade continues on and on, however I hope you have the main picture.

The fight or flight response has been very important to our survival and although it may not seem at first, appropriate for your multiple choice exam, perhaps that extra boost or foot on the accelerator increasing your attention may not be so bad. Although I see no strong argument for how sweating helps anyone in an exam...

It's important to realise that what you're feeling is most likely normal and its actually your body's way of defending itself. Below you will find a playlist of our favourite stress-free songs but if you need something in the background when that bear finally catches up to you try:

Survivor - Eye Of The Tiger

Music:
Anything Boyce Avenue!
Can't go wrong with Dido
Gabrielle Aplin: Listen to "Please Don't Say You Love Me" and "Power of Love" and try not to buy all of her albums!
Kodaline- All I Want



May your lives be forever full of spice! Xx