No healing can take place while in flight or fight response (stress response)!
Understanding this and how the flight or fight response works, allows you to move from dis-order to order or dis-ease to ease.
A bit on the fight or flight state:
When you are in a relaxed state, the body functions in what is known as homeostasis - or a balanced healthy relaxed state. When a threat is perceived, a message is sent through to the brain through a "short cut" type route so the message is received quickly and initiates a fast reaction without conscious thinking or analysis occurring.
This short cut route is directly through the hypothalamus to the brain stem, the hypothalamus plays a crucial role in many important functions, including releasing hormones and regulating body temperature. In this response state it releases adrenaline (and norepinephrine) from the adrenal glands. Once these hormones are released into the body, they facilitate immediate physical reactions associated with the preparation of violent muscular action; to flee from or to fight off the perceived threat.
Some of these reactions include:
• Heart rate speeds up
• Breathing speeds up and becomes shallow
• Digestion stops
• Constriction of blood vessels
• Excessive nutrients redirected for muscular action.
• Dilation of blood vessels-blood and glucose rush to the muscles
• Inhibition of tear production and salivation
• Dilation of pupils
• Relaxation of the bladder and colon
• Sexual function ceases
• Acceleration of instantaneous reflexes
• Blood pressure increases
• Adrenal secretions flush into the bloodstream
In prehistoric times, fight-or-flight response-fight response was aggressive and combative behaviour and the flight response was fleeing from potentially threatening situations, such as a predator and will return to normal when the threat is gone.
In modern times fight and flight responses have taken on a range of different behaviours. For example, the fight response may manifest in angry, argumentative behaviour, and the flight response may manifest through social withdrawal, substance abuse, and even becoming absorbed in video games or the internet. The fight-or-flight response is triggered when danger is perceived and can either last a short time, providing a lifesaving burst of energy, or be prolonged and remain ‘switched on’ for a long time, even years, which is what we are seeing in modern society.
When a person is under constant or frequent stress, or persistently in a dangerous or traumatic situation, they may be in fight-or-flight all the time.
When people are subjected to ongoing stress, and when they are unable to escape the perceived danger by physically running away or fighting, the physical reactions occurring in the body can manifest into the freeze or fawn response.
Fawning may include trying to reason or rationalise the situation. This can be anything from flattering the abuser, cringing in obedience, attempting to please and seek favour, offering alternatives; doing whatever we have to do to save ourselves by talking our way out.
Freeze-Fawn is a hybrid response to stress for many abuse survivors and also for people living in, what feels like, unescapable domestic violence or workplace bullying situations.
Males and females tend to deal with stressful situations differently.
-Males are more likely to respond with aggression (fight)
-females are more likely to flee or turn to others for help (flight).
-Women are more likely to attempt to defuse the situation or befriend the abuser (fawn)
-men are more likely to withdraw emotionally (freeze).
The triggers and the resulting behaviours have changed with modern society as there aren’t many really threatening situation we normally face on a day to day. It may triggered due to anger over an text, an unexpected bill arriving, an argument, being stuck in traffic or a deadline at work. Or even by thinking about a situation or event from the past or imagining something that may or may not occur in the future.
In most cases today, once our fight-or-flight response is activated, we cannot flee, and we cannot fight to reset it. When we are faced with modern-day threats, we have to sit in our office chairs and ‘control ourselves’ or we have to sit in our cars in traffic jams and ‘deal with it’ or we have to wait until the bank opens to ‘handle’ the overdrawn credit card. Children are experiencing similar situations as well, so this cycle of a switched on constantly fight or flight response is starting younger and younger. Many of the stresses we encounter today may not actually present a level of actual danger but they still trigger the full activation of our fight-or-flight response, and we are unable, or it is inappropriate for us, to take the physical action required to release us back into functioning normally through the relaxation response.
In an appropriate stress response situation when the perceived threat is gone, (once the predator has been outrun or fought off) our bodies are designed to return to homeostasis (normal function via the relaxation response). But in our times of chronic stress, this often doesn’t happen and we remain in the fight-or-flight reaction for prolonged periods, causing serious damage to our body.
Our flight or fight response now takes us to consciously reset it back to normal functioning and many people are unaware of this need or how to do it, so they stay in the stress response
Inappropriate and extended activation of the stress response in humans causes long term physiological and psychological harm.
Some of the problems caused by prolonged stress response are:
• Alcohol and drug dependencies.
• Anorexia.
• Anxiety and panic disorders.
• Asthma, allergies, skin diseases.
• Cancer.
• Chronic fatigue syndrome.
• Chronic pain.
• Constipation, colitis, irritable bowel syndrome.
• Depressed immune system, increased likelihood of colds and infections.
• Depression and suicide.
• Diabetes.
• Difficulty maintaining sexual arousal, loss of libido.
• Difficulty urinating, bladder infection, bladder disease.
• Erectile dysfunction.
• Fibromyalgia.
• Headaches and migraines.
• Heart disease, heart attack.
• High blood pressure.
• High cholesterol.
• Hypertension.
• Joint Pain.
• Multiple Sclerosis.
• Muscle stiffness, backaches, neck pain.
• Sleep disturbances.
• Stroke.
• Ulcers and digestive disorders.
Slowing down, daily mindful practices and nurturing your mind, body and soul are incredibly important in todays modern society so your nervous system can reset and your body can return to a relaxed state with your help.
This is what I so passionately teach and help women put in place!
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