Fight, Flight or Freeze in Stress Management
Stress can be physical e.g. Attack, rape, accident, or physiological e.g. Tension and the emotion of fear caused by work load, relationship, financial problems, the list is endless. All stress related actions because a subjective perception by the brain of what is happening and it triggers certain automatic reactions. Hormones are excreted and these stimulate the adrenal glands to excrete the stress hormones â adrenalin, non adrenaline and cortisone. The stress hormones in turn stimulate the heart, lungs, muscles and sweat gland to accelerate, contract and react all in readiness for the fight or flight. This is the original unchanged genetic reaction primitive man used to survive, when they could fight or run.
In modern day we donât have the physical release of fighting or running. And after a while the psychological stress builds up, if it is not released can become internalized, this is where burnout occurs.
In modern society, the fight or flight can be summarized using a traffic jam, when we are stuck in them we can see anger (fight) and despair (flight). Let’s see how these things effect a stress management programme and how we might benefit from each of these.
