Sydney EFT Centre

When the stress response is activated, it has a number of physiological effects on the body that are beneficial in the short term to deal with a threat, but very damaging when activated chronically in the long term.  Harvard Health Publications describe it well in deeper technical detail:

SHORT TERM STRESS RESPONSE 

The stress response begins in the brain.

Imagine being a young child crossing the road to school and you notice a speeding car roaring towards you.

Let’s go through what happens in slow motion and in detail.

Your eyes or ears (or both) send the information to the amygdala, an area of the brain that contributes to emotional processing.

When it perceives danger, it instantly sends a distress signal to the hypothalamus that says “get out of the way FAST” This area of the brain functions like a command center, communicating with the rest of the body through the nervous system so you have the energy to fight or flee.  (in this case definitely flee)

It controls such involuntary body functions as breathing, blood pressure, heartbeat, and the dilation or constriction of key blood vessels and small airways in the lungs called bronchioles.

Then, the hypothalamus activates the sympathetic nervous system by sending signals to the adrenal glands. These glands respond by pumping the hormone epinephrine (also known as adrenaline) into the bloodstream.

As epinephrine circulates through the body, it brings on a number of physiological changes. Your heart beats faster than normal, pushing blood to the muscles, heart, and other vital organs. Pulse rate and blood pressure go up. You start to breathe more rapidly. Extra oxygen is sent to the brain, increasing alertness. Sight, hearing, and other senses become sharper.

Meanwhile, epinephrine triggers the release of blood sugar (glucose) and fats from temporary storage sites in the body. These nutrients flood into the bloodstream, supplying energy to all parts of your body.

All of these changes happened so quickly that you didn’t even think of them.  In fact, the wiring is so efficient that the amygdala and hypothalamus start this cascade even before your brain’s visual centers had a chance to fully process what is happening.

That’s why you were able to jump out of the path of the oncoming car in less than the blink of an eye.  In this scenario, the stress response was a life saving mechanism that kicked in without any thought on your part.

However, what if the danger has not totally passed – maybe you hear a Police car siren approaching, maybe chasing the speeding car you jumped away from……..

As the initial surge of epinephrine subsides, the hypothalamus activates the second component of the stress response system — known as the HPA axis. If the brain continues to perceive something as dangerous, the adrenal glands, release cortisol.

The body thus stays revved up and on high alert. Notice how you are super aware of what is going on and making extra certain it’s safe to cross the road.

When the threat passes, cortisol levels fall. The parasympathetic nervous system — the “brake” — then dampens the stress response.

Perhaps it was a very close call though and the speeding, roaring car just missed you – you might have also suffered a degree of trauma that has left you shaking and upset for the next 24 hrs.  The stress response might stay activated for a day or more before you return to a normal, relaxed state.

What about if it was so traumatic to you as a small child, that it made you hyper alert every time you were near a road or you had recurring nightmares?  The stress response could be chronically activated long term into adulthood, whenever the memory of the event is triggered by the brain.

What if you had multiple traumas in your life like losses, relationship breakdowns, abuse, abandonment or bullying, just to name a few possibilities and they were all contributing to a stress response that became chronic?  

The ACE Study found that the more adverse childhood experiences, the greater risk of developing illnesses including depression, heart disease and liver disease.

CHRONIC STRESS RESPONSE CONSEQUENCES

Imagine constantly having stress hormones like cortisol and adrenaline running through your system.

When the stress response is chronically activated by events that trigger it, it causes physical health problems.

In regard to the role of stress, the Mayo Clinic states: “that the long-term activation of the stress-response system — and the subsequent overexposure to cortisol and other stress hormones, can disrupt almost all your body's processes. This puts you at increased risk of numerous health problems, including:  anxiety, depression, digestive problems and heart disease”. 

Persistent epinephrine / adrenaline surges can damage blood vessels and arteries, increasing blood pressure and raising risk of heart attacks or strokes.

Elevated cortisol levels create physiological changes that help to replenish the body’s energy stores that are depleted during the stress response. But they inadvertently contribute to the buildup of fat tissue and to weight gain. For example, cortisol increases appetite, so that people will want to eat more to obtain extra energy. It also increases storage of unused nutrients as fat.

Cortisol also causes an increase in blood sugar levels and can cause insulin resistance, contributing to type 2 diabetes.

In a 2009 article by Nutritionist, Dina Aronson, in Today’s Dietitian, she explained how over time, Cortisol suppresses the immune system. Chronic inflammation, caused by lifestyle factors such as poor diet and stress, helps to keep cortisol levels soaring, wreaking havoc on the immune system.

An unchecked immune system responding to unabated inflammation can lead to myriad problems: an increased susceptibility to colds and other illnesses, an increased risk of cancer, the tendency to develop food allergies, an increased risk of an assortment of gastrointestinal issues (because a healthy intestine is dependent on a healthy immune system), and possibly an increased risk of autoimmune disease.

STRESS MUST BE ADDRESSED AS PART OF A WHOLISTIC HEALING APPROACH

Now you have some understanding of just how stress can contribute to disease and disorders, it should be obvious why it cant be ignored and why healing the mind by resolving emotional issues is so important.

The next section explains how EFT can quickly and effectively reduce stress in all its forms.

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