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Author: True Creative Writer
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Chronic Stress
Beyond Fight, Flight, Freeze
Most of us have heard of Fight, Flight, and Freeze, but just in case you haven’t I will give you a brief explanation. Fight, Flight, and Freeze are automatic stress responses that help people survive dangerous or threatening situations. Depending on the situation and how we react to it is the stress response we will use in the moment.
Key notes
- Fight – confronting the threat directly. Becoming aggressive and using a “take control” type attitude.
- Flight – Running away from threat or danger. Example: Running or hiding.
- Freeze – Physically and/or emotionally shutting down. Becoming paralyzed, immobile, and unable to make decisions.
These stress responses are our natural way of trying to decrease or end danger. So, now that I’ve gone over a brief explanation of Fight, Flight, and Freeze let’s dive deeper. We hear about these stress responses, but what we don’t hear about is what happens when you’ve exhausted them or in other words have used all of them multiple times. Well, I can tell you from both experience and research. Of course, for a while I didn’t understand what was happening to me mentally and physically. That is why this topic intrigues me and why I want to talk about it.
When your body remains in high alert for so long you can become “stuck” in a stressed and threatened state even if there is no real threat after the fact. Your mental health is impacted as well as your physical. You become physically ill as a result of chronic stress. I have listed the mental and physical effects below.
Key notes
- Mental – Constantly feeling overwhelmed, difficulty concentrating, constantly alert, mood swings, irritability, depression, memory loss, anxiety attacks, and panic attacks.
- Physical – Increased blood pressure, muscle tension/twitching, headaches, vomiting, digestive issues, lowered immune system, fatigued/feeling tired all the time, insomnia, and sleep disturbances.
Chronic stress can lead to memory loss and learning problems due to affecting the hippocampus. The hippocampus is a region in the brain that’s crucial for memory and learning. Other effects of chronic stress include suicidal thoughts, social withdrawal, impulsive behavior, and strained relationships.
There are 3 other stress responses I didn’t mention. We will talk about these stress responses in the next article!
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Breath of Fresh Air
It’s so surreal, to think almost a year ago you met someone who gave you a breath of fresh air because not even a year before that, you saw no purpose in life. You were drinking yourself into blackouts to escape the reality you were living. You didn’t care if you lived or died and you didn’t care that the ones who loved you so much were struggling to see you like this. Through your own misery and lies you failed to see how much your mom suffered too. Your mom suffered in ways you could never understand and you suffered in ways your family wouldn’t understand. You got diagnosed with short-term PTSD thinking “short term” and all the while you have overcome so much, you still struggle with it to this day. I know you see how much you’ve grown from it all, yet you don’t give yourself enough credit. You think so much time has passed and that you should be healed or just get over it. You don’t want to complain or seem self absorbed, so you’re stuck in your head all the time. You shove your thoughts and feelings deep down because you’re scared of losing what you now have. A breath of fresh air. A safe place. This safe place isn’t a place, It’s a person and you would do anything not to lose him. You’re scared to be the person who carries baggage, but whether you like it or not, you do. Everyone does. It’s what you do with your baggage that sets you apart, not what’s in it… – True Creative Writer
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“You are stronger than you think” – True Creative Writer
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Welcome!
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Today is a new day for me! This morning I hopped out of bed feeling refreshed, but of course, I still had to have my cup of coffee. Who starts their day without a cup of coffee? No sirree, not me. Life is great at the moment, I’m writing my first diary entry on my brand new website and I’m so eager to share it with everyone! Yes, I have some doubts about it, but who wouldn’t when starting their first website? I’m having a lot of fun with it and that’s all that matters! Anyway, welcome to the Diary Entry section of my blog! I hope everyone has a fantastic day!
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Highway Maniac
Photo by Kelly Sikkema Driving back from a football game the christian radio station is playing as I’m looking out of the window in the passenger seat of the car. It’s late and very dark as we are out in the middle of nowhere, but the pitch black fields are intriguing me. The station switches all of a sudden, drawing my attention back. “Hey, I liked that song” I say. I don’t hear a reply. Nothing but silence. I can’t stop repeating the question in my head. Does he believe in god? Does he really truly believe? Little do I know, this isn’t something I will find out until later in my life.
He’s drunk, so very drunk. This isn’t unusual though, not at all. I know something isn’t right because I can feel it in my gut. The feeling is so deep and the silence is intimidating. I begged him to let me drive before we left and I knew it, I just knew it. We go from the speed limit to 15 mph over the limit. “Okay, everything is okay” I think to myself, but I know I’m lying. I’m letting him do his thing. If I don’t say anything chances are he will stop what he’s doing. I start bracing myself as we are heading straight towards a line of cones placed on the road in a zigzagged form leading into another lane, now going 90 mph. I grip the door handle and turn my head towards the window shutting my eyes as tightly as humanly possible because I’m scared and I can’t bear to watch. I know if we wreck, we will be severely injured, if not, dead.
The feeling in my stomach is so intense I can’t help but scream. “Stoooooop!” I tried to play cool as long as possible, but now I think I’m going to die. Thump, Thump, Thump. We hit a few cones and the car starts to screech from him pressing on the brakes. Since we are still going so fast, the back end of the car skids from side to side and it looks as if he might lose control of the wheel. At this point, I’m shutting my eyes again.
Finally, the car slows down, thank the heavens! I look over at him just to find an amused look on his face. “Your dumb” he says laughing. He’s actually pissed. “You’re fine, You are not going to die, I’m driving” he states arrogantly. “I’m sorry, I couldn’t help it, that scared me!” I’m only apologizing to keep him calm, or otherwise myself alive. I still have 20 minutes left in the car with this maniac until we reach home and anything can happen. I’m scared, but I try not to show it because who knows, maybe he will try to kill us and honestly I’m not sure if what just happened wasn’t a half attempt.