Chronic Stress - truecreativewritingblog.com

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!