How Your Stress Response Works

Table of ContentsView AllTable of ContentsWhat Happens During the Stress Response?Stages of the Stress ResponseWhat Triggers the Stress Response?How the Stress Response Can Affect YouHow to Manage Your Stress Response

Table of ContentsView All

View All

Table of Contents

What Happens During the Stress Response?

Stages of the Stress Response

What Triggers the Stress Response?

How the Stress Response Can Affect You

How to Manage Your Stress Response

Close

The stress response refers to the physiological and psychological changes that happen in your body as a result ofstress. When you feel stressed, whether you face a real threat or merelythinkyou are facing a threat, your body experiences a collection of changes known as your stress response. You may have also heard it referred to as yourfight or flight response.

Some stress is normal and can even be helpful. The stress response helps us be alert and ready to deal with the things we need to tackle. Once we deal with these acutestressors, our relaxation response kicks in, and we return to normal. But sometimes, stress lasts longer than it should, and thisprolonged stressresponse can seriously affect our mental and physical well-being.

At a GlanceThe stress response can be helpful as long as it doesn’t last long and we are able to return to a more relaxed state. It becomes a problem, however, when we enter a state of chronic stress. The stress response happens in three stages: alarm, resistance, and exhaustion.Fortunately, there are things that you can do to help manage your stress response, including things like relaxation techniques, physical activity, and getting support from friends and family.

At a Glance

The stress response can be helpful as long as it doesn’t last long and we are able to return to a more relaxed state. It becomes a problem, however, when we enter a state of chronic stress. The stress response happens in three stages: alarm, resistance, and exhaustion.Fortunately, there are things that you can do to help manage your stress response, including things like relaxation techniques, physical activity, and getting support from friends and family.

The stress response can be helpful as long as it doesn’t last long and we are able to return to a more relaxed state. It becomes a problem, however, when we enter a state of chronic stress. The stress response happens in three stages: alarm, resistance, and exhaustion.

Fortunately, there are things that you can do to help manage your stress response, including things like relaxation techniques, physical activity, and getting support from friends and family.

When your stress response is triggered, a series of changes occur within your body. They include:

Imagine a time when you’ve felt scared or nervous. When you were dealing with something stressful or scary, you probably felt tense and on high alert. That’s your body’s stress response at work.

There are three stages that often occur in the stress response:

The stress response is intended to give you a burst of energy, so you can fight off attackers or run away from them effectively.

The stress response has an important evolutionary basis. It helped our ancestors, who faced numerous physical threats, to stay safe. In these times, the main threats faced were physical in nature and short-lived (such as predators or other environmental dangers).

Today, our threats are less physical and more associated with our way of life. Common stress response triggers can include challenges to our status or demands for performance.

These triggers can involve any situation where the demands involved may exceed our ability to cope. Some examples include:

The stress response can affect you in various ways, including in the short and long term. Such effects can also be good or bad. On the plus side, the stress response can help us be prepared to face challenges and do our best.

A little pressure can help us perform better. Think of how athletes often do their best in a competition versus in practice.

But there also comes a point where too much stress makes it harder to do well. If you are too tense or nervous, for example, you might find it difficult to focus or do the things you need to do.

Your Stress Response Might Not Match Your Needs

One problem with the stress response is that sometimes it triggers changes that aren’t helpful for our situation. For example, the stress response can give you a burst of energy and strength, which isn’t useful if you’re in a work meeting and need a flash of wisdom or mental clarity.

Sometimes the effects of the stress response can make it more difficult to perform well in a stressful situation. For example, you might feel so nervous during a presentation that you aren’t able to do your best.

It Can Lead to Chronic Stress

The stress response can actually cause harm if it leads to a state ofchronic stress. This type of stress happens when our stress response is triggered, and then our body doesn’t go back to its normal state via therelaxation response.

Chronic stress can have serious effects on your physical health and psychological well-being. It is associated with problems such as:

It Affects People Differently

It is also important to remember that the strength of the stress response is related to theperceivedthreat level rather than an actual physical threat.This is why two people can experience the same situation and have different stress reactions to the same thing; some people perceive a threat, whereas others don’t.

Knowing this can be helpful. Remember that your own stress response hinges on your perceptions. Remind yourself that the threat might not be as serious as it might feel.

We Sometimes Misjudge the Threat

Also, because of this, we may experience a stronger stress response when someone is rude to us in a high-stakes social situation than when driving a car in busy traffic, where our chances of being physically hurt are greater.

This is why we can experience significant stress levels when speaking in public, even though there’s no actual physical danger (and relatively little social danger). That doesn’t stop us from feeling threatened. Our hands might shake, our stomachs turn, and our bodies sweat as we face (what feels to us) to be a terrible threat.

This also comes into play when we have negative experiences in our childhood that become stress triggers later in life. We feel we may be hurt similarly, even if we aren’t in danger.

Chronic stress is serious stuff. After all, it’s hard to function normally in your daily life when it seems like your mind and body are always on edge.

That’s why it’s so important and healthy to find a collection of strategies that can help reverse the body’s stress response and bring it back to its natural state.

There’s no single method that works best for everyone. In many cases, you’ll need to use many methods that work together to help you reverse your body’s stress response.

Think of it as your stress relief toolbox! Having these tools can minimize the number of times your stress response is triggered unnecessarily throughout the day.

Use Some Quick Stress Relievers

Finding relatively quick and effective ways tocalm your body and mindcan help you to reverse your body’s stress response.This is a great first line of defense for stress, and there are many strategies that can work, such as:

Get ActiveMoving your body and engaging in physical activity can be a great way to release feelings of tension quickly. Plus, exercise also triggers the release of endorphins, which can play a role in relieving stress and helping you feel good.

Get Active

Moving your body and engaging in physical activity can be a great way to release feelings of tension quickly. Plus, exercise also triggers the release of endorphins, which can play a role in relieving stress and helping you feel good.

Build Long-Term Stress Relief Habits

Maintaining longer-term habits that helpbuild resiliencetoward stress may take more time and effort, but it can really pay off in the long run. Such habits can include:

Once they become regular features in your lifestyle, these habits can make you less reactive to the stress you encounter.

Shift Your Perspective

If you can changethe way you look at the stressorsin your life, you may find that some of them don’t trigger the same reaction after a while. This is becausethe way you perceive things, as mentioned earlier, can either minimize or exacerbate the level of threat that seems to be involved.

For example, if you tend to take an all-or-nothing approach, you’re more likely to feel stressed out and disappointed if things don’t go as planned.

Shifting your perspective and learning toreframe situationsin a more realistic, positive way can help tame your stress response.

Build Your Resources

Your stress response can be triggered when you feel you don’t have the resources to manage the challenges you face. Building your personal resources can shift the balance of what triggers this response.

When you have more personal resources to draw upon, you also have a greater trust that you can handle what comes.Fortunately, you can take small steps to help yourself build these resources relatively easily.

Strategies that can help you feel more capable of dealing with stressful situations include:

Finally, consider talking to a mental health professional if you struggle with stress. They can help you figure out what’s triggering your stress response and work with you to develop new stress management coping skills.

What This Means For YouThe stress response is your body’s natural way of reacting to stressors—and it can often be a good thing. It helps you stay alert and able to respond to acute stress. When it goes on too long, however, it can lead to chronic stress that hurts your physical and mental health. Learning how to counter the stress response with the relaxation response can help you take control of the stress in your life.

What This Means For You

The stress response is your body’s natural way of reacting to stressors—and it can often be a good thing. It helps you stay alert and able to respond to acute stress. When it goes on too long, however, it can lead to chronic stress that hurts your physical and mental health. Learning how to counter the stress response with the relaxation response can help you take control of the stress in your life.

8 Sources

Verywell Mind uses only high-quality sources, including peer-reviewed studies, to support the facts within our articles. Read oureditorial processto learn more about how we fact-check and keep our content accurate, reliable, and trustworthy.

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