When we start to feel stressed or anxious our body responds with the Fight or Flight response. Here, hormones are released in our body to prepare us either to run from the danger or to fight it.   Changes in our bodies that occur as part of the Fight or Flight response include increased breathing rate, increased heart rate, nausea, sweating, tingling in hands and feet, and a sharpening of the mind to focus on escaping from danger.  The Fight or Flight response is evolutionary adaptive, meaning that it evolved for the purpose of keeping us safe when threats presented a real danger to our lives.  When we have either fought the danger or fled from the dangerous situation, we ‘burn off’ the stress hormones. 

Unfortunately, we are faced with very different types of stress in modern day society – relationship problems, assignment deadlines, examinations, financial problems – from which fighting or fleeing are not useful responses.  Thus, we are not able to ‘burn off’ the stress hormones released when we see threat.  Left unmanaged, these stress hormones have the ability to wear down our system over time, making us more susceptible to illnesses.

There are many ways for us to manage stress (see our section on stress management).  A useful technique is relaxation and meditation, which directly calms the Fight or Flight response by slowing down our breathing rate and our heart rate.

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For information about relaxation therapy, visit the BluePages Depression Information website.

You might also like to visit here, where you will find a useful resource for practicing relaxation and stress management, called "Visualization and Relaxation".

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