Steering Through Stress: Understanding Our Primitive Responses and Modern Strategies for Calm - Episode 161

Ever found yourself sweating bullets over a simple office presentation or felt your heart racing from just the thought of a looming deadline? That's your fight, flight, or freeze response in action, and I'm here to guide you through the labyrinth of our instinctual survival mechanisms. In a revealing discussion, I dissect how the amygdala and hypothalamus trigger a hormonal cascade that primes our bodies for battle or bolt, even in today's high-stress, low-danger world. I'll probe the effects of adrenaline and cortisol on our brains and bodies, and I'll offer up personal tales and tactics for keeping these ancient alarm bells in check.

As we navigate the stormy waters of modern stress, I'll chart a course towards calmer seas with practical lifestyle tweaks and the art of saying no. You'll learn how the simple act of setting boundaries and embracing a healthier diet, like my own journey away from flour and sugar, can turn the tide against stress. Plus, I'll unlock the power of incremental change and the monumental difference it can make with the guidance of mental health professionals. This voyage is about finding your footing when stress threatens to capsize your sanity, and I'm here to share the life-raft of strategies that have helped not just myself but many others to stay afloat.

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:12

Welcome back to another episode of Todd Talks, where I help you design your best life. Not the life I designed for you, but the life you desire. Today we dwe we dwelled. We dwelled into the mysteries of the human mind and body. I'm your host, todd, and it's my turn to talk you like that little plan words there. Today I'm diving into a primal instinct that's been ingrained in you since the dawn of time the fight, flight or freeze response. Have you ever found yourself in a situation where your heart starts racing, your palms get sweaty and you feel a surge of adrenaline coursing through your veins? That's your body's way of preparing for action, thanks to the flight or flight response. But what exactly triggers this response? The fight or flight response, often referred to as the acute stress response, is a complex interplay between your brain and your body, designed to prepare you to face or flee from perceived threats you know, like kids or housework, or lions and tigers and bears. Oh my, on this episode I'm going to delve into the intricate workings of this response in your mind, because I find it fascinating. Hopefully this won't be too technical and you'll be able to learn something from this.

Speaker 1: 1:46

Your brain recognizes or perceives a threat. The entire process begins within your brain with the brain's perception of a potential threat. This perception can originate from various sources, including external stimuli such as loud noise, an aggressive person, or internal thoughts and emotions such as fear or anxiety. The brain's limbic system, particularly the amygdala, plays a central role in evaluating and processing these threat signals. It initiates activation of the hypothalamus Once a threat is perceived. The amygdala sends distress signals to your hypothalamus, a small region at the base of your brain responsible for regulating autonomic functions and releasing hormones. The hypothalamus then initiates the cascade of physiological responses associated with this fight or flight response. All of this happens in milliseconds, literally a split second.

Speaker 1: 2:56

Your body reacts quickly to release stress hormones. One of the key actions of the hypothalamus is to stimulate the nearby pituitary gland to release adrenicotropic hormone, acth. Can you believe I can speak these words? I know me too. Acth in turn signals the adrenal glands located at the top of the kidneys to release stress hormones such as adrenaline otherwise known as epinephrine and cortisol into the bloodstream. Now what do these stress hormones do? As they course throughout your body, they cause physiological changes. Adrenaline is responsible for triggering several immediate physiological changes in your body to prepare it for action. These changes include increased heart rate and blood pressure, dilation of airways to improve oxygen intake, heightened senses and the redirection of blood flow to major muscle groups. Cortisol, often called the stress hormone, helps sustain these physiological changes over a more extended period by increasing glucose availability in the bloodstream.

Speaker 1: 4:10

As we will discuss later, many health issues are caused by our being in constant fight or flight mode, with cortisol remaining in the bloodstream in our bloodstream. You see, there is an immediate effect, or immediate impact on cognitive functions. This is something that isn't talked about a lot, but, in addition to its effect on the body, the fight or flight response also influences your cognitive functions, your brain. The surge of adrenaline can sharpen focus and enhance vigilance. That's a good thing, allowing individuals to better assess and respond to the perceived threat. Being hyper aware is not a bad thing when there's a threat. However, this heightened sense of arousal may also impact higher level cognitive processes, such as logical reasoning I can't talk today and decision making. As resources are redirected to immediate survival needs, your emotions also become regulated.

Speaker 1: 5:17

The fight or flight response can also impact your emotions, leading to feelings of fear, anxiety or aggression, depending on your individual perception of the threat and your coping mechanisms. These emotional responses can further influence your behavior and decision making during stressful situations. Once the perceived threat diminishes or resolves, your parasympathetic nervous system, often referred to as the rest and digest system, helps restore your body to its pre-stressed state. This includes lowering heart rate and blood pressure, reducing the adrenaline and cortisol levels and promoting relaxation and recovery. One of the problems that you will find as I continue going through this is that all too often we never get back to that rest and rest and digest state because we're in chronic fight and flight mode. Understanding the intricate mechanisms of the fight or flight response in your mind can empower you to better manage stress and anxiety, cultivate resilience and make informed decisions during challenging situations.

Speaker 1: 6:36

You know it's fascinating how our bodies have evolved to protect us in dangerous situations, but you might ask yourself whether there are variations in how individuals respond to this fight or flight response, and the answer would be jeopardy daily double. They definitely are. There definitely are differences in how people respond. While the fight or flight response is a universal physiological reaction, the way individuals experience it can vary greatly. Some people may be more prone to the fight response, feeling the surge of aggression and readiness to confront the threat head-on to fight. Others may lean toward the fight flight response, seeking to escape or avoid the danger altogether. Additionally, factors such as genetics, past experiences and psychological resilience can influence how someone responds to stressors. Additionally, some people are susceptible to the freeze response, where they literally cannot move or speak. This often happens to people that suffer from social anxieties, where they want to participate but cannot physically move themselves into the social situation. These are important points to consider.

Speaker 1: 8:04

In our modern society, we may not encounter the same life-threatening situations as our ancestors did, but their fight, flight or freeze response still plays a significant role in our daily lives, doesn't it? I mean, unless you're working for National Geographic, we may not be facing predators in the wild, but our bodies still react to various stressors, whether it's a looming deadline at work, a conflict with the loved one or even just the hustle and bustle of daily life. The fight or flight response can be triggered by both physical and psychological stressors, and understanding how it affects you can help you better manage your responses and cope with stress more effectively. This fight or flight response developed within us by our ancestors thousands of years ago, tens of thousands of years ago, in order to deal with life-threatening situations. Today, we don't usually have these same life-threatening situations, but our body doesn't know the difference.

Speaker 1: 9:16

The fight or flight response is a crucial survival mechanism that helps you respond to acute threats or dangers. However, when this threat or when this response is constant and persists in the face of chronic stressors, it can have detrimental effects on both your physical and mental health. Here's how chronic activation of the fight or flight response can be harmful to you and I. I'm going to go through some of these, because stress can actually kill you At the same time. No, stress can actually kill you. We need stress, but we don't need negative stress in our life.

Speaker 1: 9:58

First, it messes with your cardiovascular health. Prolonged activation of the fight or flight response can lead to sustained increases in heart rate and blood pressure. Over time, this can contribute to the development of hypertension, high blood pressure, which is a significant risk factor for heart disease, stroke and other cardiovascular disorders. Reducing negative stress can alleviate this ill that affects so many people in today's modern world. Next, it suppresses your immune system. Chronic stress, in the associated release of stress hormones like cortisol can knock out your immune system's functioning. This can make you more susceptible to infections, illnesses and inflammatory conditions. Additionally, prolonged immune suppression may impair your body's ability to heal from injuries and fight off pathogens effectively.

Speaker 1: 10:55

It messes with your heart, it messes with your immune system and it messes with your metabolism. Your metabolism gets out of whack. Cortisol, the primary stress hormone released during the fight or flight response, plays a role in regulating your metabolism, particularly sugar metabolism. Chronic stress and elevated cortisol levels can lead to insulin resistance, de-increased blood sugar levels and metabolic syndrome, predisposing you to conditions like type 2 diabetes and obesity. This obviously sucks in a detriment to a successful, happy, healthy life, and not only that. You look at the US. We must be under constant chronic stress and our eating habits are poor and the food is poor that we put into our body, which is why 70% of Americans are overweight and over 50% are obese. Chronic cortisol in your blood Not good.

Speaker 1: 12:06

The fight or flight response directs blood flow away from non-essential functions like digestion and towards vital organs and muscles. Prolonged activation of this response can disrupt your digestive processes, leading to symptoms such as indigestion, stomach ulcers, irritable bowel syndrome and gastrointestinal disorders. Nobody likes to talk about gut issues, but they are a constant and negative result of chronic stress. It also makes you dumber. Chronic stress and persistent activation of the fight or flight response can impair your cognitive function, your mind and mental clarity. It can lead to difficulties with memory, concentration and decision making, as well as increase the risk of developing mood disorders such as anxiety and depression. Earlier I spoke about social anxieties. Trauma from early childhood can set you up for chronic fight or flight responses and develop into anxiety and depression, especially in teens and young adults. If you don't learn to fight chronic negative stress and learn how to control your fight or flight response, you're setting yourself up for mental health challenges.

Speaker 1: 13:23

Medicine only masks the actual problem. Why are we always having medicine pushed on us? Learning coping strategies is much better and can actually improve the root cause. That's what you want to tackle the root cause of the stress. Don't just medicate the symptoms away. And while the fight or flight response enhances muscle strength and reaction time in the short term, chronic activation can lead to tension, muscle tightness and increased susceptibility to musculoskeletal injuries. Over time, this may contribute to chronic pain disorders such as tension, headaches, neck and back pain and temporal mandibular joint neck disorders. Okay, that was a big word, but I understand all this completely. I've been suffering from chronic pain, muscle tightness, neck and back pain for several years, all stemming from negative stress response due to a physical trauma, and that physical trauma caused mental anxieties and trauma which then caused negative fight or flight responses and boom chronic pain. But I've been, I've spent the last four years learning techniques that I'm about to talk, to talk about here, to overcome anxiety, stress, fight or flight response, etc. In the end, I will tell you about some effective strategies you can use to lessen your chronic stress.

Speaker 1: 15:07

Additionally, your sleep gets disturbed. Persistent stress and heightened arousal associated with the fight or flight response can disturb your sleep patterns surprise surprise and contribute to insomnia, difficulty falling or staying asleep and poor sleep quality. Inadequate sleep, in turn, can exacerbate stress and further perpetuate the cycle of chronic stress and its associated health consequences. So true, no amount of sleeping pills will fix sleep problems caused by stress. Overall, chronic activation of the fight or flight response can have widespread negative effects on your on your physical health, mental well-being and overall quality of life. It underscores the importance of implementing effective stress management strategies and seeking support to mitigate the impact of chronic stress on health and longevity. So, that being the case, what are some strategies that you can employ to better manage your fight or flight response in today's world. These strategies work.

Speaker 1: 16:18

First, practice relaxation techniques. Incorporate relaxation into your daily routine, such as deep breathing exercises, progressive muscle relaxation, meditation or mindfulness practices. These techniques can help calm your mind and body, reduce muscle tension and promote a sense of calmness and inner peace. I recommend meditation as well, using the seal four. Second breathing technique breathe in for four counts, hold it for four counts. Breathe out for four counts and hold it for four counts. Do this for five minutes. It has a physical relaxing effect. Focus on the counting and it acts as a form of meditation. Five minutes of doing that can lower your blood pressure, reduce heart palpitations and just bring a calm to your mind.

Speaker 1: 17:24

Stay active, engage in regular physical activity and exercise, such as walking, jogging, yoga or dancing. Physical activity helps reduce stress hormones like cortisol and stimulates the production of endorphins, which are natural mood boosters. They say to aim for at least 30 minutes of mother. Did you catch that? 30 minutes? They say 30 minutes of mother intensity exercise most days of the week. However, studies show that just walking fast for 30 minutes or more a day improves your health, reduces stress and increases your quality of life. My daughter has been walking daily for a while now and it truly reduces her stress with two new, two young babies and has helped her to lose weight.

Speaker 1: 18:20

Maintain a healthy lifestyle. Eat a balanced diet rich in fruits, vegetables, whole grains and lean proteins. Limit the consumption of caffeine, alcohol, sugary foods sugary foods those can make stress worse. Get adequate sleep each night. Aim for seven to nine hours of quality sleep to support physical and mental well-being. All well and good. To hear me preach right much harder to live if you're just starting out. Don't diet. Find a lifestyle that you can live with and do that. My wife and I limit flour and shoot and added sugar in our diet and it helps. It really does.

Speaker 1: 19:06

Establish boundaries. Learn to say no to activities or commitments that overwhelm you or cause unnecessary stress. Let me say it here and I want you to listen you don't have to be on all the time. Set realistic goals and prioritize tasks to avoid feeling overwhelmed by the excessive workload or obligations that you face. Learning boundaries allows you to focus on what truly matters and allocate your time and energy effectively. Focus on self-care and other things will fall into place. You should also seek social support. Maintain social connections with friends, family and support groups, talking to someone you trust about your feelings and experiences can provide emotional support. Have and reassurance during times of stress. Sometimes our perspectives are off and actually are the cause of our stress. Don't hesitate to reach out for help when needed. I offer a program to help you work on learning and implementing these techniques into your life. I'm seeking for new clients that want to design the life they want by reducing their anxieties and overcoming chronic stress challenges. See in the show notes to check in with me if you're interested. Finally, practice time management. Break tasks into smaller, manageable steps and prioritize them based on importance and urgency. Use tools such as to-do lists, calendars, time blocking techniques to organize your schedule and allocate time for both work and leisure activities.

Speaker 1: 20:52

Good procrastination and aim for a balance between productivity and relaxation. Easier said than done. Also, everyone is different. The key is to find out which idea works best for you. Some of you cannot stand to-do lists because they are overwhelming. In those cases, I recommend writing down one thing at a time. Focus on that one thing and when it's done, write down something else. Remember from the beginning of this podcast most of the stress that you are dealing with the fight-or-flight responses comes from your own mental perception of today's world Is your perception of overwhelm, lack of time, etc. Now your goal is to learn how to conquer those perceptions, because then you can improve right.

Speaker 1: 21:50

Engage in hobbies and leisure activities. Making time for activities that bring you joy and relaxation whether it's reading, gardening, painting, playing music, spending time outdoors improves your quality of life. Engaging in hobbies and leisure activities can help distract your mind from stressors, promote creativity and foster a sense of fulfillment and enjoyment Any one enjoyment in your life, don't you? I know I do. 2. Practice positive self-talk. Challenge negative thoughts and replace them with positive affirmations and self-compassionate statements.

Speaker 1: 22:31

I have several episodes on this subject. Learn to treat yourself as you would your best friend. Cultivate a mindset of resilience and optimism, focusing on your strengths, accomplishments and solutions rather than dwelling on problems and setbacks. Your internal dialogue will either help you or hinder you. It truly will. Finally, if none of these techniques work and you are overwhelmed by stress, seek professional help.

Speaker 1: 23:08

Stress becomes overwhelming, interferes with your daily functioning and does not hesitate to seek support from a mental health professional, such as a therapist or counselor. They can provide coping strategies, relaxation techniques and personalized interventions to help you better manage stress and improve your overall well-being and, like I said, I am looking for new clients that I can coach on these different techniques that I am teaching. By incorporating these strategies into your lifestyle and daily routine, you can effectively manage stress, enhance resilience and cultivate a greater sense of balance and well-being in your life. I hope that you learned something from all of this, that something beneficial came to you from what I said. I hope you can take this and counter your personal Fight, fly or Freeze responses when you know that you are overreacting in many situations or if you are suffering from chronic Fight, fly or Freeze responses.

Speaker 1: 24:21

The key to all of this is to not assume you need to change everything all at once. Start small and make a change here and a change there until you realize that you have physically and mentally changed. Changes are usually imperceptible at first. This is why it's important to start small and make consistent efforts to change. This has been Todd Talks, where I help you design the life you desire, preferably one with less chronic stress and overwhelm, so that you can become a healthier, happier version of you and, as always, have a nice day.