Ever felt your heart beating abnormally rapid, or your breathing is faster than usual? This may occur when you experience a threat that your body needs to fight off. ‘Fight or flight’ is our bodies’ most primal reaction to stress that prepares our bodies either to fight or stay. According to Jenni Davies, there are other ways to cope when times are tough, however.
According to Davies, everyone is stressed at the moment, it’s pretty much impossible not to be, but do we really understand what stress means, or how detrimental it can be if not controlled? Stress itself is not ‘bad’. Actually, it’s an imperial survival mechanism. In the modern Era, more time sitting in gridlocked traffic, flinching every time someone presses their hooter. This is not what the stress response was designed to handle, and it doesn’t.
Dr Colinda Linde, a clinical psychologist, explained and said “Temporary mobilisation to handle the threat is a functional response. But ongoing mobilisation will have detrimental effects on the body’s organs and systems. It may also have emotional consequences, such as the development of anxiety or depression”.
We’re continuously trying to balance between ‘fight or flight’ (the sympathetic nervous system) and ‘rest and digest’ (the parasympathetic nervous system). So, when a threat comes by, the sympathetic nervous system kicks in, the adrenaline hormone is released, which prepares us to either defend (fight) ourselves or run away (flight). Adrenaline is only released in response to interference, a stressor that may give you a heart-pounding, coiled-spring sensation. This response is also short-lived.
Noradrenalin is a neurotransmitter that is also associated to ‘fight or flight’ reaction. Therefore, its levels are also increased during stress, which makes you alert and focused, triggering glucose release, and increasing your heart rate, among other effects.
Cortisol, the stress hormone, is also produced to sustain the stress reaction and empowers you to continue fighting or to run as fast as you can. When you feel safe, the parasympathetic nervous system takes over, returning your system back to normal. According to WebMD, cortisol is known as the body’s main stress hormone.
If the ‘threat’ never goes away, and the symptoms continue unchecked, that’s what happens when you’re experiencing chronic stress. This type of stress can be physically and mentally devastating. So… fight or flight? 
