Are you spending too much time feeling stressed? The General Adaptation Syndrome of stress response.

We all have stress in our lives. Sometimes they are big stressors, like a death in the family, natural disaster, or a car accident. Sometimes they are little annoyances, like being stuck in traffic. Sometimes it’s the little things that accumulate-you had a flat tire, had to wait for AAA to come and fix it, got stuck in traffic, were late for class, missed a surprise quiz, and now have to do extra work to make up for it. You may spend the rest of the day feeling stressed, waiting for the next bad thing to happen. By the end of the day you are exhausted, depressed, irritable, and don’t feel all that great. And to top it all off, you can’t fall asleep. Well there is a reason those mental stresses turn into physical signs of stress. The general adaptation syndrome describes a three stage process of how the body responds to stress.

The general adaptation syndrome (GAS) was first described by Hans Selye. Working with lab rats, he found a number of physiological responses they had when they were exposed to stressors. These responses typically occurred in three stages: Alarm reaction stage, Resistance stage, and Exhaustion stage.

During the alarm reaction stage, the body does just that, reacts to whatever the alarm/stress is. It doesn’t matter if you are running from a sabre-tooth tiger or realizing that you have a flat tire, the body reacts as if it is life or death (the “fight-or-flight response). Your brain perceives stress and triggers the release of stress hormones, giving you a boost of energy, and raises your heart rate and blood pressure, so your body can react immediately to the stress. (Possibly lifesaving if you really are trying to run away from a sabre-tooth tiger.)

Once the alarms stop going off, you can move on to the resistance stage. The body will begin to counteract the effects of the hormones that were released in the alarm stage. Your heart rate and blood pressure slowly return to normal. However, if your stress levels remain high (now you’re stuck in traffic and you’re late for class), your body will continue to release stress hormones. Now you are becoming frustrated and irritable.

Your whole semester has been a roller coaster with the stresses of papers, projects, mid-terms, and just life happening. Now you are headed into finals, planning for next semester and then trying to figure out how to pay for it all, while holding a job, taking care of your family and trying to not catch the latest round of illness that seems to be everywhere. With continued high levels of stress, your body will enter the exhaustion stage. It has been trying all semester to counteract all the stress you have been feeling, only to be stressed again, and it is completely drained. You are over-tired, feeling depressed and anxious about the extra work you now have to do to finish the semester, and just don’t think you can handle One More Thing. Long-term stress can lead to a depressed immune system (Remember that cold you got on the first day of vacation!), or diseases such as hypertension or diabetes.

But wait! There is good news! Now that you know about the stages of the general adaptation syndrome, there are things you can do to help yourself manage your stress better! Deep-breathing, meditation, yoga, journaling, and regular exercise can all be beneficial to helping manage stress and your body’s reaction to it. Check under to “Stress Management Strategies and Techniques” tab in this blog to get you started!