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Asked by 492rhed48 to Nicholas, Eva, David on 16 Nov 2015. This question was also asked by 557rhed48.
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David Nunan answered on 16 Nov 2015:
Hi,
Stress (or the stress response) is actually something that humans have evolved with to help keep us alive. In the past there would have been many dangers to your life, like a wild animal or another human. The body developed a system called ‘fight or flight’ to react by releasing hormones that cause your pupils to dilate (get bigger) and your heart rate and breathing to increase. This gets you ready to either runaway (flight) or to stand and fight. This is called the acute stress response.
Nowadays most of us don’t have these dangers (well not that often) but we still have the defence system. Other things like our work or exams cause this system to be switch on but over much longer times. This chronic stress. If you are exposed to this type of stress for too long, then your body starts to react by causing you to have high blood pressure and a weaker immune system so you get ill more easily. Here’s an infographic that shows the difference between acute and chronic stress but also how you can help reduce stress 🙂
http://visual.ly/lets-talk-about-stress
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Nicholas Pearce answered on 19 Nov 2015:
Hey,
Stress exists in animals as a way of getting the brain to tell the body about possible danger. In order to save energy to fight the danger or run away from it, every body system not involved in either of those responses get slowed down. This means you can focus just on dealing with the danger. (So your heart might beat quicker, but your digestion would slow down.)
Stress isn’t supposed to last for very long – it’s just there for short term dangers. In humans, because we worry about things and are more intelligent, so can plan more, stress can last for much longer and being on edge for long periods without our body systems working at their normal pace is what makes us ill.
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