If you have an anxiety disorder, you’re more likely to feel threatened by typically nonthreatening situations. For example, you may experience flashbacks or nightmares that may cause your body to activate the stress response. Sometimes, your mind may create the trigger. For example, if the supermarket reminds you of what happened, your stress response might be triggered each time you go to the supermarket.

These a few examples: Traumatic stressĮxcessively triggering the stress response is related to traumatic stress and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).Īfter a traumatic event, you may start to associate things in everyday life with the event. There are also some mental health conditions that are linked to an exaggerated stress response. Sometimes it’s conditioning, genetics, or specific environments. There are many reasons why someone may experience an exaggerated or chronic stress response. This overproduction could affect some of your bodily functions and organs. It may find it challenging to face these stimuli constantly.Īctivating the stress response too often or all the time may have a direct impact on bodily functions and mental health.Īn ongoing fight, flight, or freeze response may require your body to constantly produce hormones like cortisol and adrenaline. Your body is designed to use the fight, flight, or freeze response once in a while and only when confronted by a life threatening situation. This is why people involved in car accidents usually don’t feel pain from their injuries until later on. It’s also common to feel less pain while your stress response is triggered. increased strength, agility, or flexibilityĪfter your initial reaction and once the threat has subsided, you may find that you either have no memory of what happened or a crystal clear recollection of the event.In general, you may experience any of these during the stress response: Which stress response you experience will influence how you feel. Your brain receives extra oxygen, making it more alert, and your senses become sharper.Small airways in your lungs open wide, and you start to breathe more quickly.It prepares you in case you need to run, jump, or react in another way. This blood reaches your vital organs, heart, and muscles. Adrenaline also increases your heart rate, pulse, and blood pressure.Adrenaline releases blood sugar and fat from storage sites around your body into your blood, giving you a boost of energy.Your adrenal glands receive a signal to pump adrenaline, the fight-or-flight hormone, into your blood.

In other words, you don’t have to think about it the body just reacts.

It gathers the information and sends it to the sympathetic nervous system, which controls your body’s involuntary responses.

The amygdala picks up a cue from the environment that signals danger.

In short, here’s how your body reacts to the perceived threat: When the amygdala receives the information, it immediately sends it to other organs in the body so they can activate the alarm: the fight, flight, or freeze response. This is a part of your brain that plays an important role in processing fear and other emotions. When you face a threat, a signal is sent to your amygdala. What’s happening in the body during this response The fight, flight, or freeze response causes your body to produce a rush of hormones that prepare you to respond to the perceived threat.

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