Can Your Brain Differentiate Stressful Office Actions From Animal Threat?

2 days ago

To answer the question straight, the body is not able to tell the difference between when you are chased by a dog and when you are chased by deadlines nevertheless, have you ever been in a state of stress before maybe when you wanted to present your proposal, or when you were scared of being in a room alone. You would realize that you start to sweat after which you begin to feel tightness in your shoulders, limbs, and other muscle related areas, then you wonder why your body gives you the same response anytime you get into a fight or flight mode no matter what is giving the stress.

Without doubt, it is easy to identify when a person is stressed or in a state of fight or flight even without putting on an eyeglass and this is so because it can be very clear but there is a chance you do not know when you are in this phase or when someone else is in the state. So allow me to share with you a few things you might have notice with that aunt of yours who is in the fight or flight mode as a result of trying to get things done between a stipulated time or as a result of being chased by a bear. In the context of this post, when I mention stress, I am referring to temporary acute stress and not chronic stress.

Image; Kallidus

One of the first way to identify that a person is under a lot of pressure, stress or in a state of fight or flight is partial paleness of the face and this happens because blood in the body leaves certain areas to areas where it will be needed like the legs and the eyes which alows the eye to make quick eye movement.

With tension or stress from work or office comes muscle stress reaponse. It is at this point that you realize your muscles tightening around your shoulders, the muscles in the leg moving uncontrollably, clenching of the jaw, and so on. This muscle stress response would have been the normal response of your body response to say a cow chasing you as a lot of energy will go there but since you are not in that situation, you aren’t using your muscles for such but your body doesn’t understand so it still responds with tightening and movement in a position. The body anticipating stress is enought stress for the body before the action itself.

image; speakersyouneed

Have you also noticed that when you are stressed, you become all emotional? This is because when stress comes, the amygdala which is the emotional center of the brain respond to it. It sends fast acting chemical response to other part of the body making you vigilant and more excited but since you are not running, you get all the chemicals bombarded on you and the side effect as well which is emotional drama. That’s why it looks like people who are stressed are angry, too serious, very stern and whatever emotional english term you want to use to describe their action. Just know that people under stress respond emotionally and the amygdala is more responsive but less selective in stressful events.

Another annoying stress response in an office is hyperventilating when going to see someone superior. This stress response would have been very useful if it were outside but in the office, it causes you to almost go out of breath even though your body is trying to get enough oxygen to every part of the body which you would not need in an office setting but would have needed if you had to run away from a lion.

image; Wikimedia

But have you noticed that when you are stressed, you can find yourself eating more than normal. For me, it happens when I am broke with no cash on me because I need money to run a lot of things, not having it can be very stressful and one of the ways I respond to it is by eating uncontrollably. Normally during fight or flight, eating should not be a thing since adrenaline is released to help combat the situation and it is different from rest and digest but scientists have noticed that stress eating is common in so many people.

Scientists were able to find an answer to the stress eating paradox and concluded that stress eating is related to how the heart rate changes during the stressful periods were people with heart rate changes that are low eat more starchy food since the stress rate isn’t so high to prevent them from eating.

There are a lot of responses to stress that we still exhibit today that would have been useful in our hunting days but are still there today and not that useful as then but still useful for us to a reasonable extent and help us identify when wr are stressed.