Hans Selye, a medical expert, first coined the term General Adaptation Syndrome (GAS), which is popularly known as a stress response. Know more about what are the 3 stages of the stress response?
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Stress- a Part of Life
The severity of stress is different at a different point of time and is a function of your daily routine and activities, and personal and professional relationship. Therefore, you can’t get rid of it completely.
What you need to do is to manage stress and try to live a healthy life, both physically and emotionally. Stress has a clear sign of physical, mental, and internal impact on the human body.
However, the physical effects can easily be identified by the person’s behavior, particularly their physical response.
Yet, the internal impact can be seen by knowing what the 3 stages of the stress response are. It is essential to know the three stages of stress to manage stress effectively.
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Know About What Are The 3 Stages Of The Stress Response
According to the response to stress, the three stages of General Adaptation Syndrome are the Alarm stage, Resistance stage, and Exhaustion stage. Let’s know more about what are the 3 stages of the stress response?
1. Alarm Stage
In this stages of stress, the body shows the fight-or-flight response’s initial symptoms, a psychological reaction to stress. The signs that warn you about the stress built-up in your body that are in the early stage are-
- Rapid tissue catabolism
- Glucose levels in the blood decrease
- Erosion of Gastrointestinal
- Sleep-related issues like insomnia
- Increased heart rate
Apart from these symptoms body’s immediate response is- elevated Secretion of Cortisol, a stress hormone released by the adrenal gland.
Also, there is a boost in the adrenaline level, which enhances the body’s energy level. DHEA also increases in response to stress.
2. Resistance Stage
This is one of the most critical stages. After fight-or-flight response and shock of stress level, the body starts recovering itself. DHEA will decrease. Epinephrine increases results in sustained blood sugar levels and energy.
However, Cortisol still elevate. But blood pressure and heart rate are going to normalize. Resistance stage is essential to understand when you learn what the 3 stages of the stress response are.
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It is because this is the last stage from where you can return at your pre-stress level with little effort.
It is worthy to note here that despite your body enters the repair mode but still on high alert. If the affected person overcomes the stress level, everything becomes fine and normal.
However, some long-term stress continues to exist, and if not overcome in time, the body eventually adapts the higher stress level and learns to live with it. see Can Stress Cause A Stroke ~ See The Shocking Truth
Your body continues to secrete the higher level of Cortisol results in higher blood pressure. In this situation, you think you are overcoming the stress, but you will adapt to it.
After the alarm reaction, if this stage continues for an extended period, your body may enter the exhaustion stage of chronic stress.
Following are the symptoms of resistance stage-
- Enhanced sleeping issues
- Frustration
- Irritation
- Lack of concentration
The situation must be medically reviewed; otherwise, the affected person may live their entire lifetime in this stage of stress or see further deterioration.
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3. Exhaustion Stage
When you learn the 3 stages of the stress response, you realized that it is the extreme stage. It occurs because of living with prolonged chronic stress.
This stage comes after a long struggle with anxiety, which drains all the body’s physical, mental, and emotional strength to fight against stress.
It ultimately leads you towards hopelessness. In this stage, all the elements like Cortisol, DHEA, and Epinephrine are at a low level, but there is enormous restlessness.
The symptoms of the exhaustion stage are-
- Depression
- Anxiety
- Severe fatigue
- Burnout
- Allergies
- Reduced level of stress tolerance
- Insomnia of higher degrees
- Salt Carvings results in abnormally high blood pressure.
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Why Know About the 3 Stages of the Stress Response
You should know why you are searching for the answer to What are the 3 stages of the stress response. The stress response directly affects our body, and it put our body in extreme dangerous medical condition.
This is enough to know the stages of the stress response. It doesn’t affect only the physical or psychological behavior of the affected person.
Still, it may intensify the other harmless, chronic conditions with higher intensity and more extended periods.
Stress response varies from person to person, and as you read earlier, it majorly depends upon the daily schedule and personal and professional relationship.
It can categorize into physical, behavioral, and emotional responses. And the list of stress response to the human body is long.
The parasympathetic nervous system in the human body is designed for relaxation response inside the body. And this response entirely depends upon the behavior and thinking of the person.
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Your Responsibility
No matter how busy and stressful schedule you have, relax your body for at least a brief period. It helps in reducing harmful stress response, which in turn activate relaxation response to your body.
To reduce the stress response, you need to follow some relaxation exercises and other ways of relaxing your body like deep breathing and avoiding stressful thinking.
Here are some tips for managing stress-
1. Exercise
Exercise is the most effective and easy way of coping with the stress of any stage. At least for a shorter time, regular exercise can cause reduced secretion of stress hormones, sound sleep, and confidence.
You may surprise to know that only walking or jogging can relieve the stress level by a great extent.
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2. Supplements
Supplements that can help you in improving the immune system and reducing stress and anxiety help manage stress.
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3. Reduced Caffeine Intake
Caffeine in tea and coffee and other energy drink can enhance the anxiety level in the human body. It varies from person to person how much caffeine they can tolerate.
4. Social Interaction
It is an essential method of managing stress. Meet and spend quality time with people whom you like the most. It gives you happiness, and it automatically elevates your confidence level results in a lower level of stress.
This syndrome is a three-stage process that describes the psychological changes in the human body exposed to stressful situations. Consult your doctor or psychiatrist in case of any stressful condition.