Page 100 - Biblical Counseling II

stressed before a huge exam, a musical performance, or a challenging physical task, you can try to control
how you perceive the stressor (Myers, 2009). (photo: relaxlikeaboss.com)

But stressors can also threaten us. And experiencing severe or prolonged stress may harm us. Children’s
physiological responses to severe child abuse put them at later risk of chronic disease. Those who had post-
traumatic stress reactions to heavy combat in the Vietnam War went on to suffer greatly elevated rates of
circulatory, digestive, respiratory, and infectious diseases (Myers, 2009).

The Stress Response System
In the 1920s, Walter Cannon confirmed that the stress response is part of a unified mind-body system. This is
but one part of the sympathetic nervous system’s response. When alerted by any of several brain pathways,
the sympathetic nervous system increases heart rate and respiration, diverts blood from digestion to the
skeletal muscles, dulls pain, and releases sugar and fat from the body’s stores – all to prepare the body for
the wonderfully adaptive response that Cannon called fight or flight (Myers, 2009).

There are alternatives to fight or flight. One is a common response to the stress of a loved one’s death:
withdrawal. Pull back. Conserve energy. Faced with an extreme disaster, such as a ship sinking, people
become paralyzed by fear. Another stress response, especially common among women, is to seek and give
support: tend and befriend. Facing stress, men more often than women tend to socially withdraw, turn to
alcohol, or become aggressive. Women more often respond to stress by nurturing and staying together.
Oxytocin, a stress-moderating hormone, is released during human and animal interaction. This can help
reduce stress levels (Myers, 2009).

Hans Selye saw the way the body adapts to stress as the general adaptation syndrome (GAS). He felt stress
had three phases. Let’s say you suffer a physical or emotional trauma. In Phase 1, you experience an alarm
reaction due to the sudden activation of your sympathetic nervous system. Your heart rate zooms. Blood is
diverted to your skeletal muscles. You feel the faintness of shock. With your body alerted to stress, you are
now ready to fight the challenge during Phase 2, resistance. Your temperature, blood pressure, and rapid
breathing remain high, and there is a sudden outpouring of hormones. If persistent, the stress may
eventually deplete your body’s reserves during Phase 3, exhaustion. With exhaustion, you are more
vulnerable to illness or, in extreme cases, collapse and death. Few medical experts today argue with Selye’s
basic point: Although the human body is designed to cope with temporary stress, prolonged stress can

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