Tag: Adrenalin

Helping You – 4

In the last edition I talked about the cascade of events that happens when the Sympathetic Nervous System kicks in with Fight or Flight Response – how it’s like stomping on the accelerator of your car.  I also mentioned how the Parasympathetic Nervous System cuts in to help calm everything down once the danger, or perceived danger, has passed.

What I want to talk about today is what happens when we keep getting triggered and the parasympathetic nervous system doesn’t get a chance to apply the brake!

Basically, the sh*^ hits the fan!  If, for whatever reason, we don’t realise that there really isn’t anything dangerous going on, something called the HPA Axis kicks in.  The Hypothalamus get back into the picture and notifies the Pituitary gland which lets the Adrenals know they need to release cortisol into our system.  That means we keep our foot on the gas pedal and our body stays ramped up for action.  And it pretty much stays that way until we can work out that the danger is passed.  When the all-clear happens, the adrenals stop producing cortisol and as that fades away we can relax again.

In modern day society, we are not likely to meet a sabre-toothed tiger.  Our FFR is far more likely to be the result of someone’s dodgy driving and even that can be fairly short term.  If FFR is something that happens every now and then and only lasts about 15 minutes – there’s no real problem, but we LIVE in FFR.  We rarely, if ever, allow that cortisol to fade away and fully relax.  Our FFR triggers are so commonplace that we accept them as a way of life – money worries, kids, spouse, the electricity bill, the boss getting on our case, being unemployed, menopause, empty nest, retiring, chronic pain.  The list is on-going.  I’m sure you can think up some more.  And, even more disturbing we voluntarily put ourselves in FFR through the things we watch on TV – movies, news – and the bun-fights we get into on social media.  Then, when you include the pressure we put on each other and ourselves to conform to a certain ideal….  Too tall / too short; too thin / too fat;  growing older, struggling with diets and disliking the view in the mirror.  We have been programmed to live in the FFR.  For sure, it’s a mild version but it is still scary in it’s implications for our health.

And that my friends is the next topic before we really look at what we can do about it.

Are you still breathing?  Three deep breaths remember ❤



Did you miss the previous posts in this series? Here’s the links….

Helping You – 1

Helping You – 2

Helping You – 3



Helping You – 3

NOTE: My local paper (for which these articles were first written) started off very small just a few months ago and is growing beautifully. Unfortunately that means that I no longer get a full page for my column! All is good though – a link will be provided to this blog so all my readers can carry on following…..
Downside though is that I have to flood this blog site will all the catch-up articles!!! Happy reading!

We’ve spoken about the Fight or Flight Response and briefly discussed how your body’s defence systems by-pass your brain, scooting into action before your logical brain has time to wake up and notice what is happening.  In this post I’d like to dig a bit deeper into how this works.

The Fight or Flight Response (FFR) has a very serious job to do.  It is our first line of defence when something potentially bad is happening or about to happen.  It puts our body into ‘high alert’ by flooding our system with adrenaline and a whole cocktail of other hormones and making sure that blood is diverted away from your gut and other non-essential parts such as your brain,  Yep – your body knows that your brain is useless if your head has been chomped by that sabre-toothed tiger.  In such dangerous conditions your legs are the most important parts of your body!  The problem, though, is that we no longer know how to switch that response off.

Think of a dog.  These guys are masters of dealing with FFR.  Pooch is lying in the sun, snoring, twitching feet, legs every which way and seemingly without a care in the world when something triggers him.  He shoots up, looking totally confused for about half-a-second and stands on high alert – tail fluffed up, hair sticking out so he looks bigger; maybe even barking.  And then he realises that it was just a dream, or that there’s no danger and with a very sheepish look he settles back down and two minutes later he’s snoring again.

What’s happened is that FFR response was triggered, but as soon as his mind caught up and worked out that all was safe in his world, his body reacted by relaxing.

The jargon stuff is that the Sympathetic Nervous System jumped into action letting the Amygdala know something was up.  The Amygdala notified the Command Centre (the Hypothalamus) which sends in the solders to wake up the Adrenals who flood the body with epinephrine (also known as adrenalin).  Epinephrine flooding your body is a bit like stamping down on the accelerator of your car – nought to sixty in no time!   In my mind, this is probably the most efficient system we have in our body!  There is a whole cascade of stuff that happens, almost instantaneously,  without us being in the least bit aware of it.  Then, when the cerebral cortex (the logical part of your brain) catches up and realises there isn’t really any danger, the Parasympathetic Nervous System kicks in and allows the body to settle back down to it’s normal state.

But what happens when the body doesn’t settle back down?  When we keep triggering the FFR?  This is what our modern society is constantly doing – and we will look at that in the next edition.

Did you miss the previous posts in this series? Here’s the links….

Helping You – 1

Helping You – 2