How “Fight or Flight” Responses Can Save Our Lives
People are naturally fighters. Whatever obstacles there may be, to fight is always the first action. Life is full of challenges and circumstances that would need presence of mind and fighting spirit in order for people to overcome and survive all these. But whenever fear and negative thinking overshadowed the spirit to fight, the tendency would be to flee from challenges. To fight or flight, your decision would depend on situation.
When a challenge is calling you to fight a dangerous animal, the best thing to do is to flee from it. But this is not the only danger in life. There are lots of factors wherein we have to choose between fighting and fleeing. The fight or flight response is our ordinary response to daily circumstances in life. Good examples of this are the stress and pressures brought by the workloads at home or at the office. Another thing is the different problems we face each day such as financial incapacity, meeting deadlines, piling up of bills, and many more. All these things cause panic and anxiety to all of us.
To better understand the “fight or flight” feeling, we have to take a closer look at what the body does when stress hits. When we go through high stress time whether caused by an event or an internal problem our hypothalamus gets stimulated. This in turn set off a series a nerve cell signals and release of chemicals that bring on this feeling to either fight the problem or flee it.
These chemicals that are released in the blood are called adrenaline, cortisol, and noradrenaline. Whenever this happen, the body will react in different ways. That is why we tend to fight the danger or flee from it.
During those times that we face challenges, we experience physical reactions as a result of the chemical that has been released into the blood. Among the physical reactions are: increase in breathing, dilating of the pupils, the eyesight gets sharper, and the impulses quicken. Another reaction of the body is the tendency of the muscle to become stronger as the blood concentrates more on the muscles and the limbs. This makes the person to fight courageously and strongly against a particular danger.
Responses like these may cause our nervous system to be impulsive which can lead to accidents, dangers, harming others, or to survive. This is what usually happens to each of us as we face different kinds of stress every day.
This response does not always mean we react wisely to situations. If we have too much stress and anxiety on us then we can go into panic attacks which elevates this flight or flee feeling to levels, that are not easy to cope with. This can make us lash out irrationally to those around us, perceiving a danger that does not exist anywhere but in our minds.
It is important to understand the “fight or flight” response so we can better utilize it for our own welfare and protection. Just like how our ancestors respond to dangers in their time, we should also use these responses to save ourselves rather than create a deeper trouble or more harm to ourselves. Learning how to respond well and wisely can save our lives and lead us to a better and safer situation.