That tense, stomach-churning feeling you get when you’re in danger or extremely stressed? That’s thanks to your body’s automatic fight-or-flight response kicking into high gear.
This innate biological reaction is your body’s primitive and immediate defense to keep you safe from perceived harm. It’s been honed over countless generations of evolution.
What Happens During the Fight-or-Flight Response
That queasy sensation you feel when you’re nervous or scared is your sympathetic nervous system activating the fight-or-flight response.
Within moments, a surge of more than 30 different hormones flood your body, including:
- Adrenaline
- Cortisol
- Norepinephrine
These substances immediately alter your physiology to empower you to confront or avoid danger.
Changes include:
- Accelerated heart and breathing rates, providing more oxygen to fuel your muscles
- Constriction of blood vessels in less vital organs like your skin and abdomen
- Dilation of blood vessels to your muscles, priming them for action
- Activation of sweat glands to cool your body
- Inhibition of tear production and salivation to conserve moisture
- Release of stored energy sources like sugar and fat for a burst of strength and stamina
- Suppressed digestive system since this can wait until the danger passes
- Heightened awareness and sharpness of the senses to be more alert
- Decreased sensitivity to pain that could otherwise disable you
In as little as two seconds, these tweaks shift your priorities away from normal functioning and toward immediate survival. Think of it as emergency mode for your body.
Once the stressful situation resolves, another set of hormones help return your systems back down to normal levels.
Why We Can’t Always Control It
You can think of the complex fight-or-flight process as your body’s automatic survival instinct.
Notably, it activates without conscious thought in response to danger signals either from your environment or even from within your own mind.
Importantly, it reacts based on your individual perception of a threat rather than the true level of risk. It doesn’t consider if the danger is real or imagined.
As a result, there are many triggers that can flip that mental switch and initiate the cascade before you have time to rationally evaluate if you’re actually in peril.
Common emotional threats that can set it off include:
- Intense nervousness related to work, relationships, finances or other pressures
- Moments right before giving a speech or performance
- A heated disagreement or confrontation
- Worry over an upcoming test, pitch or other critical moment
- Intimacy, exposure or trust issues in relationships
- Trauma associated with an earlier dangerous or distressing event
The KEY Takeaway
- The fight-or flight-response is an automatic bodily reaction designed to protect you from potential harm when your senses perceive threat.
- Since it acts based on your subjective evaluation of danger rather than actual risk, strong stressful emotions can set it in motion even if you’re ultimately okay.
- Learning to mitigate excessive stress through lifestyle adjustments like exercise, sleep, relaxation practices and talking through fears in safe environments can help prevent unnecessary fight-or-flight reactions.
Understanding this primordial hard-wiring and its involuntary nature is the first step to gaining better control over anxiety levels even in tense situations.
While the fight-or-flight reflex will likely always be with us, we can allow rational thinking and self-care to override it more often.
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Disclaimer: The information provided in this discussion is for general informational and educational purposes only. It is not intended as medical or professional advice. Only a qualified health professional can determine what practices are suitable for your individual needs and abilities.
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