Fact Sheets > What is Stress

What is Stress

What is stress?

In general, when people speak of stress, they tend to refer it to negative feelings experienced due to a threat. This is only partially correct. Stress is the “wear and tear” our body experience in response to our environment. However, unknown to most people, stress can produce both positive and negative effects. As a positive influence, stress adds anticipation and excitement to life because our brain produces a chemical, Endorphin, which makes us insensitive to pain. In addition, stress produces a fight-or-flight response that prepares our body to fight or flee from danger. For instance, Thyroid hormones accelerate our body’s metabolism to provide speed and energy.

Stress exacerbates negative influences when we perceive something as a threat, and trigger the fight-or-flight response. If the fight-or-flight response is sustained for a long period of time, the adrenal system in our body will begin to break down and causes health problems such as high blood pressure, heart disease, and stomach problems. When we experience too much stress or prolonged stress, the happy messengers in our brain, Serotonin, Noradrenalin and Dopamine, will fail to keep up with the demand. Subsequently, the happy messages begin to fail and the nerve center in our brain receives mostly sad messages, and we enter a state of brain chemical imbalance referred to as “overstress”.

Overstress make us feel pain easily, depressed and anxious; lack of interest in pleasurable activities; and energy.

Serotonin and our body clock

Serotonin coordinates our body clock. In turn, the 24 hour cycling of our body clock is the coordinator of our physiologic orchestra, which consist of body temperature, sleep cycles and stress fighting hormones. If stress causes Serotonin to fail, our body clock will also stop working. The body clock coordinates variation of body temperature which helps us to fall asleep and to achieve the best sleep. For example, when it is time for us to wake up and be active, our body temperature rises slightly. When it is time to fall asleep, our body temperature dips slightly, which is why we have trouble falling asleep on a very warm night. To achieve the best sleep, our body thermostat is supposed to lower slightly at night, a timing which is coordinated by our body clock.

Similarly, our sleep cycle is regulated our body clock. After falling asleep, a person normally goes deeper and deeper into sleep, finally reaching a state of deep restorative sleep. Then sleep becomes lighter and lighter until the person enters dreaming sleep; after which the whole cycle begins over again. As the night progresses, we spent less and less time in restorative sleep but more and more time dreaming. In order for us to have a refresh sleep, this sleep pattern must be cycling properly.

As with body temperature, the ups and downs of our stress-fighting hormone must cycle properly during a 24-hour day so that we can have a restful sleep. The stress-fighting hormone needs to be lower in the evening as we relax and settle down and prepare to sleep, otherwise our body will prepare for a fight-or-flight response.

Noradrenaline gives us energy

Noradrenaline, which is found in the central nervous system of our body, is involved in setting our body’s energy levels. Without sufficient Noradrenaline, one feels exhausted, tired, without energy, and does not feel like doing anything.

Dopamine and our body’s pain and pleasure center

Our happy messenger, Dopamine, seems to be found in areas of the brain immediately next to where Endorphin releasing mechanisms lie. When Dopamine functions decline, so does our Endorphin functions. High levels of Endorphin makes us insensitive to pain while depleted levels of Endorphin levels makes us more sensitive than usual to pain. Hence, when we experience too much stress, our Dopamine functions fail and we are more sensitive to pain.

In addition, Dopamine plays an important role in our body’s “pleasure center”. Therefore, when stress reduces levels of Dopamine, normally pleasurable activities and objects no longer give us any pleasure, and we are no longer interested in engaging these pleasurable activities. To conclude, with serious malfunctioning of Dopamine/Endorphin, life becomes painful and devoid of any pleasure.