Researchers reveal the six responses to stress

Researchers reveal the six responses to stress

Encountering stressful situations can lead to the fight or flight response - a physical response which prepares the body to fight or flee. 

But researchers say that the body can respond to stress in other ways - including being overcome with emotion, staying still and frozen, or being fatigued. 

Sometimes, the fatigue response is so intense that it leads to taking naps - which can restore a persons energy and make them more able to manage their stress.  

When someone faces many mental or physical tasks, it uses up glucose in the brain, which provides the brain with energy. The brain requires large amounts of energy, and taking a nap in response to stressful situations is a way for the body to replenish low levels of brain glucose

Dr Curtis Reisinger, a clinical psychologist at Zucker Hillside Hospital, told New York Magazine the 'fight or flight' response to stress is oversimplified, and that there are other ways that humans have evolved to adapt to stress. 

He said that there is a also a freeze response, similar to when a deer is stunned by headlights, and flooding - when a person is flooded by emotions. 

THE SIX RESPONSES TO STRESS  

Dr Curtis Reisinger, a clinical psychologist at Zucker Hillside Hospital, told New York Magazine the 'fight or flight' response to stress is oversimplified, and that there are other ways that humans have evolved to adapt to stress. 

The six responses to stress include:

1. Fight: Fighting a threat 
2. Flight: Fleeing a threat
3. Freeze: Freezing and not doing anything in response to a threat
4. Flooding: Being flooded with emotions in response to a threat
5. Fawn: Cooperating or submitting to one's threat or captor
6. Fatigue: Feeling tired and/or sleeping in response to a threat

'And then the other one is what's called the fawn response, another F,' said Dr Reisinger. 

'The fawn response refers to the inclination to cooperate or subm it oneself to one's threat or captor.

'And then there's the final F: fatigue.'

Dr Reisinger explained that when someone faces many mental or physical tasks, it uses up glucose in the brain, which provides the brain with energy.

The brain requires large amounts of energy, and taking a nap in response to stressful situations is a way for the body to replenish low levels of glucose in the brain.

However, this type of response to stress is usually seen in children and babies. 

Dr Reisinger says that children have limited stress-relief resources, and as such they use sleep a way of managing stress.  

With restored energy levels, people are more able to manage their stress and put their challenges into perspective - and the same concept applies to eating candy in response to stress. 

Dr Steven Feinsilver, the director of sleep medicine at Lenox Hill Hospital, told New York Magazine that although 'fear naps' can be a useful way of managing stress in high-stress, low-threat situations such as flying in a plane or watching a scary movie, it doesn't work well in times of true danger.  

He said that there is a balance between the stress management benefits of naps, and trying to sleep away obstacles in one's life. 

Encountering stressful situations can lead to the fight or flight response - a physical response which prepares the body to fight or flee. But researchers that the body can respond to stress in other ways - including being overcome with emotion, staying still and froze, or being fatigued

'If they’re under so much duress and stress that they essentially just throw in the towel and give up, then that looks more like depression,' says Dr Reisinger. 

However, depression has many symptoms, and oversleeping is just one (as well as insomnia) so Dr Reisinger says that people who nap in response to stress don't necessarily need to be concerned, and more sleep is usually a good thing for most people.  

There is also a flooding response to stress - when a person is flooded by emotions

Stephen, a 32-year-old travel agent in New York who told New York Magazine that he frequently takes stress naps, said that it doesn't work when he feels guilty for delaying something he has to do.

But Dr Feinsilver says that sleep is a much better way of dealing with stress than other things people may use, such as alcohol. 

Another human response to stress is freezing - similar to when a deer is stunned by headlights

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