Addicted To Adrenaline: A Recipe For Stress
If you’ve been feeling stressed out lately I invite you to spend a few minutes today thinking about the effect increased adrenaline may be having upon you physically, emotionally and spiritually. Man is a tripartite being and while there is plenty of emphasis on physical health and exercise today we don’t hear much about the emotions and spirit. Stress affects all three!
Now granted, we are not responsible for all that life throws at us but we can, I believe, become easily habituated to living a fast paced, adrenaline filled life. Let’s begin with the effects of stress on our body. When severe or continued stress occurs the body mobilizes to handle the crisis in the brain first. The hypothalamus sends messages to the pituitary gland to release the adrenal hormones cortisol and adrenaline (epinephrine). As cortisol and adrenaline begin to circulate, other chemical messengers, dopamine and norepinephrine, are released in the sympathetic nervous system. This causes muscles to tense, heart rate, blood pressure and respitory rates to rise. Thus our body is gearing up to do battle or run (fight or flight). That’s the way God created us to survive stress. However, the increased demand for blood in the brain (to mobilize us for action) means the heart is working extra hard. The muscles and stomach also demand more blood than usual. The muscles are preparing to need more power to run or fight and the stomach is attempting to digest food to provide needed energy. This extra blood is pulled from less critical places like the hands and feet, thus some complain of cold hands under stress. Of course, this is ok for the short term. But when prolonged stress occurs and the fight or flight response is sustained researchers have found it can be dangerous because it also:
· Increases blood cholesterol
· Narrows the arteries to the heart
· Decreases the body’s ability to remove cholesterol
· Increases plaque deposits on the walls of arteries
The problem is that the increased adrenaline can also give us a heightened sense of well being, increased energy, and less need for sleep and excitement. It is a false sense of well-being. Thus we need to learn to switch off the production of adrenaline when it is not needed as well as be careful not to create situations where extra adrenaline is needed. In his book, “Adrenaline and Stress”, Dr. Archibald Hart states, “We’ve got to become less dependent on this emergency hormone for everyday living.” Anger, frustration, irritation, challenge, and excitement are all adrenaline triggers. In fact, these emotions depend on adrenaline to do their thing. Hence these emotions must be brought under conscious control. This control is what is known as “adrenaline management” and is our conscious effort to be healthy in mind and spirit, not just in our bodies. It means cutting off the stress that wastes adrenaline.
So if you like work, challenge, and excitement, you will have to train yourself to scale back the accelerated pace. We need to be creative in finding “rest times” throughout our day, even when at work. And, of course, our weekends and vacations are important times as well. If we don’t build in the down time it just won’t happen. Grab your planner and mark off down times for the rest of this year. Then at the beginning of next year mark off time in each month of the year.
Rest time is God’s prescription for man. God called it the Sabbath in the Old Testament while the New Testament moves it forward to Sunday. The point is we need one day to rest, worship, reflect, and relax. What are you doing next Sunday?
He that can take rest is greater than he that can take cities. -Benjamin Franklin