The stress response is the coordinated physical and psychological reaction that occurs when a person perceives a challenge, threat, or demand.
The response involves multiple systems, including the nervous, endocrine, and cardiovascular systems. Hormones such as adrenaline and cortisol help alter heart rate, blood pressure, metabolism, alertness, and energy availability during stress.
The response is useful when it is short-lived and helps a person adapt to a challenge. Problems can arise when stress responses are excessively intense, prolonged, or repeatedly activated without adequate recovery.
QUICK FACT
The stress response is not limited to emergencies. Everyday experiences such as work demands, lack of sleep, illness, financial difficulties, or ongoing uncertainty can also activate it.
COMMONLY CONFUSED WITH
- Stress: Stress refers more broadly to the experience of demands or pressures and the way a person responds to them; the stress response refers specifically to the body’s coordinated reaction.
- Stressor: the stimulus or condition that triggers the response.
- Stress hormone: a hormone involved in the response; the stress response involves much more than hormones alone.
SEE ALSO
- Stressor
- Stress Hormone
- Cardiovascular
- Adrenaline
- Cortisol
- Neurotransmitters
- Stress
- Fight-Or-Flight Response
