Reality is the leading cause of stress amongst those in touch with it. (1)
Jane Wagner has a point. Stress. Hans Selye (2) described stress as “the wear and tear of everyday life”. It’s something we all know about. The tension. The worry. The added difficulty. More colds and flus. We’ve seen people go through highly stressful times and burn out. We’ve seen others weather the storms a bit better and although they don’t burn out, they are battered.
When we come across a challenging stimulus — a “stressor” — our bodies automatically react and gear up into action to deal with the challenge, whether it’s beneficial or harmful. The challenge can come from our environment, from our bodies, from our thoughts and memories, or from a combination of these.
The key feature of risk and of a stressor is change: its novelty, uncertainty, unpredictability or strangeness.
Our brains detect risk through a process Dr. Stephen W. Porges calls “neuroception”. Neuroception is an “automatic process involv[ing] brain areas that evaluate cues of safety, danger, and life threat. … Neuroception is not always accurate. Faulty neuroception might detect risk when there is no risk or identify cues of safety when there is risk.”(3) Remember that all this is happening automatically, without our being aware of the process.
When neuroception detects danger or life threat, it triggers either the Fight-or-Flight response or the Freeze response. (I call these options Attack, Escape, and Don’t Move.) If you need to move fast (Attack or Escape), sympathetic nervous system (SNS) activity increases. If you can’t escape, dorsal vagal complex (DVC) activity increases.(4)
There isn’t just one type of Freeze response. It can be Don’t Move, like the classic deer in the headlights. It can be Faint, or Dissociate, or even Play Dead. I remember my cat carrying a “dead” bird in his mouth, proudly dropping the bird, and the bird flying away. Obviously, not dead.
I wonder if that’s what my husband’s friend did when hit by the avalanche. George and Brian were cross-country skiing in the mountains when an avalanche hit them. George was able to dig his way out. When he couldn’t find Brian, he set off to find the ski patrol. Some time later, they found Brian buried under the snow. While he suffered from hypothermia, he lived to tell the tale.(5) They figured when the avalanche hit, Brian instinctively curled into a ball trapping some air with him. I wonder now if that was a Play Dead move.
Again, remember that the Fight-or-Flight response and the Freeze Response happen automatically, without our being aware of the process. This is good because many situations don’t give us enough time to think through what the best option might be. We need to do something. Right now. Not even in 2 seconds. Remember Brian. His instant Freeze response saved his life.
Notes: (1) Jane Wagner, The Search for Signs of Intelligent Life in the Universe (1991), the one-woman stage show that starred Lily Tomlin.
(2) Hans H.B. Selye, C.C., M.D., Ph.D., D.Sc., (1907-1982), was an endocrinologist, a professor at the University of Montreal (1932-1976) and with Alvin Toffler, co-founder of the Canadian Institute of Stress. Hans Selye is often referred to as “the father of stress” because of his landmark work in the area and his description of the General Adaptation Syndrome.
(3) Stephen W. Porges, The Pocket Guide to The Polyvagal Theory: The Transformative Power of Feeling Safe (New York: W. W. Norton & Company, Inc., 2017) @ 19.
(4) The DVC is part of the parasympathetic nervous system (PSNS).
(5) Brian even told the tale on national radio, the CBC’s As It Happens.
