1. General Adaptation Syndrome Seyle (1956)

2. What is it? When a person experiences stress, the brain responds by initiating 1400 different responses including the dumping of a variety of chemicals to our blood stream. This gives a momentary boost to do whatever needs to be done to survive. If left unchecked, however, the person can have a heart attack, or stroke. Many people start drinking alcohol, or they get depressed, find it difficult to sleep, experience chest pain. SO, General Adaptation Syndrome, is the body’s reaction to stress

3. There are 3 stages to GAS Alarm Resistance Exhaustion

4. Alarm When we are surprised or threatened, we have an immediate physical reaction, often called the Fight-or-Flight reaction. This prepares the body for life-threatening situations, channeling away resources from such as the digestive and immune system to more immediate muscular and emotional needs. This leads to the immune system being depressed, making us susceptible to disease. This is done by the hypothalamic-pituitary system secreting a surge of ACTH which then releases corticosteroids being released from the adrenal cortex. The sympathetic ANS activation leads to an increased adrenaline and noradrenalin being secreted from the adrenal medulla

5. Resistance As we become used to the stress levels, we initially become more resistance to disease, which leads us to believe we can easily adapt to these more stressful situations. However, this is only the immune system fighting to keep up with demands and expectations, but requires it to work at abnormally high levels.

6. Exhaustion This only happens when the stressor is long lasting or chronic. Eventually reality kicks in and our bodies give up on trying to maintain a high level of stress. Parts of the body literally start to break down This includes: Shrinkage of parts of the immune system, raised blood pressure, ulcers and anxiety’s may develop

7. What you need to know G A S R E E Y L E ETET BYBY larm esistance xhaustion