The simple truth is, when you're
stressed you're dumber. Teachers see it all the time among students who "don't
test well." Exam stress paralyzes these students who, with trembling hands, mark
wrong answers because in their panic, they can't access cerebrally stored
information they have carefully acquired all semester.
The HPA system is a brilliant mechanism
for handling acute stresses. However, this protection system was not designed to
be continuously activated. In today's world, most of the stresses we are
experiencing are not in the form of acute, concrete "threats" that we can easily
identify, respond to and move on. We are constantly besieged by multitudes of
unresolvable worries about our personal lives, our jobs, and our war-torn global
community. Such worries do not threaten our immediate survival but they
nevertheless can activate the HPA axis, resulting in chronically elevated stress
hormones.
To illustrate the adverse effects of
sustained adrenaline, let's use an example of a track race. An extremely
well-trained and healthy group of sprinters
step up to the starting line. When they hear the command: "On your mark!"
they get on their hands and knees and adjust
their feet into the starting blocks. Then the starter barks out, "Get set."
The athletes' muscles tighten as they prop themselves up on their fingers
and toes.
When
they shift into "Get set" mode, their bodies release the flight-promoting
adrenaline hormones that power their muscles
for the arduous task ahead. While the athletes are on hold awaiting the
"Go" command, their bodies are straining in anticipation of that task. In a
normal race, that strain lasts only a second or two before the
starter yells, "Go!" However, in our
mythical race, the "Go" command,
which would launch the athletes into action, never comes. The athletes
are left in the starting blocks, their blood coursing with adrenaline, their
bodies fatiguing with the strain of preparing for the race that never starts.
Vaccination has the
same physiological effect in the body, by the way.
