In order to understand stress, you must first understand INSTINCT.  Like the entire animal kingdom, we have certain inbuilt survival instincts – a newly born baby will turn to its mother’s breast and suck in order to feed; a six month old baby will show fear of heights; a mother hearing any baby cry will usually want to pick up the baby and nurse it; we pull our hands away from fire.   These instincts protect us and the next generation and thus keep humankind going.

Stress (or fear) is also an instinct and if we did not have it built into us, we would not have survived for the very long time humans have been on earth. The basic role of stress is to protect us from danger.  It does this by:

• Warning us about possible threats.
• Putting our bodies and minds on “alert” to tackle these threats.   It makes us focus on the threat and fills us with power and energy to fight the threat or run from it.
• Keeping us on alert until the threat has passed.

We call this response ‘FIGHT/FLIGHT’ because it puts us in our best shape to either run away from danger – flight – or tackle the danger head on – fight.  This response was very useful for early man due to the dangers which were all around.  However, in the present day the symptoms produced by this natural response can cause us feelings of unpleasantness.

We have an easy to read booklet that describes what role stress plays in our lives. It is also important to understand what causes stress, you can find out in this booklet.

If you would like to learn more information about stress and you are registered with a Newcastle GP, then you can enrol on to our Stress Management Class by clicking here.