Are we trained to handle a crisis?

There are automatic weapons to take care of it. Norbert Rego reports.
Many of us are not trained to handle a crisis/ life-threatening situation and its consequences. When we witness dangerous situations, our body’s automatic weapons — ‘fight, flight or freeze’ — take over. The fight or flight response is about survival, about hope. We activate it when we believe there’s a chance we can overpower our attackers.When a perceived life-threatening situation is present, our body’s immune systems react in nanoseconds. The body’s adrenaline is secreted and used for quick responses. Our body will be told to hit, punch, duck or get out of the way, run, or other forms of fighting or fleeing behaviours.
Stress experts have added the word freeze to this phenomenon due to the fact that instead of fighting or fleeing, sometimes we tend to freeze in dangerous situations. The freeze response gets activated when there’s no hope. Cardiologist Dr Peeyush Jain says, “In a perceived life-threatening crisis, there is a fright and flight reaction characterised by release of stress hormones. This is a protective response that enables the animals, including humans, to get away from the scene of threat. Later, dysfunctionality — inability to perform tasks that require mental acuity — is generally the result of anxiety which in medical terms is called ‘posttraumatic stress disorder’.” Psychiatrist Dr Ajay Pal Singh says, “When a threat is perceived by the brain, it is relayed from the sensory cortex of the brain to the hypothalamus and brain stem and then the sympathetic nervous system is activated, which is connected to almost every body organ. Catecholamines (epinephrine and norepinephrine hormones) are also released from the adrenal medulla, which is an endocrine gland. The sympathetic nervous system and the catecholamines cause increased heart rate and increased respiratory rate. Blood flow is also increased to the muscles and blood pressure rises. Digestion is slowed down. The pupils of the eyes dilate. Glucose is released from the energy stores. The person starts shaking and gets goose bumps and sweats. Cortisol is also secreted from the adrenal cortex.”
That person is ready for fleeing or fighting. Females have a response where they attend to their young ones and form support groups also — tending and befriending, adds Dr Singh. Every time our body triggers the fight or flight response, for situations that are not really lifethreatening, we are experiencing actually a false alarm. Too many false alarms can lead to stress-related disorders like heart disease, high blood pressure, etc.
norbert.rego@timesgroup.com