| Stress can be considered as a specific and instinctual bodily reaction to situations of perceived danger. The stress mechanism induces the body to secrete large amounts of specific chemicals which are designed to prepare us for immediate and explosive action. This mechanism has become commonly known as the " flight or fight " response and has no doubt proved crucial in helping to ensure our survival on an individual basis, and by extrapolation, as a species. The problem in todays urban society is that threats are no longer specific but are more nebulous and generalized. Money worries, traffic congestion, job performance anxiety - all of these factors and more, produce the same type of flight or fight reaction in the body but without any resolution to the threat. Under these circumstances the body can become locked into a state of constant heightened arousal. Those same chemicals which can be life savers in relation to a specific threat requiring immediate action, can become life takers when present in the body on a long term basis. It is now generally recognized that long term stress is responsible for the vast majority of human illness. |