The Body-Mind Connection of Stress

Big Questions

What happens inside our bodies when we feel stress? Stress means feeling worried or under pressure. What is the "fight or flight" response? That means your body gets ready to fight a problem or run away from it. Why does your heart beat fast or your mouth feel dry when you are stressed?

What This Activity Is About

In this activity, you will fill out a paper about how your own body feels when you are stressed. Then the class will put all the answers together on a bar graph. A bar graph is a picture made of bars that shows information.

Next, you will work with a partner to learn why your body does these things — like a fast heartbeat, cold hands, or a dry mouth. Some stress feelings last longer, like headaches or trouble sleeping.

At the end, you will talk about your own stress feelings. You will learn that most of these body reactions are normal. You will also learn some ways to feel better when you are stressed.

What You Will Learn to Do

• Look at how your own body reacts to stress
• Explain the "fight or flight" response
• Learn how hormones (special chemicals in your body) cause stress feelings
• Think about what happens inside your own body during stress
• Understand that many stress reactions are normal
• Make a bar graph

Background Information

Our bodies are built to react to stress. When we feel stress, our body makes hormones. Hormones are chemicals made by special body parts called glands. Hormones travel through the blood and tell other body parts what to do.

These hormones make our heart beat faster and our breathing speed up. This gives us extra energy to fight a problem or run away from it. This is called the "fight or flight" response. Animals have this response too. For example, a cat may hiss or run when it feels scared.

Three body parts work together to make this happen:

• The hypothalamus (a part of the brain)
• The pituitary gland (also in the brain)
• The adrenal glands (found on top of the kidneys)

Here's how it works: the hypothalamus sends a signal to the pituitary gland. The pituitary gland sends a signal to the adrenal glands. The adrenal glands then release stress hormones called epinephrine, norepinephrine, and cortisol.

These hormones make your heart beat faster and your breathing speed up. This gives you a burst of energy. They can also cause other feelings, like:

• Headache
• Dry mouth
• Trouble swallowing
• Fast heartbeat
• Feeling sick to your stomach
• Cold hands
• Trouble focusing
• Trouble sleeping
• Wanting certain foods
• Getting angry easily

Many kids and teens worry about stress. They want to learn how to handle it. Parents want to help too.

What You Will Need

• Paper 1: My Body's Reaction to Stress (a checklist about your own feelings)
• Paper 2: Cold Hands, Fast Heart (information about how the body reacts to stress)

How the Activity Works

Step 1: Getting Started (10 minutes)

First, you will look at a picture of a cat and think about how cats react to stress. Has a dog ever run by a cat? What does the cat do? Cats don't think about it — their "fight or flight" response just happens.

Think about other animals too. Porcupines stick out their quills. Dogs growl. People have this same kind of automatic reaction built into their bodies.

Step 2: Exploring (15 minutes)

Fill out the checklist about your own body's reactions to stress. Then the class will put everyone's answers together into one bar graph.

Step 3: Learning Why (20 minutes)

Now you will read Paper 2 to learn why your body reacts this way. You will look at a picture of the brain and body parts involved: the hypothalamus, pituitary gland, and adrenal glands. You will review how these parts release the hormones epinephrine, norepinephrine, and cortisol, and how these hormones cause the "fight or flight" feelings.

Here is what happens in your body during stress:

• Cold hands: Stress hormones move blood away from your skin and toward your heart and muscles. This can make your hands feel cold.
• Trouble swallowing: Blood moves away from muscles, including the muscles in your throat. This can make swallowing feel hard.
• Feeling sick to your stomach: Cortisol slows down digestion (how your body breaks down food) but speeds up your digestive tract at the same time. This can make you feel nauseous (sick to your stomach).
• Dry mouth: Your body sends fluid to your organs instead of your mouth, so your mouth can feel dry.
• Fast heartbeat: Stress hormones make blood flow 3 to 4 times faster. Your heart beats faster to move all that blood around.
• Trouble focusing: Stress hormones affect your short-term memory so you can pay attention to the danger. This can make it hard to concentrate on other things.
• Headaches: Tight muscles in your head and neck, and blood vessels getting smaller, can cause headaches. This often happens with long-lasting stress.
• Trouble sleeping: Normally, your energy hormones go down at night, and a sleep hormone called serotonin goes up. But long-lasting stress keeps your energy hormones high, which blocks serotonin and makes it hard to sleep.
• Wanting certain foods: Some foods raise serotonin, which helps you feel better. This is why people sometimes crave sweets or snacks when stressed. (Remember: eating healthy food helps give you energy and fight stress too!)
• Getting angry easily: Stress can make you feel overwhelmed, which can make you lose patience and get upset more easily.

Understanding why your body reacts this way can help you feel less worried about it. It might even help the feelings go away faster. But remember — feeling stressed is never an excuse to be unkind to others or to skip your responsibilities.

You might also read a tip sheet called "Feeling Frazzled?" It gives 10 ideas for feeling less stressed.

Step 4: Going Further

If you have a computer, you can explore an activity called "Got Butterflies?" It reviews all the short-term and long-term stress signs and gives ideas for beating stress. If you don't have a computer, your teacher can print this out for you.

What You Will Be Graded On

Your teacher will check to see if you:

• Filled out your own checklist about stress reactions
• Can explain the "fight or flight" response in animals and people
• Helped make a bar graph using the class's information
• Thought about and explained your own stress reactions
• Learned how hormones affect the body during stress

Want to Learn More?

If you are curious about animal behavior, you can explore that topic further with your teacher.