What is the difference between chronic and acute stress

Practicing Yoga to Enjoy a Perfect You. How can I manage stress? Manuel Villacorta. Stress hormones, such as cortisol and adrenaline, are released in our bodies which bring on the physical effects that we all recognise:.

In addition to the physical fight or flight response, when we experience a stressful situation we also have a mental and emotional response. Depending on the severity of the stress, we may notice a change in our feelings, our thoughts and find that our responses may be out of character. As described above, the difference between acute and chronic stress can be the length of time or frequency with which we are exposed to an experience or situation we find stressful.

Acute being the short-term stresses that occur during our daily existence; and chronic being unrelenting stress which we continue to experience over a prolonged period of time. The following examples illustrate how an acute stress may be a standalone event or could, in time, turn into chronic stress.

The fight or flight response goes back to our primitive existence when we had to hunt for food and be alert to predators. It's worth remembering that our bodies were, and are, built to face acute stressors followed by a period of recovery. Sadly, many of us have forgotten this and rush from experiencing one bout of acute stress onto our next goal, which may bring about further stress.

So, after an experience we have personally found stressful, it is worth remembering:. We deliver many stress management courses each year and have training designed for everyone in the workplace. You can find out more about the courses we offer here.

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This means that every time you visit this website you will need to enable or disable cookies again. More information about our Privacy Policy. Acute stress is short-term stress. Chronic stress is long-term stress. However if you are a bus driver or a cop and you get stuck in numerous traffic jams every day, or if you are in a bad relationship and you argue with your spouse constantly, or you work for a toxic boss, or you live in a high crime neighborhood and break-ins are relatively common, all the examples of acute stress I cited above can potentially transform into examples of chronic stress.

The body is good at handling acute episodes of stress. We are designed to recover quickly from short-term stress. Your blood pressure, heart rate , breathing rate and levels of muscle tension may skyrocket for a short while, but - for most people, these markers of stress quickly revert back to their normal pre-stressful event levels. In other words, chronic stress creates a new normal inside your body.

And this new normal can eventually lead to a host of health problems including heart disease, diabetes, chronic pain, high blood pressure and depression.