Stress: The Drama Queen Living in Your Nervous System

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Stress: The Drama Queen Living in Your Nervous System

By Lena Robin Berchielli

 When Your Brain Hits the Panic Button 

Imagine, you’re lying in bed, finally ready to relax, and suddenly your brain decides it’s the perfect time to replay that moment today when you froze in front of all your colleagues. You knew the presentation and topic backwards and forwards, yet nothing was coming out of your mouth. Within seconds your heart speeds up, your stomach feels unsettled, and you’re wide awake. That is stress, and it’s not just mental. It is a full-body event.

Meet Your Internal Alarm System

Your body has its own emergency hotline: the HPA axis, the hypothalamus–pituitary–adrenal system. Don’t worry, there’s no quiz at the end. Here’s the gist:

• Hypothalamus: Think of it as your body’s “panic button operator.” It notices trouble (real or imagined) and calls in backup.
• Pituitary gland: This is the dispatcher, relaying the emergency call.
• Adrenal glands: These are the action heroes, releasing adrenaline and cortisol.

Adrenaline gives you that jittery “I could probably lift a car” energy. Cortisol is like coffee for your organs, it keeps you alert, raises your blood pressure, and redirects resources to your muscles so you’re ready to fight, flee or freeze.

This system works beautifully when you’re running from, say, a bear. The problem? Your HPA axis doesn’t know the difference between a bear and an email from your boss. To your body, stress is stress.

When the Alarm Won’t Shut Off

In theory, once the “threat” is gone, the system should power down. But modern life is full of constant alerts: deadlines, bills, traffic, news notifications, and that one group chat that never ends. Instead of turning off, your alarm system gets stuck in the “on” position.

And, when it’s stuck, things get messy:

• Muscles tense up as if you’re bracing for impact, which is why your shoulders feel like concrete.
• Digestion slows down (because who needs lunch when you’re “running from a bear”?).
• Immunity weakens, leaving you more likely to catch colds. And, yes I do every time!
• Memory fogs up because cortisol shrinks the hippocampus, the brain’s memory HQ. So yes, stress literally makes you forget why you walked into the kitchen.

The Stress/Body Loop

Here’s the kicker: your brain and body talk in circles. When your muscles are tense, they send signals back up to your brain that danger is still present. That keeps the whole system running. It’s like a car alarm that won’t shut off even though the break-in was just a gust of wind.

Resetting Your Buttons

Here’s the good news: you have built-in reset buttons. Using them helps you sleep better, think more clearly, strengthen your immune system, and stop feeling like a frazzled squirrel.

Practical resets:

• Deep breathing: Slow inhales and exhales tell      your nervous system, “False alarm, we’re safe.”
• Movement: A brisk walk, stretch, or dance      to your favorite song burns off leftover adrenaline.
• Laughter: It’s basically a stress      exorcism. Plus, it confuses your brain into releasing happy chemicals.
• Writing things down: When you put your worries on      paper, your brain can finally clock out for the day.

Each of these is like hitting “control-alt-delete” on your nervous system.

From Survival Mode to Thriving

Stress isn’t going away, unless you plan to move to a deserted island with no Wi-Fi (even then, coconuts can be stressful). However, when you understand how stress hijacks your body, you can stop, be aware and then outsmart it. With small daily resets, you shift from survival mode to actually enjoying life.

So the next time your heart races over a meeting or your jaw clenches in traffic, remember: you’re not broken. You’re just running pre-internet (yep, there was once a time without it) survival software. And, the reset button is already in your hands, you just need to press it.

Lena Robin Berchielli is a dynamic and versatile communications strategist who has achieved continued success by helping individuals, executives, professionals, writers, and creatives meet their goals. With a keen ability to interpret messages and tailor them to fit the target audience and platform, Lena excels in crafting communication strategies that resonate and achieve results. Her favorite topics to write on are wellness and healthcare, education and advocacy, non-profit, conservation, and entertainment. And, in her spare time she writes science thriller novels.