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The Stress Response. Your body's fire alarm.
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The Stress Response
Your body's fire alarm
The body's automatic reaction to danger, real or imagined.
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When you sense danger, your body floods with cortisol. Your heart races. Digestion stops. Blood flows to your muscles. This response evolved to help you escape predators. It triggers the same way before a maths exam. Your body cannot tell the difference between a tiger and a test.
- The response is called "fight, flight, or freeze." All three are automatic. You do not choose which one happens.
- The alarm is useful in real danger. In a classroom, it needs to be recognised and managed.
SourceSelye, The Stress of Life (1956)
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Because you read The Stress Response.
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Sleep
The brain's nightly reset
The nightly period when the brain repairs and files what it learned.
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Vaccination
Training the army before the war
A safe preview of a disease that teaches the body to fight it.
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First Aid: Burns
Cool water, not butter
The first care given to a burn, before any doctor is involved.
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