Stress Reactivity

I'm quoting, instead of reflecting...

"There are two kinds of stress: acute and chronic. An acute stressor is one that happens suddenly and is over with quickly. You experience an acute stress response when you are in sudden danger. When stress is chronic, the stress keeps coming instead of being resolved. A chronic stressor is a problem that doesn't change much over the short term, like not making enough money to support yourself and your family."

"Cortisol is the hormone most closely associated with stress. Normally, as soon as the amount of cortisol in your body gets to a certain level, another system kicks in to shut down the stress response. However, the shutdown system doesn't always work properly. It could be that you have inherited a shutdown system that takes longer to engage. You may always have been the kind of person who takes a long time to get over being upset. If the shutdown system doesn't work properly, our bodies keep releasing cortisol. After a few days of having a lot of cortisol in our system, we begin to feel tired, helpless, and depressed." Whiffen in a secret sadness