The Flight Instinct and Chronic Diseases - Part 2: Modern Working Life

How being overly busy and taking on too much responsibility can result in symptoms.

New readers: as this is an area where you need to read all the posts to see the connection to chronic diseases, please start here:

Can you think yourself into a Chronic Disease?

The subject started here, and we continue with the below.

The Fight Instinct, and how it Influences Chronic diseases

Flight and Modern Working Life

We have seen how being fearful or chronically stressed can cause unwanted symptoms, such as mood swings, stomach pains, headaches, etc.

But what about a “normal” busy life? Children, job, career, marriage, friends, and social life. Can being overly busy, and taking on too much responsibility, without time to relax or rest, cause illness?

Yes, in so many ways. In this post, I will cover the dimensions of a heavy schedule and multitasking.

Of course, you can always find examples of people that have no problems [yet] in regard to being busy. But there is a reason why most countries have a fixed retirement age, and remember there are very few people who are 90 years old, with a tight schedule and a busy life. We accept that there are natural reasons for us slowing down as we age. Sooner or later people learn to slow down, or they simply get caught in diseases if they do not connect the dots.

So the effects of being overly busy will affect different people at different stages and ages. Some people manifest symptoms at an early age and some later. Remember it is you, your history, and your lifestyle which is important. It can be unhealthy food and lack of exercise that undermine your foundations of health. I find that most people with chronic conditions have a good knowledge of these aspects, and there are a ton of websites that are ready to help you with them.

However, not so many people are aware of the connection between stress and symptoms, including “self-imposed” stress by being overly busy, or taking on too much responsibility, and not carving out time to rest and relax.

Our brain and body are interconnected 100%.

Being overly busy is a manifestation of the flight instinct, but also putting pressure on ourselves can trigger the body into the flight response.

1. You can become fearful of losing a deadline and your body pushes you into the flight instinct, so you become restless and want to move on. (The deadline can be a mother fetching her child from childcare or school in due time)

2. You can be running around with a tight schedule, and the stress gives your body the necessary dopamine/adrenaline kick to be able to do this.

3. You can be multitasking, trying to keep many plates spinning in the air at once, and push and be pushed by the same flight mechanism regardless if you are sitting still or not (constantly “fleeing” from one task to another).

4. You or your manager have high standards on how perfect a task must be done

The result on the body is the same:

1. Pushing yourself generates dopamine, which feels very good at the moment;

2. a release of blood sugar into the bloodstream gives the muscles more energy and room for persistence;

3. a blood pressure increase, that can meet the demand for high nutrients in the muscles;

4. focused eye vision,

5. and mind focussing on the goal.

As long as you are young, have breaks, or have a calm mindset you can properly get back to the calm state again, where dopamine finds a neutral breakdown product¹, where “rest and digest” are giving your body time to restore any consequences of this boost of energy.

But you probably do not know the limit of this capacity. So as you age you just continue your physical and mental speed and high/fast performance, get children, get promoted, with more responsibilities, or find out that your capabilities are not enough for this job and get doubtfully or fearful in moments.

One day it is too much for your body the above list becomes instead:

1. Dopamine again and again breaks down into adrenaline that drives your stress and symptoms,

2. blood sugar can not be kept down and you get prediabetic,

3. high blood pressure, that cannot easily be under control,

4. tunnel vision, which causes you to oversee details and miss out on the former creativity of your job,

5. a forgetful mind, easily distracted - or a headache,

6. several symptoms flair up as a sign of stress > a diagnosis is on the horizon, if you do not connect the dots to your stress. ( Eventually, see the post about symptoms).

   Symptoms As Alarm Calls from the Inside

Continue the list of your own experience of stress symptoms yourself, or get inspiration from this list with 50 symptoms of stress from a stress organization. Notice the significant overlap with e.g. Parkinson’s symptoms (and join my Facebook group while you are there).

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If you want to support me and

Gary Sharpe

, the Member’a Area (above button) is a way with a monthly payment of $16, and can also be a gift for a loved one with a disease or who is stressed. It has taken Gary 7 years of his own struggles and life experience. It has taken me 5 years of experimenting with clients and test cases, researching survivor stories, and studying to acquire this knowledge. We need to find out if this knowledge is welcome in the world (and we need to start employing people so that we can make more content and help more people.)

1. Dopamine has numerous breakdown products. We need science connection between dopamine and fight-flight-freeze instincts, and the symptoms that follow.

Please share if you have found relevant articles. We need to connect the symptoms associated with each of these pathways, especially freeze in all its myriad forms, to complete the picture.

Here you see 5 breakdown products, but there are many more.
Note: Epinephrine=adrenaline