Hans Selye’s Three Stage Approach To Stress

During the 1950’s, Dr. Selye devised a three-stage theory of stress, which he called the General Adaptation Syndrome (GAS). According to Selye, there are three stages a person passes through when experiencing a stressful event – Alarm, Resistance and Exhaustion. He termed our response to a stressful event ‘Fight or Flight’. We will refer to the fight or flight response a little later.

We will demonstrate GAS by means of the following incident. Imagine that you are on holiday on a beautiful tropical island. You have been relaxing in the sun, and decide it is time to cool off. As you enter the lukewarm water you suddenly become aware of a fin of a shark heading in your direction.

Click here to view a video on Hans Selye's General Adaption Syndrome and the HPA Axis: Exploring the Connection.

Three Stage Approach to Stress

According to the GAS approach, the following will happen:

Stage One: Alarm Reaction

This stage is divided into two phases, namely shock and counter-shock phase.

Shock phase: The sight of the shark fins has the following effect on your biology: our body temperature and blood pressure both drop, your heartbeat quickens, and your muscles go weak.

Counter-shock phase: During the second half of this phase your body begins to mobilise its resources. For example: Your brain’s hypothalamus and pituitary glands secrete hormones that tell the adrenal gland to release adrenalin. Your body goes onto red alert and the following happens:

• Your heart rate and blood pressure increase dramatically.
• Blood vessels close to the skin constrict, shortening clotting time to prevent severe bleeding from wounds.
• Your lungs are stimulated to make you breathe faster which helps you to become more alert.
• Your liver releases sugar to provide you with more energy.
• Blood flows away from your digestive organs to your muscles causing your digestion to shut down.
• Your immune system shuts down.
• Your muscles become tense to prepare you to flee.

Stage Two: Resistance

During this stage your body is fully mobilised. Both your mind and body work closely together to get out of danger. Your concentration is one hundred percent focussed on swimming to safety. You reach the shore safely but feel tired. Your mind and body have served you well. After some time, you will be your old self again.

Stage Three: Exhaustion

However, when a stressful event is severe enough and prolonged enough your symptoms (just mentioned) will reappear and eventually your body will give in to the intolerable demands made on it. If for argument’s sake you were to experience the incident with the shark on a daily/continuous basis, this continued exposure to stress will lead to exhaustion and eventually death if the shark does not get you first.

The GAS reaction is normally very effective if you are in some physical danger – a shark or person is about to attack you – and you need to get out of danger quickly. However, the ‘fight or flight’ response described above manifests itself very differently in our day-to-day life. In modern society we do not have to be concerned about fleeing from sharks, tigers and other dangerous animals; instead, we experience chronic psycho-social stressors such as work deadlines, financial problems, marriage problems, the loss of self-esteem and so on. These situations are hardly life threatening. The problem is that your body is unable to differentiate between being attacked by a shark, a knife-wielding individual or negative feedback from your boss. The stress response remains the same. Negative feedback from your boss may leave your body in a high state of arousal without any form of outlet. Physical activity for example such as fleeing from physical danger allows an outlet for excess energy that has accumulated. Conflict in the office on the other hand leads to excess energy that has nowhere to go – your stress hormones go around and round in your system. Prolonged stress can eventually damage the function of organs such as the heart or the kidneys.