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Title: Understanding the Mental Process of Thoughts and Emotions Author: Tim Birmingham
Chapter 4 Stress Response One thing for certain when dealing with conflict or combat one will have a stress response. This response can be the result of fear and or pain. The level of stress that one experiences in conflict will depend on one’s individual perception of the threat itself and the individuals experience, conditioning, and ability to handle the stress itself. The inexperienced warrior may perceive a threat and have a massive chemical dump of adrenaline, while the experienced warrior in the same situation will have only a minimal dump. All is dependant upon the degree of alarm that is interpreted inside the mind. The chemical dump is activated once the sensory organs interpret threat or danger. The brain/mind connection begins to speed things up internally in preparation for the fight and flight response. This response is generally automatic and non-controllable. The heart rate of an individual can go from a normal 70 beats per minute to well over 200 bps min less than a second. Generally speaking the higher the heart rate the less control one has over oneself and the greater the deterioration of skills. In fact the generally response of high stress, will result in one fighting blindly by aggression or one running away from threat and danger. Along with the increased heart beat comes increased respiration rate.
 Look at what happens to the body and mind as the affects of stress are allowed to take control. 60-80 Beat Per Minute (BPM) is normal heart rate. 110-145 BPM is the rate of the most optimum performance. Over 150 BPM Irrational and animalistic behavior is present. Other Affects 115 BPM - deterioration of fine complex motor skills, hand eye coordination. 145 BPM - deterioration complex motor skills (muscles working together) 175 BPM - tunnel vision and hearing, deterioration or loss of depth perception Over 175 BPM - deterioration of the remainder of assets. One can go totally into a closed loop and do things that are not affective and totally not practical. Such as fighting back with one’s eyes closed.
Affects as it Relates to Combat Preparedness Most experienced as well as inexperienced persons understand that when we face danger or threat, the rate of the heart will dramatically increase. We feel this along with an increase in respiration. What most instructors of h2h combat seem to miss is that fact that with this increase comes a deterioration of skills. The times of high stress one will only have basic large muscle groups or motor skills. This means that the fancy and complex movements that are often times taught have no place and are of no use in times of high stress and danger. For the average civilian, the analytic mind is not present and one is operating at a greatly diminished mental capacity. This is not to say that proper training and conditioning will not help, but in reality, life threatening events cause the majority of individuals to operate at such a diminished state that they can only fight back wildly. This is a direct result of the stress response. Later chapters on mental skills will guide one through developing their personal stress response and hopefully bringing the body and mind to the most optimum state, which will greatly increase the odds of surviving.
Fear Fear is a natural emotion and/or stressor that is instilled within our minds to warn and prepare us for threatening or dangerous situations. To some degree fear is present in each and every individual and is an essential part to one’s survival mechanism. Fear affects both mind and body and is present when our senses receive information and our mind determines through past experience (or lack thereof), or conditioning and/or genetics concludes the treat/danger is present. It can range from a brief sensation to a every present feeling. It can result in varying degrees from a tingling sensation to overwhelming and being froze in time. There are two primary types of fears rational and irrational. Rational fears are important part of ones internal alarm that warns and protect us from danger. Irrational fears are those uncontrolled fears, phobias or extreme anxieties that does little but steal us from living a quality life. This type of fear is present when no immediate threat or danger is present and one becomes distressed by his own imaginings and anticipations. It leads to regression and intellectual paralysis. Fear can be from the past whereas the mind/brain, which is responsible for associating incoming information with past experience, determines that threat or danger is present or emanate. Fear can be of the present when incoming information is something that the mind and body are not accustomed to, the mind has no information to cross reference the stimulus. The interpretation will result in fear stimulating the fight and flight response. As with all thing fear can be a good thing or fear can be a terrible thing it all depends on ones emotional state, genetics and or conditioning. Pain Pain is an uncomfortable feeling that tells one something may be wrong in your body. Pain is the bodies way of sending a warning to your brain. Your spinal cord and nerves provide the pathway for messages to travel to and from your brain and the other parts of your body. Receptor nerves in and beneath your skin sense heat, cold, light, touch, pressure, and pain. You have thousands of these receptor cells, most sense pain and the fewest sense cold. When there is an injury to your body these tiny cells send messages along nerves into your spinal cord and then up to your brain. Scientifically pain can be divided into three different types, Nociception, Inflammation, and Neuropathy however for the purpose of preparedness our focus is toward Nociception. It is an immediate response sent to the brain, signaling tissue injury. Example a punch to the face. Pain receptors pick up the sensation of pain and are free nerve ending which are mechanical, chemical and/or thermally activated. The nociceptors are stimulated and signals are transmitted through neurons along the spinal cord, relaying from one neuron to another. These signal then arrive at the brain (thalamus) where perception is concluded. Then the signal travels to the neocortex at which point one acknowledges that pain is present. Fear and pain both travel along these routes and as they are interpreted and the degree of the interpretation determines the internal chemical (hormonal) response.
As illustrated the pain signal arrives at certain parts of the brain. As earlier explained it travels along the spinal cord to the brain. Once it reaches the brain in can filter the affects of the incoming brain signal by the production of hormones which are morphine like (strong pain killer medicine) in nature. The brain controls the degree of response to pain. For example a seasoned soldier who is wounded in combat will generally have less of a severe response than a inexperienced civilian. The association of past experience seem to be the difference in one's response to pain. Endorphins are chemicals produced by the brain in response to varying stimuli and are said by some to be natures cure for high stress levels. They are among the brains chemicals, which function in the transmission of signal within the nervous system. Many type of endorphins exist and stress and pain are leading factors that stimulate the release of these chemicals. Endorphins interact with the opiate receptors in the brain to reduce our perception of pain, having a similar action to drugs such as morphine and codeine. Endorphins are very power, as much as 100 times more powerful that the drug morphine and is a natural high. This stimulant contributes or is the leading cause of one feeling little or pain during extreme physical exertion and is directly related to one's individual pain threshold.
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