If whatever caused the initial stress continues, however, the body's ability to adapt to the stress becomes exhausted. It shuts down.
Unlike our ancestors, who faced intermittent acute stressors,such as the threat of predators or starvation, our highly-pressured, fast-paced world imposes chronic, prolonged stress. even though our stress response may be less acute than that of our ancestors, the fact that it is happening continuously may make the consequences even worse. experts generally agree that the stresses of contemporary society and the resultant diseases - of the body, the mind and the spirit- are very much a product of our industrialised culture and 'unnatural' style of living. the artificial pressures and stresses of a modern technological society exhaust our built-in survival mechanisms and overwhelm us. we have become socially and culturally conditioned to suppress and thwart our most natural responses. more stress hormones are being released into our blood than we can possibly use.