MARRIAGE AND TYPE A PERSONALITIES: STRESS REACTIONS
All humans react to stressful events with the activation of the sympathetic or emergency branch of the autonomic nervous system. This sympathetic activity causes a burst of adrenaline and other substances into the body, resulting in the body's kicking into overdrive in preparation for dealing with a stressor. This overdrive prepares the body for fight or flight. It results in various physical and psychological reactions such as increased heart rate, elevated blood pressure, increased muscular tension, and narrowing of psychological focus to the cause of the stress reaction.
To prevent a physiological blowout from continuous activation of this emergency reaction, the autonomic nervous system next switches on the parasympathetic (or calming) branch. This reaction calms and soothes by shutting down the fight-or-flight reaction.
A fascinating and profoundly important point of contemporary research on Type A reactivity is that, when faced with a stressor, Type A personalities evidence an exaggerated autonomic nervous system alarm reaction and an impoverished calming reaction.
In stressful situations, in other words, Type A's secrete more adrenaline and experience greater increases in heart rate and blood pressure than Type B's. Type B's, on the other hand, evidence more prolonged and more effective calming-branch autonomic nervous system reactions. No wonder Type A's overreact and find it so difficult to remain cool, calm, and collected during stressful times; they are working with a physiological handicap! This is a vital fact to remember about Type A behavior. This fact is often overlooked in the private struggles of married couples. One of my type A patients lamented:
"My wife, who's the original mellow Earth Mother, just doesn't understand that I can't always help reacting like I do. We can go on a picnic with our kids, and all the way to the park I can remind myself to just cool it, relax, and enjoy being with my family. But when one of the kids spills his drink, or skins his knees playing, or has any of the little emergencies that I know will happen, my first reactions are likely to be overreactions. I just get this burst of tension and urgency inside me that I know my wife doesn't experience. I'm getting better at calming down faster, but I swear I can't seem to control that initial burst!"
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