Q.Describe the GAS model and illustrate the relevance of this model with the help of an example.

The Intuition: Your Body's Alarm System

Think about the last time you had a genuinely stressful day — maybe an exam you hadn't prepared for, a sudden deadline, or a confrontation. Your heart pounded, your palms got sweaty, your breathing quickened. That's your body's emergency response kicking in. But what happens if that stress doesn't go away? What if the exam stress lasts for weeks, or the deadline keeps getting extended?

Your body can't stay in full emergency mode forever. It would exhaust itself. So it goes through a predictable three-stage process to cope with prolonged stress. That process is what Hans Selye called the General Adaptation Syndrome (GAS) .

The Precise Statement

General Adaptation Syndrome is a three-stage physiological response that the body undergoes when exposed to stress — any stress, whether physical (injury, cold), psychological (anxiety, pressure), or social (conflict). The three stages are:

1. Alarm Reaction
2. Resistance
3. Exhaustion

Let's walk through each one.

Stage 1: Alarm Reaction

This is the immediate "fight-or-flight" response. When you first encounter a stressor, your hypothalamus activates the sympathetic nervous system. Adrenaline and noradrenaline surge. Your heart rate and blood pressure rise, pupils dilate, digestion slows, and blood is diverted to muscles.

At this point, your resistance to the stressor is actually below normal for a brief moment (the shock phase), then shoots up above normal as the body fights back.

Stage 2: Resistance

If the stressor persists beyond the initial alarm, the body cannot maintain the full fight-or-flight state. It settles into a resistance stage. Here, the body adapts to the ongoing stressor. The initial dramatic symptoms (racing heart, sweating) subside. Hormone levels — particularly cortisol from the adrenal cortex — remain elevated, but the body appears to function normally.

This stage can last for days, weeks, or even months. The body is essentially running on a "war economy" — it works, but at a cost.

Stage 3: Exhaustion

The body's resources are finite. If the stressor continues long enough, the body can no longer sustain the resistance stage. The elevated cortisol levels, the constant metabolic demand, the diverted energy — it all takes a toll. The body enters exhaustion.

In this stage, the body's ability to resist the stressor collapses. The symptoms of the alarm reaction may reappear, but now the body cannot mount an effective response. This is where stress-related illnesses emerge: ulcers, hypertension, weakened immune function, and in extreme cases, organ failure or death.

A Visual Summary

Why This Matters

Selye's model was revolutionary because it showed that stress is not just a psychological phenomenon — it has a measurable, predictable physiological trajectory. It also explains why chronic stress is dangerous: not because the initial stressor is unbearable, but because the body's adaptive capacity is finite.

The General Adaptation Syndrome is the foundation for understanding stress-related disorders, burnout, and the importance of recovery periods — whether that's sleep, breaks, or simply removing the stressor before exhaustion sets in.