You probably know the situation when you are before an exam, a meeting or a presentation. Your hands start shaking, your heart speeds up and your head occupies a lot of thoughts. This is stress - a natural organism's reaction to danger. Sometimes when short-term stress becomes long-term, instead of helping us, it can cause serious issues. Nowadays, an increasing number of people, especially young people, struggle with chronic stress and its effects. This article will illustrate how chronic stress affects your body and mental health and how these two are connected.
When Stress Never Switches Off
Let's imagine a person at 2 AM, they check their phone. The first thought race "what if I can't", "what if I am not as good as them". This is not the first night like this. It happened yesterday, a week ago, a month ago. It was like a nightmare which they can't wake up from. Thoughts of unfinished projects, unpaid bills and family problems were racing through their mind, contrasting sharply with the flawless lives of people on social media who always seemed to thrive. But stress like this doesn't stay only in the mind. It reaches deep into the body.
“Things that used to feel exciting turn into one more task on a list, and low mood can slide into something closer to depression.”
The Body Under Siege
Your body's built-in bodyguard is called cortisol - a hormone that gives you the focus and energy to push through when you're under threat. But when this bodyguard remains on duty too long, it starts destroying what it was meant to protect.
Before long, memory starts to fail – you have trouble remembering where you put your car keys or what someone said (a sign that the hippocampus, the brain's memory center, is struggling). Your brain is always in a state of readiness - it reacts to everyday stimuli as if it were a threat (a sign that the amygdala, the brain's fear center, is stuck on high alert). Emotions are getting out of hand, concentration difficulties creep in, and the capacity to think logically or make decisions starts to slip away (a sign that the prefrontal cortex, the brain's control center for judgment and decision-making, is losing its grip). But the influence of this guardian doesn't end with the brain. It can compromise the immune system. Chronic inflammation, slower wound healing and frequent infections become a daily reality. A body that can't defend itself can't rest, either. That's why chronic stress so often means trouble falling asleep, waking up in the middle of the night, or sleep that never feels deep enough.
And with less rest, the body has even less strength left to fight the next wave of stress.
