Stress: What It Does to Your Body and How to Manage It

What stress is

Stress is how your brain and body respond to a challenge or demand. When you are stressed, your body releases hormones — chemicals that travel in the bloodstream and control how parts of your body work. They make you alert and ready to act, raising your blood pressure, heart rate and blood glucose (blood sugar). This is sometimes called the "fight or flight" response. Everyone gets stressed now and then.

Stress can be short-term or long-term, and it can come from something that happens once or something that keeps happening. Not all stress is bad:

• It can help you survive danger: the jolt you feel when a car pulls out in front of you is a burst of hormones that helps you hit the brakes fast.
• A little short-term stress can help, too — a deadline at school or work may push you to finish on time, and the stress goes away once you do.

But stress that lasts a long time can harm your health.

Long-term stress

Long-term, or chronic, stress lasts weeks, months or longer. Your body acts as if you are under threat. Causes include:

• Routine stress from work, school, family needs, money problems and other pressures that don't stop.
• Stress from sudden, difficult changes, such as divorce, illness, losing your job or other unhappy events with lasting effects.
• Traumatic stress, when you are in danger of serious harm or death — a bad accident, a war, a flood, an earthquake or another frightening event. It can lead to a long-lasting problem called post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).

How it can harm your health

People respond to stress differently. If you are stressed for a long time, you may notice that you are:

• getting sick more often, because stress weakens your body's ability to fight germs;
• having stomach problems or trouble digesting food;
• having trouble sleeping;
• having headaches;
• feeling sad, angry or easily upset.

When stress keeps going, your body acts as if you are always in danger. That strain may play a part in serious health problems, including depression, anxiety, heart disease, high blood pressure and diabetes. You can get used to the symptoms and not realize there's a problem — so when there is a lot of stress in your life, pay attention to how it affects you.

Managing long-term stress

Simple things that improve mental health may help:

• Exercise regularly. A 30-minute daily walk can help you feel better and keep your immune system strong.
• Try relaxing activities — for example an app or wellness program with breathing, meditation or muscle relaxation exercises.
• Get enough sleep every night.
• Avoid too much caffeine.
• Decide what needs doing now and what can wait, and focus on what you got done each day, not on what you didn't.
• Ask family or friends for support.

When to get help

See your health care provider if you have severe symptoms for 2 weeks or more, including:

• trouble sleeping;
• changes in eating that cause unwanted weight changes;
• trouble getting out of bed because of your mood;
• difficulty focusing your thoughts;
• losing interest in things you usually enjoy;
• being unable to do your usual daily activities.

Always get help right away if stress is causing you to have thoughts of suicide, feel you can't cope, or use drugs or alcohol more than usual. Your provider may refer you to a mental health professional, such as a psychologist or social worker.

If you or someone you know is thinking about suicide, call or text 988 to reach the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline in the United States.

Sources

Based on "Stress," MedlinePlus, U.S. National Library of Medicine, from the National Institute of Mental Health (NIH); a work of the United States government in the public domain.