Untreated stress can turn into a mental illness such as an anxiety disorder or depression. Almost everyone experiences some anxiety. This is normal. However, an anxiety disorder is different from everyday anxiety – it is more severe, can persist and may interfere with a person's daily life.
Stress that's left unchecked can contribute to many health problems, such as high blood pressure, heart disease, obesity and diabetes.
Stress affects our nervous system, causing us to feel tense. When our muscles are tense for a long period of time, it can lead to painful muscle spasms. Essentially, the stress is causing you even more pain, which creates more stress. Stress also increases anxiety and depression, which worsen perception of pain.
Chronic stress is the most harmful type of stress. If chronic stress is left untreated over a long period of time, it can significantly and often irreversibly damage your physical health and deteriorate your mental health.
Red flags indicating a potential problem include: changes in eating habits, difficulty falling asleep or staying asleep, significant mood changes including depression, anxiety, panic or anger, demonstrating violent behaviors or utilizing alcohol, marijuana or prescription drugs to deal with stress.
For example, your doctor might offer to prescribe: Sleeping pills or minor tranquillisers, if you're having trouble sleeping. Antidepressants, if you're experiencing depression or anxiety alongside stress. Medication to treat any physical symptoms of stress, such as irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) or high blood pressure.
Toxic stress response:
This is the body's response to lasting and serious stress, without enough support from a caregiver. When a child doesn't get the help he needs, his body can't turn off the stress response normally. This lasting stress can harm a child's body and brain and can cause lifelong health problems.
Strategies to recover from chronic stress can include practicing mindfulness activities such as meditation and breathing exercises. People can also have a support system composed of family and friends, as well as a counselor or a psychiatrist if needed. A psychiatrist can prescribe medication to reduce stress.
Emotional stress can cause you to have intense, disruptive, and continuous feelings of dread, fear, and sadness. These feelings can compound your stress, making symptoms worse.
We may feel toxic stress when we face strong, frequent, or prolonged challenges. These can include abuse, neglect, violence, or substance use in the home. These experiences can trigger our body's stress response. This response floods our body with "fight or flight" chemicals.
feel overwhelmed — unable to concentrate or make decisions. be moody — feeling low or depression; feeling burnt out; emotional outbursts of uncontrollable anger, fear, helplessness or crying. feel depersonalised — not feeling like themselves or feeling detached from situations.
Some of the sneaky signs of high-functioning anxiety include: Being a “people pleaser,” never wanting to let others down, even at your own expense. Overthinking everything. Procrastination followed by periods of “crunch-time” work.
Stress is not normally considered a mental health problem. But it is connected to our mental health in several ways: Stress can cause mental health problems. And it can make existing problems worse.
Chronicfatigue, tiredness, and lack of energy.
"When the body cannot handle emotional overload, it simply begins to shut down. And that is often manifested by a sense of extreme tiredness and fatigue," says Kalayjian.
Stress that is characterized as negative is referred to as distress. Examples of common negative stressors are relationship problems, unemployment and injury. When something distresses you, it can lead to feelings of hopelessness about the situation.
Stress affects not only memory and many other brain functions, like mood and anxiety, but also promotes inflammation, which adversely affects heart health, says Jill Goldstein, a professor of psychiatry and medicine at Harvard Medical School.