“The number one root of all illness, as we know, is stress.”
– Marianne Williamson
Stress is the natural response of our body to challenging situation. This can be a good thing. Eustress, positive stress helps us to be alert, focused, and motivated for the task at hand. However, when stress grows out of control it becomes chronic, i.e. lasting weeks into months where it can have a severe impact on our health.
Chronic stress is characterized by a prolonged and continuous form of stress that can be caused by various factors such as job pressure, financial problems, family issues, and chronic illness. In this post, we will discuss how chronic stress affects a few of the body’s major systems and what you can do to better manage it.
The Cardiovascular System
Chronic stress can have a significant impact on your cardiovascular system. It can increase your heart rate and blood pressure, which over time can lead to hypertension, heart attack, and stroke. The stress hormone cortisol can also cause inflammation in your blood vessels, which can further increase the risk of heart disease.
In some cases, prolonged or severe stress can lead to stress-induced cardiomyopathy, also known as “broken heart syndrome,” where the heart temporarily weakens and enlarges mimicking a heart attack.
The Digestive System
Stress affects your digestive system in various ways. When you experience stress it puts your body into a fight or flight state, effectively turning off all nonessential bodily functions like the desire to eat. It can cause acid reflux, stomach ulcers, irritable bowel syndrome (IBS), and even inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) in most serious cases.
The Immune System
Chronic stress can weaken your immune system, making you more susceptible to infections and diseases. The stress hormone cortisol can suppress the production of white blood cells, which are responsible for fighting infections.
Chronic stress can contribute to chronic inflammation, a key factor in the development and progression of many diseases.
Mental Health
Chronic stress can have a severe impact on your mental health. The drain stress takes on your mental state is exhausting. When left unattended stress can multiply into deeper states of internal unrest like burnout.
In some cases, stress can lead to anxiety, depression, and insomnia. Which can grow to affect your cognitive function, memory, and decision-making ability. Taking back control of your own mind and finding the confidence to heal and push past the mental blocks that keep you locked in a cycle of self-neglect can be difficult.
Unmanaged stress deteriorates us from the inside out. Robbing us of our passion, motivation, creativity, and focus. Mentally draining us until we feel lost and numb.
Managing Chronic Stress
Managing chronic stress is essential for your physical and mental well-being. There is not one way to treat it, nor is it likely you can completely get rid of stress. Instead learning how to manage your stress so it doesn’t balloon into a chronic state, and reducing your reaction time to stressors will help you feel more balanced and in control. Developing personal practices that help you healthily move through the stress and get on the other side of it and into a state of purposeful productivity helps to mitigate the negative effects. Over time you can learn to make that process go faster to the point where stress no longer feels debilitating.
I have found it’s the little things that make the most impact, as over time they stack up a defense line. One change alone may not do much, but adding 3-4 different methods together and you stand a fighting chance at protecting yourself. Going back to basics is a good place to start. A general overview of the most common ways people deal with stress. From there, begin experimenting to find ways that are more personally impactful to you. Here are a few basic tips that can help support your well-being:
Uncover your triggers – Take notice of the days, times, people, or events that cause you to feel stress. Avoidance isn’t the key here. Rather, by noticing when your stress spikes you can better prepare for that reaction, and get to the bottom of Why you feel stressed to begin with. By knowing “Why” you can begin to learn “How” to deflate your stress reaction.
Movement – It is common knowledge that exercise and movement has a profoundly positive impact on your mental state. From a boost of happy endorphins to the lowering of the stress hormone cortisol, moving your body is the biological cheat code to feeling better from the inside out. An important thing to note would be to choose movement that brings you joy. Powerlifting or yoga isn’t for everyone. Find something that feels like fun, you’re more likely to stick to it.
Get Proper Sleep – We often underestimate the importance of sleep. But sleep is the optimal time for the body to heal and repair. It seems when we are stressed many of us fall into one or two categories: Getting too much sleep or not enough to the point where it has a name, “Revenge bedtime procrastination.” The act of intentionally delaying sleep to engage in leisure or other activities, often as a reaction to a lack of free time or stress during the day. This habit can lead to negative health consequences when we doom scroll all night till our eyes become bleary. Do yourself a favor and pay more attention to your sleep habits.
Get Perspective – We are the main character in our own stories, the protagonist fighting the dragons of the world. But when we give those dragons too much power we lose the important perspective that we are in fact the ones in control of it all. Not that we have total control of our lives, natural disasters and our inability to read people’s minds are great examples of that. Rather, we control our reaction to things, most importantly, stress. Stress is just a state of being produced by a series of chemical reactions in your body to your response to an event. Take away your intense reaction and you remove the intense response. Not every bad thing that happens in life is a dragon, recover your ability to have perspective to control your reaction to a problem. Often times we overinflate problems, and under-value our ability to handle them. You’re more capable than you think.
Build A Support Structure – Life was not meant to be lived alone or uninspired, just ask Adam in the Garden of Eden. People make an impact on your life, and thankfully, * for the most part, you get to choose who is allowed in it. Choose people that lift you up, not everyone has to be your friend. Find little ways to add joy back in, glimmers of hope that remind you that life is an adventure. Not everything has to be perfect for you to feel purpose and peace. Joy can be found in the journey and stress need not dictate how much joy you get to have. Build the life you desire, and support it on every side with good things, even if they are as simple as your favorite face mask.
Ultimately the way chronic stress affects the body is personal. We each have different experiences and road blocks that can make it more difficult including:
- Having an existing health condition, like PCOS
- Poor internal and external boundaries
- Living far away from family or friends, or having difficult relationships with them
- Feeling guilt while resting
These barriers need not keep us from living a life of balance, peace, and purpose. As long as you are breathing you have another opportunity to change your life. You just have to figure out if the actions you are taking now are moving you in the direction you want to go.
Here at Willow Tree Therapeutics it is believed that wellness is the foundation of a good life, all it takes is a runny nose and a cough to remind you of that. A healthy body, strong mind, and peaceful spirit is what we all deserve. Let this post be a reminder that you are worthy of those three things, but it needs to start with you choosing to believe it.
Final Notes
Chronic stress is the silent epidemic taking over our world. We’ve created a culture of productivity at all costs we forget the possible severe implications that has on your health. Feeling the joy being sucked out of your favorite activities, becoming tired and burnt-out, lacking the motivation to perform your hygiene let alone your self-care. Struggling to find enjoyment in the company of those around you and instead squirreling yourself away to ruminate on your stress-filled thoughts. There are so many intimate ways stress wreaks havoc on your life.
The guilt associated with seeking something as simple as rest, is astounding. But learning to overcome that inner critic and start taking the steps to find yourself again is worth the discomfort of new beginnings. Rest is a necessity, there is not harm in slowing down and finding the right path and the right pace for your goals.
As WTT is a faith-based business, as such we believe God is the truest, most unbending source of peace. He doesn’t get tired, there is nothing you can do to annoy Him. Like any good father He wants only the best for you. Knowing you have the ultimate cheerleader at your side if you want Him, is unlike any confidence boost this world could provide.
“So do not fear, for I am with you; do not be dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you and help you; I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.”
-Isaiah 41:10
I welcome you to the newsletter community as an easy way to kickstart those baby steps toward reprioritizing your needs again. It will take time to relearn how to invest in yourself, but that doesn’t mean you have to do it alone.
Stay cozy
