Armah A Quick Guide
Almost all of us experience stress at some point in our life. So, it is important to understand the detrimental effects prolonged and untreated stress can have on our physical and mental health. The effects of stress can be categorized into three parts i.e. physiological, cognitive, and emotional. We will discuss each of these in detail as follows:
Physical Effects of Stress
Prolonged and chronic stress can weaken our immune system which plays an active role in combating viral and bacterial pathogens threatening our health. However, due to stress, our vulnerability to multiple diseases increases. For example, Due to stress,
- Our body’s natural way of healing wounds gets impaired.
- The production of cells that destroy harmful pathogens decreases
- Our vulnerability to developing illnesses like the flu, cold, or fever increases.
Apart from this, strange as it may sound, such physical effects of stress affect the health of our relationships. People who have social support are able to combat stress better and thus their immune system functioning was stronger compared to those who had poor social support in one study (Jemmott et al., 1983). Similarly, another research showed that people who are lonely and socially isolated tend to have shorter lifespans, and experience more health issues and diseases like cancer, heart attacks, etc (Miller, 2011).
Cognitive Effects of stress
Stress can also affect our cognitive faculties. Notice that when you are under stress, you have trouble thinking clearly, organizing your thoughts, and maintaining focus and attention on the tasks at hand. Additionally, the alarm stage in stress brings high bodily arousal which can affect our memory and problem-solving ability. This explains why we forget important things and struggle with resolving challenges under high stress. Likewise, high arousal also brings with it a tendency in us to focus on the negative which only exacerbates the stress response.
Consider the example of the stress of performing well in an exam. A highly stressed student will have difficulty recalling the learned material while attempting the paper. He may experience blanks in memory, struggle with organizing his thoughts to express himself, and find it generally hard to focus on the exam. Whereas at the end of the exam when the body is less aroused than before, he may remember the answers he couldn’t recall earlier.
Watch: [How stress affects your brain – Madhumita Murgia]
To know more about headaches related to stress, check out our article: The Types Of Stress-Related Headache And 11 Strategies To Manage It.
Emotional Effects of Stress
Emotions color the lens through which we see the world. Positive emotions can make the world seem a brighter place whereas negative emotions make life seem worthless. Stress only adds to our negative emotions and fills us up with dread. It makes waking up each day to face the overwhelming responsibilities intolerable. Three emotional responses may occur due to stress. These are anxiety, anger, and depression.
Anxiety
We feel anxious in response to the threatening nature of daily stressors and fear failure. Some people have trait anxiety which means that by default they have an anxious trait and persistently worry about everything. They constantly think that something terrible will happen and thus spend most of their time preparing or avoiding such events. In contrast, some people have state anxiety. This is a temporary condition triggered by a specific situation. So, people in stress experience a state of anxiety activated by stressors in their life.
At a biological level, stress and anxiety bring the same physiological symptoms of increased heartbeat, high breathing rate, excessive sweating, muscular tension, and emotional responses of fear, worry, etc.
Anger
Stress also brings us frustration when we are unable to meet our goals and fulfill our responsibilities. We feel on edge most of the time. Minor things provoke and irritate us and sometimes these small annoyances accumulate to bring out anger outbursts which we usually regret later.
Depression
Depression is a state of low mood which may occur in response to loss, failure, lack of activity, or sometimes even prolonged stress. We may feel low when we are unable to achieve our goals. At a biological level, this is the exhaustion stage of stress when our internal resources are depleted, and our energy is low.
The effect of emotions on our behavior
Emotions not only affect our thoughts and physical symptoms but also how we behave. In stress, negative emotions may lead us to act in unhealthy ways e.g. lashing out, avoiding responsibilities, and not investing in self-care. Thus, it is important to be mindful of our negative emotions’ impact on our behavior to manage them timely.
We hope the present article explained the drastic effects of prolonged stress on our emotions, thoughts, behavior, and body. To find out more about stress, read the related articles in the stress management series.