What stress does to your body – and how to avoid it

The physical effects of stress on the body  

Stress affects the body by releasing hormones such as cortisol and adrenaline, which may damage your health if they’re released over long periods of time. They disrupt basic processes throughout your body and increase your risk of health problems, including heart disease, stroke and diabetes. Chronic stress is also known to contribute to depression and anxiety. But stress can also impact you by changing or disrupting your “habitual health behaviours” such as eating a balanced diet, getting exercise and sleeping well. 

“Stress has been shown to impact on weight gain by influencing changes in eating behaviour. Many adults and children are prone to eating more unhealthy, high-fat snack foods on days when they feel stressed, known as ‘stress-induced eating’. If these changes are maintained over time, they’re bad for your weight and your health,” says Prof O’Connor. 

What are the complications of long-term stress?

Most people can deal with short-term stress but if it’s chronic and prolonged, it means the stress response stays switched on, which causes “allostatic load”, the erosion caused to the body when your stress responses are all flashing on red for far too long. High allostatic load is associated with an increased mortality risk of 22 per cent for all-cause mortality and 31 per cent for cardiovascular disease mortality.

“This will lead to excessive wear and tear of virtually every biological system that we have, and to be blunt, it means your stress response mechanism is broken,” says Prof O’Connor. When this basic stress response is compromised, it could lead to increased vulnerability to depression, anxiety, suicidal feelings and post-traumatic stress disorder, as well as high levels of heart disease and dangerously high blood pressure.  

It can also get you stuck in a “learned helplessness” cycle, says Prof Greenberg, which is when a person does not use or learn adaptive responses to difficult situations. “People in this state typically accept that bad things will happen and that they have little control over them. They become unsuccessful in resolving issues even when there is a potential solution,” he says. This might lead to depression, or using substances or alcohol to help you sleep, which can lead to mental health problems. 

Long-term chronic stress can lead to blood pressure problems and all sorts of other issues, from your teeth (bleeding gums caused by stress suppressing the immune system) and your bowels (loose stools due to the inflammatory effect of stress) to your skin (acne flare-ups and psoriasis as the stress hormone cortisol boosts oil production). “Do not ignore the messages your body is giving you,” says Prof Greenberg. 

How can I prevent damage from stress? 

“We build our resilience by facing challenges and overcoming them. It’s important to get the balance right and to challenge yourself progressively, rather than throwing yourself in at the deep end,” says Prof Greenberg. But it’s also not about avoiding difficult situations. We should be trying to reduce the stressors where we can, but where we can’t, we should have a toolbox to help deal with them, he says. 

“In the first instance, you need to help yourself as much as you can. You have to be your own best friend. If you’re checking your emails 24/7, turn off your phone and email at 6pm and find ways to relax in the evening,” he says. “Get a good night’s sleep, lay off the alcohol and spend a Sunday with your family.” 

Beware all-or-nothing thinking. “Sometimes when we’re very stressed, we think, ‘Oh well, I’m going to throw this all in, I can’t do it.’ But take some time out to relax and you will get to a better place.” If this approach doesn’t work, he advises you to reach out either to a trusted friend, your GP or even someone like a priest, if you are religious. “Talk to anyone where you feel you can have an honest conversation,” he says.