Definition of emotional stress

Stress and your health: MedlinePlus Medical Encyclopedia

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Stress is a feeling of emotional or physical tension. It can come from any event or thought that makes you feel frustrated, angry, or nervous.

Stress is your body's reaction to a challenge or demand. In short bursts, stress can be positive, such as when it helps you avoid danger or meet a deadline. But when stress lasts for a long time, it may harm your health.

Stress is a normal feeling. There are two main types of stress:

Acute stress. This is short-term stress that goes away quickly. You feel it when you slam on the brakes, have a fight with your partner, or ski down a steep slope. It helps you manage dangerous situations. It also occurs when you do something new or exciting. All people have acute stress at one time or another.
Chronic stress. This is stress that lasts for a longer period of time. You may have chronic stress if you have money problems, an unhappy marriage, or trouble at work. Any type of stress that goes on for weeks or months is chronic stress. You can become so used to chronic stress that you don't realize it is a problem. If you don't find ways to manage stress, it may lead to health problems.

STRESS AND YOUR BODY

Your body reacts to stress by releasing hormones. These hormones make your brain more alert, cause your muscles to tense, and increase your pulse. In the short term, these reactions are good because they can help you handle the situation causing stress. This is your body's way of protecting itself.

When you have chronic stress, your body stays alert, even though there is no danger. Over time, this puts you at risk for health problems, including:

High blood pressure
Heart disease
Diabetes
Obesity
Depression or anxiety
Skin problems, such as acne or eczema
Menstrual problems

If you already have a health condition, chronic stress can make it worse.

SIGNS OF TOO MUCH STRESS

Stress can cause many types of physical and emotional symptoms. Sometimes, you may not realize these symptoms are caused by stress. Here are some signs that stress may be affecting you:

Diarrhea or constipation
Forgetfulness
Frequent aches and pains
Headaches
Lack of energy or focus
Sexual problems
Stiff jaw or neck
Tiredness
Trouble sleeping or sleeping too much
Upset stomach
Use of alcohol or drugs to relax
Weight loss or gain

The causes of stress are different for each person. You can have stress from good challenges as well as bad ones. Some common sources of stress include:

Getting married or divorced
Starting a new job
The death of a spouse or close family member
Getting laid off
Retiring
Having a baby

Money problems
Moving
Having a serious illness
Problems at work
Problems at home

Call your health care provider if you feel overwhelmed by stress, or if it is affecting your health. Also call your provider if you notice new or unusual symptoms.

Reasons you may want to seek help are:

You have feelings of panic, such as dizziness, rapid breathing, or a racing heartbeat.
You are unable to work or function at home or at your job.
You have fears that you cannot control.
You are having memories of a traumatic event.

Your provider may refer you to a mental health care provider. You can talk to this professional about your feelings, what seems to make your stress better or worse, and why you think you are having this problem. You may also work on developing ways to reduce stress in your life.

If you or someone you know is thinking about suicide, call or text 988 or chat 988lifeline.org. You can also call 1-800-273-8255 (1-800-273-TALK). The 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline provides free and confidential support 24/7, anytime day or night.

You can also call 911 or the local emergency number or go to the hospital emergency room. DO NOT delay.

If someone you know has attempted suicide, call 911 or the local emergency number right away. DO NOT leave the person alone, even after you have called for help.

Anxiety; Feeling uptight; Stress; Tension; Jitters; Apprehension

Generalized anxiety disorder
Stress and anxiety

Ahmed SM, Hershberger PJ, Lemkau JP. Psychosocial influences on health. In: Rakel RE, Rakel DP, eds. Textbook of Family Medicine. 9th ed. Philadelphia, PA: Elsevier; 2016:chap 3.

National Institute of Mental Health website. I'm so stressed out! fact sheet. www.nimh.nih.gov/health/publications/so-stressed-out-fact-sheet. Accessed August 17, 2022.

Freedland KE, Carney RM, Lenze EJ, Rich MW. Psychiatric and psychosocial aspects of cardiovascular disease. In: Libby P, Bonow RO, Mann DL, Tomaselli GF, Bhatt DL, Solomon SD, eds. Braunwald's Heart Disease: A Textbook of Cardiovascular Medicine. 12th ed. Philadelphia, PA: Elsevier; 2022:chap 99.

Updated by: Fred K. Berger, MD, addiction and forensic psychiatrist, Scripps Memorial Hospital, La Jolla, CA. Also reviewed by David C. Dugdale, MD, Medical Director, Brenda Conaway, Editorial Director, and the A.D.A.M. Editorial team.

What is Emotional Stress?–How It Affects You

What Causes Stress?
Types of Stress
Stress and Your Spine
Side Effects of Stress
Impacts of Stress
How to Reduce Stress – 9 Strategies for Stress Relief

Stress permeates your life today in so many different ways. It impacts you with obvious glitches like being stuck in freeway traffic or having your boss yell at you when you under-delivered on a project. When you hear stress, you likely imagine its emotional impact, but its effects can also be physical like over-exercising or under-sleeping.

What Causes Stress?

Researchers define stress as “any situation which tends to disturb the equilibrium between a living organism and its environment. ”

Among the many stressors that you might face today include work pressure, examinations, psychosocial stress, and physical stresses due to trauma, surgery, and various medical disorders.

Everyone deals with stress differently, and what might stress one person out would hardly bother another person. You might perceive rush-hour traffic as an hour of misery to grind your way through, or you might use it as an opportunity to catch up on phone calls. A work presentation can feel like a herculean challenge or an opportunity to show your skills.

While stress might feel like stress – meaning, miserable and uncomfortable – researchers divide it into three broad categories. “Stress management can be complicated and confusing because there are different types stress — acute stress, episodic acute stress, and chronic stress — each with its own characteristics, symptoms, duration and treatment approaches,” says the American Psychological Association (APA).

Acute stress, the most common form, comes from demands and pressures of the recent past and anticipated demands and pressures of the near future. Emotional distress, muscular problems including back pain, and gut problems like a stomachache are among the symptoms of acute stress.

We’ve all known someone who has episodic acute stress. He’s always late, constantly juggling multiple tasks, and generally seems to enjoy the chaotic drama that permeates his life. If you call him out on this drama, he might lose his temper or even become hostile. He might seem to thrive on stress.

The APA says that while acute stress can feel thrilling, chronic stress most decidedly does not. That festering, sometimes low-grade stress can leave you feeling hopeless and despondent. Among the culprits for chronic stress include poverty, having a dysfunctional family, being in an unhappy marriage of job, or living in a war-torn country.

“The worst aspect of chronic stress is that people get used to it,” says the APA. “They forget it’s there. People are immediately aware of acute stress because it is new; they ignore chronic stress because it is old, familiar, and sometimes, almost comfortable.”

Types of Stress

Acute stress can be quick and uncomfortable, but that short-term stress is… well, temporary. It goes away, and it might even make you stronger or more resilient. Chronic stress, on the other hand, sticks around long after its welcome. It can sabotage your health and happiness.

Within those short-term versus long-term categories, stress comes in different “flavors,” including traumatic, physical, and the most common, emotional. Because it occurs so common, let’s focus on emotional stress here.

Its effects can be similar to depression. With persistent emotional stress, you might lose or gain weight. You might notice sleep changes. You maybe feel isolated and struggle with mood swings. Needless to say, these feelings and changes can sabotage your life and your happiness.

Other signs of emotional stress include anxiety, having memory lapses, feeling fatigued and worn down, avoiding friends and family, not being in the mood for sex, and mood swings that practically everyone around you notices.

Everyone feels those things occasionally, but when you almost constantly feel tired, anxious, or want to isolate yourself from others, those can be signs that emotional stress has overpowered your life. And that’s nothing to take lightly.

Stress and Your Spine

People understand the link between emotional stress and things like ulcers, heart disease, and headaches. But emotional stress also impacts those tight muscles in your neck and shoulders. That stress, coupled with stress added to other areas including your limbic system, meninges, and spinal cord, can have an impact on posture and contribute to poor spine health.

Stress impacts your spine in numerous ways. One study discussed in the May 2001 issue of Popular Science looked at a group of college students who repeatedly lifted 25-pound boxes. A special measuring device calculated the pressure on the students’ spines.

During the first half of the experiment, the researchers offered words of encouragement to participants while they performed their tasks. But during the second half of the experiment, they were criticized. That criticism didn’t bother some students, but it sure did others. In particular, introverted students who didn’t handle criticism well disliked repetitive work had an almost 27 percent increase in pressure on their spine.

That result is important for different reasons. One, because stress impacts everyone differently. You might be able to “roll with it,” but not everyone can.

Two, a 27 percent increase of pressure on the spine is more than enough to subluxate someone. “What this shows is that there is a body-mind interaction that manifests itself as pressure on the spine,” said William Marras, professor of industrial engineering at Ohio State University.

Of course, if you already suffering from spinal alignment issues, your spine is weak and stress will have a far greater negative impact on your health.

Stress’s impact on your spine could come in other forms, including athletic competitions or even non-physical stressful situations like talking on the phone with your head tilted at an angle, sitting at a computer, or any kind of repetitive work while experiencing a job’s pressures.

Except for major physical traumas, most spinal issues likely occur from a combination of physical, chemical, and emotional stressors. Clearly, if you are subluxation free – already living with your spine in line – you can better withstand those forces.

But few of us do. Almost-constant stressors impact even the strongest spines, which is why keeping your spine its ideal state becomes so important. Otherwise, daily stress will undoubtedly take its toll.

Side Effects of Stress

Emotional stress can adversely impact your spine, which can also trigger or exacerbate numerous other health problems. Emotional stress can manifest in different ways, including anxiety, depression, and hostility.

Research shows women and men handle stress differently. Women have a greater risk for depression and anxiety, whereas men have a greater risk for alcohol-use disorders. For both genders, that’s bad news.

Emotional stress can also adversely impact many hormones including glucocorticoids, catecholamines, growth hormone, insulin, and prolactin. Some of that impact gears you up for the fight-or-flight response, but research shows these hormonal imbalances can negatively impact problems including obesity as well as your adrenal and thyroid glands.

Impacts of Stress

Along with those hormonal imbalances, stress impacts numerous areas of your life. Some common issues and side effects of stress include

1. Gut problems.

Epidemiological data indicates along with depression, emotional stress might influence the development of gastrointestinal disorders and cancers. One study with 23,698 people found stress and depression related to digestive diseases including functional dyspepsia (FD), irritable bowel syndrome (IBS), and reflux esophagitis. Depression was also linked to peptic ulcer disease and adenoma/carcinoma of the colon and stomach.

2. Immunity.

Emotional stress can crash your immune system. In fact, one meta-analysis of over 300 empirical studies spanning three decades found psychological stress could negatively impact your immune system. You’ve probably experienced this after having a crazy week at work and then you suddenly fall ill on the weekend. It’s not in your head: Stress can seriously impact your immune system.

3. Skin problems.

The most common trigger for inflammatory skin disorders, including psoriasis, is emotional stress. Think about someone who has an emotional reaction to something and subsequently breaks out in hives or a rash.

4. Oxidative stress.

Think of oxidative stress as your body rusting. “Oxidative damage is what happens when nasty rogue molecules called ‘free radicals’ attack your cells and DNA, damaging the body and aging you from within,” says Jonny Bowden, Ph. D. Research shows emotional stress can trigger or exacerbate oxidative stress, leading to problems including anxiety, depression, schizophrenia, and bipolar disorder.

5. Obesity.

Emotional stress can encourage comfort-food eating, overeating, eating disorders, and fat-regulating hormonal imbalances. Once again, think back to a hectic week at work or a fight with your significant other. If you’re hitting the freezer for butter pecan at 11 p.m. more often than normal, emotional stress could play a role in those eating habits.

6. Diabetes.

Along with depression, researchers link emotional stress with increased risk for Type 2 diabetes. Obviously, chronic diseases like diabetes are multifactorial. A sugar-filled diet coupled with inactivity can certainly contribute to Type 2 diabetes, but conventional practitioners often overlook things like emotional stress for these conditions.

7. Lack of physical activity.

Research shows emotional stress can impair efforts to be physically active. Interestingly, exercise is one of the best mood boosters on the planet, yet if you’re feeling any type of emotional distress, you might be more likely to hit the couch than the weight room.

8. Sleep.

Sleep disrupts how you sleep and creates sleep disorders including insomnia. If you’ve had something weighing on your mind and tossed for hours, you know how emotional stress can impact sleep quality and quantity.

The list goes on and on. Emotional stress impacts nearly every area of life, and left unmanaged, it can sabotage your health, happiness, and overall quality of life.

How to Reduce Stress – 9 Strategies for Stress Relief

Everyone experiences stress differently. If you believe emotional stress has impacted your life, never dismiss that feeling as “in your head” or something to trooper through things. When you bottle up stress, it can manifest in unhealthy ways including drinking too much, anger and damaging your overall quality of life.

You can’t eliminate stress, but you can learn to manage it better. Stress management strategies can help you better cope with the near-constant emotional stress that permeates 21st-century life. Among those include:

1. Eliminate or minimize foods that can impact emotional stress.

Food sensitivities including sugar, gluten, dairy, and pretty much any processed food can create a roller coaster that leaves you feeling good for a bit but crashes quickly. Diet is an often-overlooked culprit for emotional stress. Eliminating food sensitivities and adding in plenty of whole, unprocessed, nutrient-rich foods can dramatically impact your mood.

2. Find a sanctuary that helps you unwind.

Everyone needs downtime to relax, feel calmer, and dial down emotional stress and other unpleasant emotions. Your sanctuary might be walking in nature, going to church, or taking your dog on a lake walk. Don’t underestimate the power of little moments to reduce emotional stress.

3. Try emotionally calming nutrients.

In an ideal world, your calming neurotransmitters could be in balance and you wouldn’t have nutrient deficiencies. Unfortunately, that often isn’t the case. Certain nutrients can help restore equilibrium and reduce the impact of emotional stress. Research show nutrients like L-theanine, GABA, and Rhodiola Rosea can help emotional stress, lower anxiety, and help you feel more focused. These benefits don’t happen overnight, and they demand the correct ratios with quality supplements. Try Adrenal Calm, a natural GABA supplement. Speak with a chiropractor or other healthcare specialist who can help you design a protocol that addresses your specific condition.

4. Get great sleep.

Talk about a vicious cycle: You sleep terribly, gain weight, and struggle with emotional stress. Research shows they’re interrelated. The aftermath is equally awful: Sleep-deprived, you’re more vulnerable to feeling emotional stress and grabbing a donut your receptionist brought in to compensate. Don’t fall into that trap. Aim for eight hours of quality, uninterrupted sleep every night. You might need to try a supplement like our sleep and mood or inositol powder to calm your mind and drift into sound slumber. Starting the habit of getting a good night’s sleep is one of the simplest things you can do to help with stress relief.

5. Get control over your situation.

One study found patients with heart failure who had high perceived control had significantly greater 6-minute walk distances and less emotional distress than patients with low perceived control. In other words, people who felt more in control over their situation had less emotional stress than those who didn’t feel in control. Getting control means doing whatever you can to improve a situation and letting go of what you can’t control.

6. Write it down.

Brooding on a situation can only amplify emotional stress. Journaling can provide a powerful release for those negative emotions. One study asked young adults to write for 20 minutes on four occasions about deepest thoughts and feelings regarding their most stressful/traumatic event in the past five years (expressive writing) or about a control topic (control). After three months, the expressive-writing group had a significant reduction in anxiety, whereas participants low in expressiveness showed a significant increase in anxiety.

7. Utilize apps.

Keeping smartphone applications nearby can help you take control when panic attacks or other emotional stressors usurp your day. Even a few minutes of deep breathing, meditation, or mindfulness can help you harness those feelings. Many of these apps are free, so test-drive a few out and see whether they work for you.

8. Implement strategies that help you manage stress.

Meditation, deep breathing, yoga, and changing your mindset are all tools you can utilize to manage emotional stress. None of these are quick fixes, but they can help you stay more present, put things into perspective, and let go of emotions that sabotage your health.

9. Visit a chiropractor.

Your spine houses the nervous system. Chronic stress of any kind – and let’s face it, we all struggle with this to some degree – can impact muscle tension and contraction, putting uneven pressure on your skeleton and leading to subluxations. A chiropractor can help relieve stress’ pressure on your spine and also implement a diet, nutrient, and lifestyle protocol to help you better cope with emotional stress.

If you struggle with emotional stress on any level or other detrimental thoughts, please seek someone who can help you. Talking with a therapist can help you work through the emotional baggage that holds your emotions hostage and frees you from emotional stress.

The contents of this website, such as text, graphics, images, and other material are for informational purposes only. The content is not intended to be a substitute for professional advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Always seek the advice of your mental health professional or other qualified health provider with any questions you may have regarding your condition. Never disregard professional advice or delay in seeking it because of something you have read on this website!

If you are in crisis or you think you may have an emergency, call your doctor or 911 immediately.

If you’re having suicidal thoughts, call 1-800-273-TALK (8255) to talk to a skilled, trained counselor at a crisis center in your area at any time (National Suicide Prevention Lifeline). If you are located outside the United States, call your local emergency line immediately.

Emotional stress: causes, treatment, diagnosis IsraClinic

Emotional stress can occur against the background of adverse circumstances - the loss of loved ones, hard work, family conflicts. At the initial stages, the body tries to cope with distress on its own - the endocrine system works hard, there is a constant release of adrenaline. With the constant mobilization of the body's forces, resources are eventually exhausted, and a period of exhaustion sets in.

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What is emotional stress?

Emotional stress is an excessive emotional experience of negative or, on the contrary, positive life situations. Indeed, emotional stress can also be caused by good events - the birth of a child, marriage, recovery after a long and serious illness, etc. But more often we talk about emotional stress in the context of negative experiences, as they harm the body. This type of stress is called distress. Moreover, prolonged emotional stress caused by constant conflicts, personal fears or anxiety can lead to serious problems and diseases, both physiological and mental.

Causes of emotional stress

Various causes may be involved in the development of emotional stress. Among the most common:

Prolonged conflicts at work or in the family
Life difficulties
Serious illnesses
Death of loved ones
Changes in the social or economic situation and the impact of these changes on a person’s life
Fears and phobias

Treatment of emotional stress

Emotional stress activates all the body's reserves for self-preservation. These reserves are not infinite, and sooner or later, excessive emotional stress provokes the depletion of reserves and forces. Any stress goes through three stages, and the sooner a person turns to a doctor, the sooner it will be possible to normalize the condition and prevent the development of negative consequences.

First stage. A person is in a state of anxiety from several days to a couple of weeks. During this period, the endocrine system of the body works hard, adrenaline is released into the blood, all endocrine glands are activated.
Second stage. If it is not possible to cope with stress at the first stage, the adrenal glands, which produce corticosteroids, come into play, the blood is saturated with glucose and flows to the tissues and organs. There is an involvement of the body's reserves in order to help the body cope with stress.
Third stage. Exhaustion of reserves, physiological manifestations of stress (changes in blood pressure, headaches, problems with the gastrointestinal tract, etc. )

Therefore, when diagnosed with emotional stress, treatment is required immediately. For several years, IsraClinic has been successfully treating stress in Russian-speaking patients. The clinic's methods include psycho-educational conversations to understand the mechanism of stress development, psychotherapy to combat the manifestations of stress, observation by a psychiatrist, additional methods of psychotherapy - art therapy, hippotherapy, music therapy, hydrotherapy, bibliotherapy. Israel uses the most advanced and effective methods to deal with emotional stress.

Emotional stress

9.11.2011

Emotional stress — a state of pronounced psycho-emotional experience by a person of conflict life situations that acutely or for a long time limit the satisfaction of his social or biological needs.

Stress is understood as the state of the body that occurs under the influence of unusual stimuli and leads to the stress of non-specific adaptive mechanisms of the body.

The concept of stress was introduced into the medical literature by N. Selye (1936) and described the adaptation syndrome observed in this case. This syndrome can go through three stages in its development: the stage of anxiety, during which the body's resources are mobilized; the stage of resistance, in which the body resists the aggressor, if its action is compatible with the possibilities of adaptation; the stage of exhaustion, during which the reserves of adaptive energy are reduced when exposed to an intense stimulus or prolonged exposure to a weak stimulus, as well as when the adaptive mechanisms of the body are insufficient. N. Selye described eustress health promoting syndrome and distress harmful or unpleasant syndrome. The latter is considered as an adaptation disease that occurs in connection with a violation of homeostasis (the constancy of the internal environment of the body). Stress is also understood as a functional state of the body resulting from an external negative impact on its mental functions, nervous processes or the activity of peripheral organs. The biological significance of stress is defined as the process of mobilization of the body's defenses, that is, the initial stage of managing adaptive processes. Stress is a phenomenon of awareness that arises from a comparison between the demand placed on a person and her ability to cope with this demand. The imbalance in this mechanism causes the occurrence of stress and the response to it.

Some authors do not see the difference between stress and other reactions of the body. M. Vigas (1980) considers stress as a reaction of the body, developed in the course of phylogenesis, to the action of agents that actually or symbolically signal the danger of violating its integrity. According to K. V. Sudakov (1976), the specificity of emotional stress is reflected in the statement that it develops in conditions when it is not possible to achieve a result that is vital for meeting biological or social needs, and is accompanied by a complex of somato-vegetative reactions, and the activation of the sympathetic-adrenal system mobilizes the body to fight. According to V. V. Suvorova (1975), it is difficult to distinguish between stress and emotional reactions. Nevertheless, K. V. Sudakov (1976) believes that emotional stress is characterized by a generalized distribution of sympathetic and parasympathetic excitations, leading in some individuals to disruption of the cardiovascular system, in others to ulceration of the gastrointestinal tract.

The most sensitive to the action of extreme and damaging factors is the emotional apparatus, which is the first to be included in the stress reaction, which is associated with the involvement of emotions in the architectonics of any purposeful behavioral act and specifically in the apparatus of the acceptor of the results of the action. As a result, vegetative functional systems and their specific endocrine provision, which regulate behavioral responses, are activated. In this case, a stressful state can be caused by a mismatch in the ability to achieve vital results that satisfy the body's leading needs in the external environment, as well as through primary, mainly hormonal, changes in the internal environment of the body, causing a violation of its homeostasis. Under stress, the key system of the brain is the system of limbic-cortical relationships.

Instead of mobilizing the body's resources to overcome difficulties, stress can cause serious disorders. The mechanism of emotional stress consists of a long aftereffect, summation, a perverted reaction of neurons of the central nervous system to neurotransmitters and neuropeptides. With repeated repetition or with a long duration of affective reactions due to protracted life difficulties, emotional arousal can take a stagnant stationary form. In these cases, even with the normalization of the situation, stagnant emotional arousal does not weaken. Moreover, it constantly activates the central formations of the autonomic nervous system, and through them upsets the activity of internal organs and systems. If weak links are found in the body, they become the main ones in the formation of the disease.

Primary disorders in the ventromedial hypothalamus, basal-lateral region of the tonsil, septum and reticular formation play the most important role in the mechanism of development of emotional stress. It is the mismatch of activity in these structures that leads to a change in the normal functioning of the cardiovascular system, the gastrointestinal tract, the blood coagulation system, and the disorder of the immune system.

Emotional stresses are usually social in origin . Their frequency increases with the development of scientific and technological progress, the acceleration of the pace of life, information overload, increasing urbanization, and environmental problems. Thus, the significance of changes in the body under the influence of emotional stress is great. Tolerance varies from person to person. Some are more predisposed, others are very stable. However, the development of clinically pronounced nervous or somatic diseases in a child depends on a number of conditions. Such conditions should be considered the mental and biological characteristics of the individual, the social environment and the characteristics of events that cause serious emotional reactions.