The pressure to be productive and live up to expectations can weigh on everyone from time to time, but chronic stress is a much more harmful complication that can influence your health. Recognizing the symptoms of chronic stress can help you decide when you need to seek professional mental health treatment, as chronic stress can increase the risk of developing a mental health condition, such as depression or anxiety, so you can get back to feeling your best.

What Is Chronic Stress?

Chronic stress is a constant feeling of being pressured or overwhelmed for an extended period. Chronic stress can come from any number of sources, including your:

  • Work
  • Family
  • Friends
  • School
  • Responsibilities
  • Self-imposed goals or expectations

While most people deal with stress occasionally, people experiencing chronic stress can feel like they never get a break. It can become difficult for them to relax, and the symptoms of chronic stress can begin to impair their ability to go about their everyday lives without interruption.

Thankfully, there are treatments available to help people overcome the feeling of chronic stress. If you think you’re living with this condition, enrolling in a stress management program may be just what you need to get back on track and find some relief.

But if you’re not sure whether chronic stress is the source of your troubles, it might be helpful to start by learning to recognize the symptoms of chronic stress.

The Stress Response

The stress response is a natural physiological reaction to a perceived threat or stressor. When your body senses danger, the hypothalamus, a small region at the base of your brain, triggers the release of stress hormones like adrenaline and cortisol. These hormones prepare your body to respond to the threat by increasing your heart rate, blood pressure, and energy levels. This response is designed to be short-term, helping you deal with acute stress effectively.

However, when stress becomes chronic, this response system stays activated for extended periods. This prolonged activation can lead to a host of negative consequences for both your physical and mental health. Chronic stress keeps your body constantly alert, which can wear down your systems over time and lead to serious health issues.

Recognizing the Symptoms of Chronic Stress

Identifying the symptoms of stress, particularly chronic stress, is often difficult for a simple reason. Chronic stress implies that people have been living with elevated stress levels for months or years and may have been dealing with the symptoms for just as long.

As such, it’s difficult for some people to compare their symptoms to a baseline of mental health, as their stress symptoms have become the norm.

There are, however, several signs and symptoms of chronic stress that may indicate that your stress levels have become a problem. This includes signs like:

1. Trouble Focusing

Living with chronic stress can cause a number of symptoms related to concentration and focus. People who take on more stress than they can handle can find it difficult to keep their attention on focused tasks and may take longer to complete intensive work or projects.

Furthermore, chronic stress can cause people to forget important meetings or events. The pressures of stress simply become too much to manage, and it can become difficult to keep track of everything that needs to be done.

2. Low Energy

Chronic stress can also cause a chronic feeling of low energy or motivation. Stress can feel like a weight holding you down, and when your to-do list is a mile long, you may not have the energy to accomplish everything you hope to on your timeline.

Part of the problem with chronic stress is that people will attempt to accomplish all their tasks regardless of how much energy they have left. This can lead to burnout, poor work quality, and a cascade of other negative health symptoms, such as not getting enough sleep or turning to substance use in an attempt to cope or get more done.

3. Substance Use

Using addictive substances to cope with stressful situations is a dangerous symptom of chronic stress that can lead to a host of other negative consequences. Using drugs or alcohol to cope is one of the most dangerous forms of substance use, as it often leads to the development of a substance use disorder.

Besides, using drugs or alcohol to cope doesn’t necessarily fix the problem or provide any stress relief — it only pushes this stress off until a later date. People who travel this path often find themselves with more stress than they had to begin with, in addition to the symptoms of a new substance use disorder.

Instead of resorting to unhealthy coping mechanisms, consider healthier ways to relieve stress, such as talking to someone, exercising, or planning ahead for challenging situations.

4. Irritability or Anger

If you constantly get frustrated or angry at small events, it might be another symptom of chronic stress. Living constantly in a stressful state can shorten your temper and cause you to lash out at your friends, loved ones, coworkers, or even complete strangers for the smallest of reasons.

Anger is often referred to as a “secondary emotion,” which means that it comes in response to another emotion you’re feeling at the time. Your stress can make you feel afraid or anxious, but rather than living with these uncomfortable emotions, you turn to the relative comfort of anger instead.

5. Sleep Challenges

Chronic stress affects sleep in many different ways. Your stress and anxiety can literally keep you up at night, worrying about the tasks and responsibilities that lie ahead of you. It can also impact the quality of your sleep by keeping your body in constant distress.

Having sleep difficulties can cause a cascade of other negative health effects. Not getting enough sleep can leave you tired and groggy throughout the day, more irritable and frustrated, and less able to focus on the tasks that are giving you stress in the first place. It can also put you at risk for several different health complications, including hypertension, diabetes, cardiovascular disease, and certain types of cancer.

6. Social Changes

Being chronically stressed often negatively impacts a person’s social life. You may spend less time with your friends or loved ones because you feel overwhelmed by your stress and find yourself experiencing challenges in your relationships as a result.

This often results in chronically stressed people beginning to feel isolated and alone. Recent research has shown that loneliness can be incredibly harmful, with some researchers saying that chronic loneliness has a similar risk to your health as smoking cigarettes.

7. Appetite Changes and Other Physical Symptoms

Your appetite may change dramatically in response to stress. This can happen in both directions—some people become too stressed to eat, ignoring hunger cues until they become less frequent. Others turn to food as a coping mechanism to deal with their stress. These appetite changes can also result in sudden, unintended weight changes.

Physical Symptoms of Chronic Stress

Chronic stress can manifest in a variety of physical symptoms that can significantly impact your daily life. Some of the most common physical symptoms include:

  • High Blood Pressure: Persistent stress can cause your blood pressure to remain elevated, increasing the risk of cardiovascular diseases.
  • Headaches and Migraines: Stress often leads to tension headaches or migraines, which can be debilitating.
  • Fatigue and Insomnia: Chronic stress can disrupt your sleep patterns, leading to constant fatigue and difficulty sleeping.
  • Digestive Problems: Conditions like irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) can be exacerbated by stress, causing discomfort and digestive issues.
  • Muscle Tension and Pain: Stress can cause your muscles to tense up, leading to chronic pain and discomfort.
  • Weight Changes: Stress can affect your appetite, leading to weight gain or loss.
  • Skin Problems: Conditions like acne and eczema can flare up due to stress.

These physical symptoms can be debilitating and, if left unmanaged, can lead to more serious health problems such as cardiovascular disease, diabetes, and obesity.

Emotional and Psychological Symptoms

Chronic stress doesn’t just affect your body; it also takes a toll on your emotional and psychological well-being. Some of the emotional and psychological symptoms of chronic stress include:

  • Anxiety and Depression: Persistent stress can lead to feelings of anxiety and depression, making it hard to enjoy life.
  • Mood Swings and Irritability: You may find yourself more irritable and prone to mood swings.
  • Difficulty Concentrating: Chronic stress can make it hard to focus and remember things.
  • Emotional Stress and Burnout: Feeling emotionally drained and burned out is a common symptom of chronic stress.
  • Loss of Motivation: You might lose interest in activities you once enjoyed.
  • Social Withdrawal: Stress can make you withdraw from social interactions, leading to feelings of isolation.

These emotional and psychological symptoms can be just as debilitating as physical symptoms, affecting your relationships, work, and overall quality of life.

Causes and Triggers of Chronic Stress

Understanding the causes and triggers of chronic stress is crucial for effective stress management. Some common causes and triggers include:

  • Work-Related Stress: High-pressure jobs, long working hours, and demanding responsibilities can contribute to chronic stress.
  • Financial Stress: Debt, financial insecurity, and money problems are significant stressors.
  • Relationship Stress: Conflicts, communication problems, and relationship issues can lead to chronic stress.
  • Traumatic Events: Experiences such as abuse, neglect, or other traumatic events can cause long-term stress.
  • Major Life Changes: Events like moving, changing jobs, or significant life transitions can be stressful.
  • Chronic Illness or Pain: Living with a chronic illness or persistent pain can be a constant source of stress.

Identifying these causes and triggers is essential for developing effective stress management techniques that can help you cope better.

Diagnosing and Assessing Chronic Stress

Diagnosing and assessing chronic stress can be challenging because it manifests differently in different people. A mental health professional may use a variety of tools and techniques to diagnose and assess chronic stress, including:

  • Clinical Interviews and Questionnaires: These help gather detailed information about your stress levels and how they affect your life.
  • Psychological Assessments: Tools like the Perceived Stress Scale (PSS) can help measure your stress levels.
  • Physical Examinations and Medical Tests: Checking your blood pressure and cortisol levels can provide insights into how stress is affecting your body.
  • Behavioral Observations: Feedback from family and friends can offer additional perspectives on how stress is impacting your behavior.

A comprehensive diagnosis and assessment can help identify the underlying causes of chronic stress and inform the development of an effective treatment plan.

By understanding and addressing the symptoms, causes, and effects of chronic stress, you can take proactive steps towards managing stress and improving your overall well-being.

How to Recover From the Symptoms of Chronic Stress

When you’ve identified that chronic stress is leading to your symptoms, it’s time to take action to find recovery. The effects of chronic stress can be sweeping, so for most people, a comprehensive approach to overall mental health is often the best solution.

Stress Management Techniques and Programs

A stress management program offers several key treatments and interventions that can help you manage stress and overcome the effects of chronic stress in your day-to-day life.

These programs typically include focused work on learning stress relieving techniques, such as mindfulness meditation, lifestyle changes, and emotional regulation, as well as treatment for any mental health concerns that may be a source of your chronic stress.

When people live with chronic stress, it can come from a number of different sources. It can be work, substance use, mental health disorders, or having a child that is leading to you feeling overwhelmed. Since every client is different, a stress management program provides detailed assessments and individualized treatment plans to help each person achieve recovery.

For some, this means conventional treatments, such as medication and talk therapy. Other people may benefit from innovative treatments like deep transcranial magnetic stimulation or hyperbaric oxygen therapy. Finding what works for you is part of the process of overcoming stress and building a system of healthy coping mechanisms that will prevent you from becoming overwhelmed by stress in the future.

Lifestyle Changes

Certain lifestyle changes can improve your ability to handle stress, letting you keep up with your current workload without being overcome by intense stress. Often, people experience chronic stress because they simply cannot cut out parts of their lives that are causing them stress. Practicing strategies that build your capacity for stress is often the best solution. Some of these lifestyle changes include:

  • Exercise: Maintaining a regular exercise routine teaches your body to manage stressful situations and can reduce many of the physical symptoms you experience from chronic stress.
  • Meditation: Regular mindfulness meditation can help you stay connected to the present moment rather than worrying about the future or regretting the past.
  • Nutrition: Optimizing your diet and nutrition can drastically improve your physical and mental health symptoms, leaving you better equipped to deal with stress as it comes.

For a more targeted and systematic approach to lasting lifestyle changes, consider the option of lifestyle psychiatry. This field combines conventional psychiatric treatments with targeted lifestyle changes, all under the guidance of a trained mental health professional who has your best interests in mind.

Don’t Let Chronic Stress Hold You Back

Living with chronic stress can be overwhelming, but you can recover, provided you seek out professional resources to help you along the journey. To learn more about the stress management program at Plus by APN, call 424.644.6486 or fill out our confidential online contact form.

References

  • Medic, Goran et al. “Short- and long-term health consequences of sleep disruption.” Nature and science of sleep vol. 9 151-161. 19 May. 2017, doi:10.2147/NSS.S134864
  • “Stress Won’t Go Away? Maybe You Are Suffering from Chronic Stress.” American Psychological Association, American Psychological Association, www.apa.org/topics/stress/chronic. Accessed 10 Dec. 2023.