Worried Sick: Why Stress Affects Our Health

5-minute read — by the BTES staff

We’ve all heard at some point how unhealthy emotional stress is for our bodies. Maybe your doctor has told you to “get more sleep, and avoid stress,” or a coworker has remarked that “work is killing you.” Stress, in this context, is often used as a rudimentary catch-all phrase to describe turbulent and unpleasant emotional experiences, such as fear, anxiety, tension, worry, distrust, restlessness, compulsion, unease, or countless others.

But why is emotional stress so unhealthy for us? In part, it’s because sustained emotional stress negatively affects our body’s immune system.

The human brain is remarkable in its complexity. It automatically processes stimuli and sends chemical and electrical signals throughout our body to regulate our physiological operations. But managing the body requires enormous amounts of energy, and the brain often has to prioritize which functions are most essential to our survival in any given moment, and divert our energy accordingly.

When we’re safe and at ease, our brain is managing our body in “rest and digest mode,” where it’s prioritizing our internal functions, such as heart rate, breathing, temperature, digestion, and our immune system response to foreign invaders like bacteria and viruses. On the other hand, when our brain is perceiving an immediate threat to our survival, it goes into “fight or flight mode,” diverting energy away from internal functions and activating our adrenal system for maximum physical output.

Think about a time when you’ve been sick, and how much effort it took just to get out of bed. With your immune system operating in high gear to combat an illness, even the slightest amount of physical exertion can feel monumental. Alternatively, consider a time when you were startled or injured and seemed to perform at super-human levels (“I must’ve jumped six feet in the air when I almost stepped on that snake!”). That’s how fast the brain can engage your adrenal response to protect you from perceived life-threatening danger, or keep you moving ahead despite crippling injuries without the slightest sensation of pain.

It’s easy to see how “rest and digest” would necessarily compete for energy with “fight or flight.” But when it comes to prioritization of energy, our ability to survive the moment will always take priority over the operation of our body’s internal functions. From an evolutionary standpoint, that makes perfect sense: If we’re fighting a stomach bug and being chased by a tiger, our bodies will always prioritize outrunning the immediate threat to our survival over the long-term health of fighting an illness.

But with all of our brain’s sophistication, it cannot distinguish between a true threat to our survival (think: being chased by a tiger), and a perceived threat to our survival.

Right now, we are immersed in perceived threats to our survival. News and media sources are bombarding us with reports of thousands dead, with the insinuation that you could be next. Many people have lost their jobs or are struggling to keep their business afloat, which creates a perceived threat to basic survival needs like putting food on the table, or retaining their home. Stores full of people wearing masks and gloves conveys a culture of fear that even breathing, touching something, or contact with another human could cause death. One angry glare or confrontational remark from someone passing within six feet creates a perception of impending battle.

These perceived threats are just as tangible to our brain as being chased by a tiger, and our body responds by releasing stress hormones into our bodies, such as adrenaline, norepinephrine, and cortisol. And as weeks turn into months of sustained stress response, our immune system weakens.

Stress, worry, fear, and anxiety literally become self-destructive as our prevailing emotional experience manifests in our physical bodies. That tightness in your gut, the butterflies in your stomach, the indigestion, the tension in your chest, the difficulty sleeping—these are all tangible symptoms of emotional stress negatively affecting your body. “I was worried sick” is not just a dramatic expression.

We encourage people to seek the help of a therapist to learn the skills to root-out and deal with the core sources of stress, rather than live with it or just address the superficial symptoms. You do not need to live with stress; the long-term cost to your health and wellbeing is too great. Learning tangible skills and tools to deal with the underlying root causes of your stress is a necessity—for your mental health and your physical health.

One tool everyone needs to learn is how to create a means for the conscious part of you to communicate with the unconscious part. When you use this skill effectively, you’re able to distinguish and measure the real dangers from the perceived dangers, allowing your brain to return to its restorative state and strengthen your immunity.

The professional therapists at BEing There Counseling are experts at dealing with stress, and are available for both in-office and video therapy sessions. Give us a call to discuss how we can help.