{"id":92542,"date":"2023-02-15T10:25:00","date_gmt":"2023-02-15T14:25:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/?p=92542"},"modified":"2023-02-20T10:34:56","modified_gmt":"2023-02-20T14:34:56","slug":"how-does-stress-affect-mental-and-emotional-health","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/how-does-stress-affect-mental-and-emotional-health\/","title":{"rendered":"How Does Stress Affect Mental and Emotional Health?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>How does stress affect mental and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/emotional-health-and-well-being\/\">emotional health<\/a>? Can stress cause depression or anxiety?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In <em>Why Zebras Don&#8217;t Get Ulcers<\/em>, neuroscientist Robert Sapolsky explains how our bodies haven\u2019t evolved to deal with the never-ending mental stressors of modern life. He further describes how <a href=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/long-term-stress\/\">chronic stress<\/a> affects mental and emotional health when you&#8217;re unable to effectively cope with stress.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Keep reading to learn how stress affects mental and emotional health, according to Sapolsky.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<!--more-->\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-how-stress-affects-mental-health\">How Stress Affects Mental Health<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>In his book <em>Why Zebras Don&#8217;t Get Ulcers<\/em>, biologist and neuroscientist Robert Sapolsky argues that <strong>the chronic stress humans regularly feel can be extremely damaging to their bodies<\/strong>. Because dealing with a stressful event can be so intense, and potentially important to one\u2019s survival, the stress response affects virtually every system of the body. So, how does stress affect mental and emotional health?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Chronic stress doesn\u2019t just impact your physical health: It also impacts your mental health. Sapolsky argues that there\u2019s a significant link between stress and mental disorders such as <a href=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/low-mood-and-anxiety\/\">depression and anxiety<\/a>, which both <strong>involve a person inadequately <a href=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/ways-to-deal-with-stress\/\">dealing with stress<\/a><\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In this article, we&#8217;ll explain Sapolsky&#8217;s findings about how chronic stress affects mental and emotional health by explaining its <a href=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/the-people-closest-to-you\/\">close relationship<\/a> to depression and anxiety.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-depression\">Depression<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>Sapolsky states that<strong> stress affects your mental and emotional health because chronic stress is often a precursor to a depressive episode. <\/strong>Depression has long been linked to an imbalance or deficiency of neurotransmitters such as norepinephrine, which, as we\u2019ve discussed, makes your body immediately react to a stressor. Furthermore, people suffering from major depression usually have elevated levels of glucocorticoids, a sign of an overactive stress response. Taking all of this into account, here\u2019s a simplified version of how someone falls into a depression:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>First, a significant stressor or series of stressors occurs, causing neurochemical changes that lead to a depressive episode. The more stress you\u2019ve had in the past, especially if at a young age, the more likely these neurochemical changes are to occur.&nbsp;<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>Then, glucocorticoids are released that alter the neurochemical processes, helping you recover. Unfortunately, for some people, these recovery processes don\u2019t work as well due to their genetic makeup, making it more likely they\u2019ll fall into a long-term, severe depression.&nbsp;<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>Sapolsky states that the defining feature of depression is the inability to feel pleasure, also known as anhedonia. People suffering from depression can struggle with feelings of grief or guilt, slow movement or speech, weakened immune systems, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/lack-of-sexual-desire\/\">lack of libido<\/a>, and trouble maintaining healthy sleeping and eating habits. These symptoms prevent the sufferer from coping with the stress that caused the depression in the first place.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>(Shortform note: The idea that <a href=\"https:\/\/www.psychologytoday.com\/us\/blog\/between-cultures\/201712\/how-culture-affects-depression#:~:text=How%20do%20symptoms%20of%20depression%20differ,are%20primarily%20experienced%20in%20the\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">anhedonia is the main symptom of depression is a feature of Western medicine<\/a>. In the US especially, medical practitioners mainly look for the emotional and cognitive symptoms of depression. In China, the focus is more on physiological symptoms like the inability to concentrate or sleep.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-table\"><table><tbody><tr><td><strong>How Depression Worsens <a href=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/stress-response-in-the-body\/\">Your Stress Response<\/a><\/strong><br><br>Research shows there are specific ways depression can prevent you from effectively&nbsp;handling day-to-day problems. For instance, people with a history of depression <a href=\"https:\/\/pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov\/16719609\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">are more likely to have a greater decline in their mood when dealing with chronic pain<\/a>, and <a href=\"https:\/\/pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov\/16904829\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">pain is more likely to compromise their daily emotional well-being and capacity to cope<\/a>.&nbsp;<br><br><a href=\"https:\/\/www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov\/pmc\/articles\/PMC3002116\/#:~:text=The%20%E2%80%9Cscar%20hypothesis%E2%80%9D%20suggests%20that,et%20al.%2C%202007).\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">There are two competing hypotheses on why depression affects people\u2019s ability to cope with stress<\/a>. The first, known as the \u201cscar hypothesis\u201d, posits that a depressive episode leaves emotional \u201cscars\u201d that leave them more vulnerable to future mood alterations. The second, known as the \u201ctrait marker\u201d hypothesis, posits that people who have suffered from depression have pre-existing traits that make them more vulnerable to stress, and these traits persist even after a depressive episode occurs.&nbsp;<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-anxiety\">Anxiety<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>Like people with depression, the mental and emotional health of people with anxiety disorders is also affected by stress because they usually have an overactive stress responses. The main difference, according to Sapolsky, is that <strong>while depressed people have more or less given up on trying to cope with stress, people with anxiety are still able to use coping mechanisms<\/strong>. The problem is that people with anxiety disorders constantly mobilize their stress responses, even when they don\u2019t need to. They\u2019re hypervigilant, overestimating dangers and letting their imaginations lead to a constant state of dread or foreboding. Unsurprisingly, aside from their mental and emotional health, people with anxiety disorders are much more likely to suffer from many other diseases exacerbated by chronic stress.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>(Shortform note: Experts note that <a href=\"https:\/\/www.psychologytoday.com\/us\/blog\/why-we-worry\/201510\/is-anxiety-delusion\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">around 30-40% of people in Western societies will develop an anxiety disorder at some point in their lives<\/a>. It\u2019s believed that anxious feelings do <a href=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/having-a-purpose-in-life\/\">have a purpose<\/a>, such as protecting us from dangers and helping us deal with challenges, and it\u2019s improbable that anxiety would be so common if it didn\u2019t help us in some way. However, anxiety becomes a disorder when the sufferer holds inaccurate beliefs that don\u2019t serve them and aren\u2019t based on any objective reality. Furthermore, a major hurdle in tackling anxiety issues is that they cause avoidance behaviors that make it difficult for an anxious person to engage in the activities that would contradict their inaccurate beliefs.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Though the mental and emotional health of those suffering from anxiety and depression are both affected by stress due to the overactive stress response, the biological responses differ. With depression, you often see a higher level of glucocorticoids, as the brain tries to recover from a stressor and prepare for the next one. Anxiety, on the other hand, is more often associated with a hyperactive sympathetic stress response (excess epinephrine and norepinephrine), as the brain is constantly on edge and trying to deal with a <em>current<\/em> stressor.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Through these hormonal and neurochemical responses, we can see how anxiety sometimes leads to depression: Someone constantly tries to cope with a multitude of stressors, showing high sympathetic activation (anxiety). Eventually, if the stress becomes too much to handle, they may give up trying to cope and show high levels of glucocorticoids (depression).&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>(Shortform note: Another way to frame the difference between anxiety and depression is that <a href=\"https:\/\/www.tandfonline.com\/doi\/full\/10.1080\/02699931.2017.1330255\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">depression is associated with a focus on the past while anxiety is focused on the future<\/a>. This framing is based on the assumption that these negative mental states provide some form of adaptive value to the sufferer: Depression is usually caused by the loss of a goal. So people dwell on the past as a way to come up with a new goal or strategy. Anxiety, on the other hand, is more about dealing with a potential threat to one\u2019s self-preservation. So anxiety entails an obsessive focus on potential future dangers.)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>How does stress affect mental and emotional health? Can stress cause depression or anxiety? In Why Zebras Don&#8217;t Get Ulcers, neuroscientist Robert Sapolsky explains how our bodies haven\u2019t evolved to deal with the never-ending mental stressors of modern life. He further describes how chronic stress affects mental and emotional health when you&#8217;re unable to effectively cope with stress. Keep reading to learn how stress affects mental and emotional health, according to Sapolsky.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":19,"featured_media":29824,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[16,9],"tags":[906],"class_list":["post-92542","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-health","category-psychology","tag-why-zebras-dont-get-ulcers","","tg-column-two"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v24.3 (Yoast SEO v24.3) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>How Does Stress Affect Mental and Emotional Health? - Shortform Books<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"How does stress affect mental and emotional health? 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Learn why Sapolsky says chronic stress is a precursor to mental health challenges.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/how-does-stress-affect-mental-and-emotional-health\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Shortform Books\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2023-02-15T14:25:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2023-02-20T14:34:56+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/s3.amazonaws.com\/wordpress.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/gilrl-shadow-face-sleep-sadness-depression.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1920\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"1080\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Emily Kitazawa\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Emily Kitazawa\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"5 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/how-does-stress-affect-mental-and-emotional-health\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/how-does-stress-affect-mental-and-emotional-health\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Emily Kitazawa\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/e094024454c7d3334a149c0cf039bdeb\"},\"headline\":\"How Does Stress Affect Mental and Emotional Health?\",\"datePublished\":\"2023-02-15T14:25:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2023-02-20T14:34:56+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/how-does-stress-affect-mental-and-emotional-health\/\"},\"wordCount\":1144,\"commentCount\":0,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/how-does-stress-affect-mental-and-emotional-health\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/gilrl-shadow-face-sleep-sadness-depression.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Why Zebras Don\u2019t Get Ulcers\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Health\",\"Psychology\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/how-does-stress-affect-mental-and-emotional-health\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/how-does-stress-affect-mental-and-emotional-health\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/how-does-stress-affect-mental-and-emotional-health\/\",\"name\":\"How Does Stress Affect Mental and Emotional Health? - Shortform Books\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/how-does-stress-affect-mental-and-emotional-health\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/how-does-stress-affect-mental-and-emotional-health\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/gilrl-shadow-face-sleep-sadness-depression.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2023-02-15T14:25:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2023-02-20T14:34:56+00:00\",\"description\":\"How does stress affect mental and emotional health? 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