IIf you have enough back pain, someone will eventually tell you that’s where your body stores stress. If your stomach hurts, you’ll hear the same thing: your emotions are trapped in your belly.
But what does this to mean? Is your anxiety about work or money really coursing through your body and nesting in your organs and limbs?
In short, no. “We can and do express stress physically. There’s no doubt about it,” says Steven Tovian, clinical professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine. “But it’s not like there’s a reservoir of stress to the left of our kidneys – and when it overflows or overflows, we have problems. It’s not that kind of boiling cauldron analogy.”
Unfortunately, the truth is that stress lives everywhere inside your body. Here’s what really happens in your body when you’re stressed.
How stress affects the body
The idea that stress is stored in specific parts of the body probably comes from the work of Sigmund Freud over 100 years ago. “There was this idea that when people repressed or denied their emotions, those emotions would show up as physical symptoms,” says Camelia Hostinar, an associate professor in the psychology department at the University of California, Davis. “And if you recognize those emotions, that would treat the symptoms, and the symptoms would go away.” As scientists learned more about stress, however, it became clear that such thinking is too simplistic, she says. Rather than making us store anger in our backs or fear in our stomachs, stress triggers a dynamic response throughout the body—and this happens not just when people suppress their emotions, but even when they are fully aware of them.
When you encounter a stressor, the hypothalamus (the control center of the brain) begins to orchestrate a hormonal stress response. It triggers a cascade of hormones released by the pituitary gland that, in turn, tell the adrenal glands that it’s time to release the stress hormone cortisol into the blood supply, says Alicia Walf, a neuroscientist and assistant professor of cognitive sciences at Rensselaer. NY Polytechnic Institute Meanwhile, the hypothalamus also orchestrates the release of adrenaline and noradrenaline from the adrenal glands. “These adrenal hormones have temporary physiological effects on the body, such as an accelerated heart rate, but they also have effects on the brain that alter cognition,” says Walf.
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Hostinar likes to think of this response as a “symphony of stress,” a metaphor brother-in-law by neuroscience researchers. “There are multiple stress systems that respond differently – like musical instruments – to various stressors, some with greater or lesser intensity than others, leading to potentially unique combinations of symptoms in different people,” she says. For example, one person may experience an increase in appetite and desire for comfort foods, while another reports muscle tension and pain. “There are effects that happen in seconds, minutes and even days,” says Hostinar. In the first few seconds, for example, you may feel an increase in heart rate or cold, clammy hands. Days later, your high stress load can harm your immune system. “We could see immediate and delayed effects from all these different musical instruments working on different time scales and different intensities to orchestrate this response,” she says.
The type of stress matters — and so does who you are
The type of stress you’re dealing with — and its frequency, duration, and intensity — plays a role in determining how it may manifest in your body. There are several different types: acute (sitting in a traffic jam), episodic (work projects that come up occasionally), chronic (losing your job, getting divorced, or dealing with a long-term illness), and traumatic (childhood). Abuse). “Stress is not a single entity,” says Tovian. Although acute stress, for example, is typically temporary and can be resolved through calming regimens such as deep breathing, without leaving lingering effects, other types of stress require more vigilance.
Your general health, age, genetic profile, and past experiences also influence how your body reacts to stress. As we age, we can feel the effects of stress in a more severe way – or in a lessened way, thanks to the experience gained, says Tovian. And if you have a history of lower back pain from a herniated disc, you have a higher than average chance of stress-related symptoms appearing in your lower back. Likewise, if digestive issues run in your family, this may be how your stress shows up. “Like any adversary, the effects of stress will attack the weakest parts of your system,” says Tovian.
Our bodies are equipped to handle a certain amount of stress based on all of these factors, he adds. When stress exceeds our personal threshold – usually over a period of months or years – it is more likely to cause physical harm.
What are the symptoms of stress?
Research suggests that stress can lead to problems in the musculoskeletal, respiratory, cardiovascular, endocrine, gastrointestinal, nervous and reproductive systems. It’s called somatization – the medical term for expressing stress as physical symptoms.
Some of the most common stress-related symptoms include headaches, nausea, fatigue, dizziness, heart palpitations and chest, back or abdominal pain, says Dr. Ashwini Nadkarni, associate medical director of Brigham Psychiatric Specialties at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston. . Stress can contribute to inflammation in the circulatory system, including the coronary arteries; trigger migraines; to throw away menstrual cycles; leads to stomach ulcers; and more.
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Somatization affects many people, says Nadkarni. “One-third of the symptoms people report at a primary care visit are medically unexplained,” she says. “There is no objective evidence to support a biological explanation. Or someone may have a medical condition but is reporting a set of symptoms disproportionate to that condition.”
Still, doctors treat stress as a diagnosis of exclusion. This means performing a thorough physical exam and running tests to rule out medical conditions. This helps them determine if stress is the root cause of what is happening. As Tovian says: “I can have a headache from too much stress, but I can also have a headache from a brain tumor.” It is essential, he adds, not to diagnose yourself as suffering from stress and decide not to seek medical attention due to the symptoms you are experiencing.
Recovery is crucial
If your doctor determines that your symptoms are related to stress, he or she will likely recommend mindfulness-based stress reduction, says Nadkarni. It’s a meditation therapy that helps people feel centered in the present moment—and can encourage those experiencing somatization to embrace nonjudgmental acceptance of their physical pain or psychological distress. “You are reducing the tendency to be hypervigilant about symptoms or to catastrophize symptoms,” she says. “It is believed to reduce pain, reduce the severity of symptoms, reduce any depression or anxiety that may be associated with somatization, and also improve people’s quality of life.”
It’s also important to find healthy ways to recover after a high-stress event; Doing so may prevent symptoms from worsening. One of Hostinar’s favorite ways to recover from stress is to turn to social support. “This can reduce stress in real time and over the years,” she says. “People recover more easily and have a quieter stress response if they have someone to talk to or a hand to hold.” Additionally, it is universally beneficial to all ages, cultures, and backgrounds.
Since stress is inevitable, it’s also important to increase resilience, says Tovian. Seems easier said than done? Focus on understanding yourself and your body, getting enough sleep, exercising, and eating well. The key, he says, “is being able to control stress so it doesn’t control you.”
This story originally appeared on Time.com read the full story
