Faced with a stressful situation, our body activates defense mechanisms to deal with it, but if these specific moments of stress occur repetitively or are generated at long intervals, the body acts in the opposite way, thus beginning the symptoms of chronic stress.
Stress is usually described as a feeling of overwhelm, exhaustion and worry, when this feeling is prolonged over time and we find ourselves immersed in a situation from which we see no way out, we find ourselves facing chronic stress.
How does chronic stress work?
This type of stress is the most destructive and dangerous, both for the body and for the mind, and can cause serious physical and emotional damage. Extremely destructive, it wears out day by day making the affected person give up and their life can be seen to fall apart.
One of the main characteristics that distinguishes it from acute stress and episodic acute stress is that chronic stress settles in our body and we get used to it, forgetting about its existence while it devours us from the inside. For this reason it is the most degenerative form of stress since it acts slowly exhausting us.
This occurs because our nervous system constantly expels the so-called stress hormones (cortisol and adrenaline), whose excess in the blood day after day generates various counterproductive effects on our health.
Believe it or not, chronic stress can have devastating consequences for our health such as cardiovascular disease, stroke, nervous breakdown, cancer, or even lead the sufferer to violent episodes or suicide.
Once chronic stress has taken over our body, its treatment is complicated, requiring collaboration between medical and behavioral psychological treatment, so do not let it settle in your body and fight to expel it before it is too late.
