The hidden physical impacts of long-term stress - 9 April 2025
Hi, thanks for stopping by 🙂
(Note: I use both stress and anxiety here, even though they’re different things - because the bodily effects they both have are very similar.)
Stress and anxiety are important emotions, that we all need to feel at least a little bit. But, I’m sure you know how debilitating it can be when we have too much or it gets too intense 😰 You’ll also know what you feel in the moment - fast heart rate, struggling to breathe, in overdrive, mind racing, overthinking, feeling sick or butterflies, needing the loo, I could go on 😬
But, there are a lot of long-term issues from stress which are harder to spot and not well known. It’s understandable to feel nervous before an exam or an interview. But when it feels uncontrollable, you feel it in all situations, and it’s going on for weeks, months, or even years, that could be long-term anxiety 😵💫
So, whilst we’re supposed to feel anxious occasionally from an evolutionary side, our bodies aren’t designed well to handle it chronically or long-term. When we’re in that fight, flight, freeze or fawn mode a lot over a long time, there can be a lot of health issues 🤒
But, you might feel alright day to day, just handling the usual difficulties of life as everyone does. You may not have realised just how much stress you’ve had recently 🎭 (Btw, you should gauge your level of stress based on how you feel, not the situation or setting you’re in - cause that’s how your body experiences it) 🧠
Or, you may feel anxious a lot but you’ve not connected these physical health issues to your mental health - but I’m going to explain all 👌
Getting ill all the time 🤒🤧🤢
Have you ever become ill right as you go on annual leave or have a holiday? It’s so frustrating, cause that’s meant to be your time to go out and do stuff that’s just for you 😮💨 But, it’s actually a warning sign that you’ve had a lot of shit to deal with recently ⚠️
As your body is only meant to be stressed or anxious for a short amount of time, when it’s chronic it takes a toll on your immune system. This is fine if the stress is temporary, your body can take that sacrifice without too much risk ⚖️
But, when your body can’t restore your immunity back to where it was, cause it’s too busy focussing on helping you to survive, that will take a toll 😞
Not only are you more likely to get ill during the anxious period of time, but it could take months or even years for your immunity to get back again to where you were before 📈
Plus, when you do get ill, it knocks you even more than it normally would, cause you’re already more tired and drained than you’d normally be anyway 🥱
If there’s ever a time to get better at looking after yourself, it’s defo when you’re ill 💯
🤔 How often have you been ill in the past year? 🤔
Struggling with sleep 😴😳🥱
This is probably the most well known symptom on the list, but you may not know how it impacts the long term.
We’ve all been there, laying in bed before a big day tomorrow, you’re tired and you know you need sleep. But you don’t feel sleepy. Or, you wake up randomly in the middle of the night for no. bloody. reason. 😠 Obviously, this happens with short term stress or anxiety.
But, when your sleep is iffy for ages, sometimes your body just gets used to it. It’s incredible how your body can adapt and get used to new issues it faces - and even become more efficient at handling them 🤖
But, either in your body or subconsciously in your mind, you may just accept that you’ll struggle to sleep and decide that may never change. Then, you just get stuck in that cycle 🔃
If you’ve struggled for a long period of time before, your sleep may still not have recovered even now. This could be why 😮💨
🤔 How has your sleep been in the past week? 🤔
Changed appetite 🍔🍰🤢
This is another one we kinda do and don’t know about at the same time.
Eating a lot comes from stress and anxiety being so intense and using up so much energy, so we need to eat more than normal just to function. Plus, anxiety can bring a lot of highs and lows, so eating can be your body’s way of trying to level this out - it just doesn’t know when to stop 📈
Or, you may struggle to eat as much as you normally would because you just don’t have the appetite 🤢 If your body thinks it’s got so much to do and just wants to solve the problems or help you survive, it assumes you can just catch up and eat later. Of course, it can’t catch up if you’re stressed chronically 😞
It might not even be majorly noticeable 🤔 It may be that cravings have made you order takeaways or stop by the supermarket on your way home, more than normal. Either because you just need more energy, or you’ve barely eaten all day 😮💨
You’ll know someone who lost a lot of weight when they went through a really rough time of their life. And, you’ll also know someone who put on a lot of weight when things were shit too 🚶♀️
🤔 How has your eating been over the past few weeks - is that normal for you? 🤔
Digestive issues 🚻🧻💩
This one again links into how our bodies weren’t designed for stress mode long term (and how we need to pee all the time!) 💩
Our bodies always assume we’re gonna be stressed for a short period of time, solve whatever problem we’re having, and then we can recover and move on. So, our body actively slows down and pays less attention to our digestive system because it thinks it can just recover later ⏳
Our intestines are basically muscles, so when they get less practice due to anxiety, they’re not as strong, and struggle to work as well as they used to. (Like when you try going back to the gym or going for a run when you haven’t for ages) 😵
But, clearly that recovery can’t happen with long term anxiety, so that leaves us constantly with digestive distress. And, this can be made worse too by our appetite and eating habits changing (which our body isn’t used to) 😬
Have you spent absolutely ages sitting on the loo and feeling like nothing’s happening? Or started to get pains around your lower belly in the few hours before you head to the toilet? 🚽 This is why!
🤔 Have any of your toilet habits changed recently? 🤔
Low sex drive 😏💕
I imagine, out of the whole list, this is the one you were expecting the least. Some of us pay more attention to sex drive than others, but it’s always important! 👌
It works both ways - when you’re anxious, do you feel less attracted to your partner or to other people in general? Equally, do you feel less attractive day to day too? 🫤
Like before, if our body assumes the stressful problem will be resolved soon and we can recover later, it’s not putting reproduction at the top of the list. So, it gives you way less of those sexy time hormones, cause it’s just not the priority right now 🙁
So, you might have noticed you initiate the fun stuff less, or you’re less likely to reciprocate when your partner or someone else does. It may be that you’ve had less sexy time recently anyway. Or, when you have got into it, it doesn’t feel as good 💢
If you’re in a relationship, anxiety can really impact how you feel towards yourself, your partner, and the relationship. And even worse, the stress can affect how you see anything you associate with them, including your home, kids and pets. This can be awful when your home’s supposed to be the one comfortable place for you 🏠
🤔 How often have you wanted to be intimate recently? 🤔
Spots and skin issues 🧑💆♀️
Have you noticed this one at all? Some say it’s an urban myth that anxiety and stress worsens your skin, but there is a bit of science behind it ⚛️
Whilst anxiety doesn’t seem to cause spots, it can make acne worse. Because stress can make your skin more oily, it can make your existing spots worse or make them take longer to heal 🩹
In a similar way, stress can worsen or bring on skin conditions like eczema and rosacea. This could be because the stress is making your immune system weaker (linking in with getting ill more too) 🤒
And, to cap all of this off, the other habits that tend to come with anxiety can also affect your skin, like eating less fruit and veg and reaching for sugary and greasy foods more 🍫🍪🍔
It’s also possible we can become more self-aware when we’re stressed too. So, you may have the delightful double whammy of affected skin and feeling even more self-conscious about it than you normally would 😩
What’s your skin been like recently? 🤔
Rollercoaster energy levels and low motivation 🎢😒😞
This one is an absolute killer. With everything else I’ve mentioned here, you normally just get one extreme. But when you’re stressed, your physical energy levels zigzag between over the top, feeling like I’m gonna have a heart attack 😳 Or, I have no energy for anything, I wanna just wanna lay on the sofa and turn into a zombie 😐
Either way, mentally it’s so hard to focus on anything and you have no motivation to do anything other than the bare essentials 😮💨 And even then - you may not do your laundry until it’s really piled up or you may reuse that bowl a little more to avoid needing to do the dishes 🧺🍽️
It’s kind of unsurprising - if your body thinks it needs to be on high alert, then after you need to be low energy for a bit to recover from that 😶🌫️ But, with long term anxiety, your body wants to go back into high alert again because it knows the stressful thing hasn’t gone away 😰
So, you never know what energy levels you’re gonna have one day to the next (or even one minute to the next) 😵💫 Plus, the bad sleep ruins your energy levels too 😵
Reverting between high alert and recovery mode, your body struggles to motivate you to do that DIY that’s been sat there forever or text that friend you haven’t spoken to in ages 😒 No wonder you feel exhausted over the smallest things when you never used to 😫
And then you get down on yourself for having no motivation and no energy for anything, taking all your mental and emotional energy 🧠
So, what have your energy levels and motivation been like recently? 🤔
So, what does all this mean? 😩🤔
With all of these stress warning signs, it’s important to compare them against your normal. If you’ve always had a big appetite and rubbish sleep, that could just be your body’s standard (or you may have been in chronic anxiety that whole time!) 😬
Also, don’t compare yourself to someone else, we all have a different normal, and we all respond to stress differently. So logically, it doesn’t help the situation at all 📉
If you dismissed this could be you at the start because not much stressful stuff has been happening to you - unfortunately that’s not how it works 😩 Firstly, it’s not about what happens, but more how you think about it and respond to it decides how anxious or stressed you feel 🚨
But on top of this, a small or medium level of stress over a long period of time can be just as problematic as loads of anxiety for a short time (in some cases, it’s worse) 📊 So, if you’re recognising a lot of these signs in yourself, your body may be telling you more than you’re currently aware of ⚠️
Of course, all these signs could be related to other issues, even some of them in combination, whether that’s physical, mental, emotional, or something else 📚 But whatever’s causing them, they all sound like things you need to get checked out by some kind of professional, right? 🤔
If you’re sick and tired (literally and figuratively!) of getting crappy sleep, being ill all the time, with your energy all over the place, I can help 🙏
If you have no time - just listen to these guided audios, each with its own specific purpose (chill out, more energy, focus, get to sleep, concentration, etc.) 🎧
Or, if you feel like you need something extra, answer a few questions to see if we could work well together 💬
If in doubt, follow me on Instagram or Facebook to get guidance like this and reminders to look after yourself in your feed 📱
Bloody well look after yourself - who else is gonna do it? 🤨
See you soon, Becca 🚫💩🤘