Health Topic

Stress

Read about causes, symptoms and treatments associated with stress, something that most people encounter from time to time.

Reviewed Reviewed by a registered pharmacistGeneral information

Also called: Psychological stress

Important: This page is general information, not medical advice. It does not recommend or prescribe any treatment. Always consult your doctor or pharmacist before starting, stopping or changing any medicine.

About Stress

Stress is how your brain and body respond to a challenge or demand. When you are stressed, your body releases certain hormones. Hormones are chemicals that travel in your bloodstream and control how different parts of your body work. The hormones that are released when you are stressed make you alert and ready to act. They can raise your blood pressure, heart rate, and blood glucose (blood sugar) levels. This response is sometimes called a "fight or flight" response.

Everyone gets stressed from time to time. There are different types of stress. It can be short-term or long-term. It can be caused by something that happens once or something that keeps happening.

Not all stress is bad. In fact, it can help you survive in a dangerous situation. For example, one kind of stress is the jolt you may feel when a car pulls out in front of you while you are driving. This jolt of hormones helps you quickly hit the brakes to avoid an accident. A little short-term stress can sometimes be helpful. For example, the stress of having a deadline for school or your job may push you to get your work done on time. Once you finish it, that stress goes away.

But stress that lasts a long time can harm your health.

Long-term stress, or chronic stress, lasts for weeks, months, or longer. As you go about your life, your body is acting as if you're being threatened.

Causes of long-term stress include:

  • Routine stress from the demands of work, school, family needs, money problems, and other daily pressures that don't stop.
  • Stress from sudden, difficult changes in your life, such as divorce, illness, losing your job, or other unhappy life events that often have a long impact.
  • Traumatic stress, which may happen when you're in danger of serious harm or death. Examples include being in a bad accident, a war, a flood, earthquake, or other frightening event. This type of stress can cause a long-lasting problem called post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).

People respond to stress in different ways. If you're stressed for a long time you may notice that you are:

  • Getting sick more often than usual because stress weakens your body's ability to fight germs
  • Having stomach problems or trouble digesting food
  • Having trouble sleeping
  • Having headaches
  • Feeling sad, angry, or easily upset

When stress keeps going, your body acts as if you're always in danger. That's a lot of strain that may play a part in developing serious health problems, including:

  • Depression
  • Anxiety
  • Heart disease
  • High blood pressure
  • Diabetes

It's possible to get used to the symptoms of stress and not even realize there's a problem. So when there's a lot of stress in your life, it's important to pay attention to how it affects you so you can do something about it.

Simple things that improve your mental health may be helpful in managing long-term stress, such as:

  • Get regular exercise. A 30-minute daily walk can help you feel better and help keep your immune system strong, so you don't get sick.
  • Try relaxing activities. You could look for an app or wellness program that uses breathing, meditation, or muscle relaxation exercises.
  • Get enough sleep every night.
  • Avoid too much caffeine.
  • Decide what you need to do now and what can wait. And focus on what you got done each day, not on what you weren't able to do.
  • Ask your family or friends for support.

Get help if you're having severe symptoms for 2 weeks or more, including:

  • Trouble sleeping
  • Changes in your eating that cause unwanted changes in your weight
  • Troubles getting out of bed because of your mood
  • Difficulty focusing your thoughts
  • Losing interest in things you usually enjoy
  • Not being able to do your usual daily activities

Always get help right away if stress is causing you to:

  • Have thoughts of suicide
  • Feel you can't cope
  • Use drugs or alcohol more often than usual

Your health care provider may refer you to a mental health professional such as a psychologist or social worker.

It sits within Mental Health and Behavior.

The lead U.S. institute for this subject is the National Institute of Mental Health.

When to speak to someone. Reading about a topic cannot tell you whether it applies to you. Speak to a doctor or pharmacist if symptoms are severe, sudden, getting worse, or simply not going away — and seek emergency care immediately for chest pain, breathing difficulty, sudden weakness or confusion, or a serious allergic reaction.

Research on Stress

12,678 studies areregistered for this condition on ClinicalTrials.gov, the U.S. National Library of Medicine's public registry. A selection is below — the links go straight to the registry entry, not to a summary of ours.

What a registered study does and does not mean. Registration means a study exists and has been declared publicly. It says nothing about whether the treatment being tested works, is safe, or is available to you. Many studies find no benefit — that is what research is for. Never seek out an experimental treatment on the strength of a registry entry alone.

Research currently under way

Research already completed

Study data from ClinicalTrials.gov, a service of the U.S. National Library of Medicine. Retrieved 2026-07-30. Registry entries are supplied by study sponsors and investigators; ClinicalTrials.gov does not verify their scientific validity. PocketsInfo is not affiliated with, and not endorsed by, the NLM or the NIH.

Where to read more

Rather than paraphrase, we point you to the primary sources. Every link below is to a government health agency, a national institute or a recognised medical body — grouped by what you are trying to find out.

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Symptoms

Treatments and Therapies

Living With

Related Issues

Statistics and Research

Clinical Trials

Medical subject headings

Clinicians and researchers index this subject under Stress, Psychological. These are the terms to use when searching medical literature.

This page is built from the MedlinePlus health topic record for Stress, a service of the U.S. National Library of Medicine (NLM), National Institutes of Health. Information is from MedlinePlus.gov. PocketsInfo is not affiliated with, and is not endorsed by, the NLM or the NIH. Retrieved 30 July 2026.