5 Effects of Stress on the Brain

Stressed woman sitting on the couch with her eyes closed.

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Stress is a familiar and unavoidable part of daily life. It comes in many forms, from the stress of juggling family, work, and school commitments to dealing with issues like health, money, and relationships.

In each instance where we face a potential threat, our minds and bodies go into action, mobilizing to either deal with the issues (fight) or avoid the problem (flight).

You have probably heard about how bad stress is for your mind and body. It can lead to physical symptoms such as headaches and chest pain. It can produce mood problems such as anxiety or sadness. It can even lead to behavioral problems such as outbursts of anger or overeating.

What you might not know is that stress can also have a serious impact on your brain. When faced with stress, your brain goes through a series of reactions—some good and some bad—designed to mobilize and protect itself from potential threats.

Sometimes stress can help sharpen the mind and improve the ability to remember details about what is happening. But it can also have negative effects on the brain, such as contributing to mental illness and actually shrinking the volume of the brain.

At a Glance

While we sometimes assume that facing stressful challenges makes us stronger, evidence suggests that prolonged exposure to stress can have serious adverse effects on your brain health. It can increase your susceptibility to mental illness, alter brain structure, destroy neurons, shrink brain volume, and impact learning and cognition. By understanding more about how stress affects the brain, you can take steps to manage the stress in your life and help prevent (or maybe even undo) some of the damage.

1

Chronic Stress Increases Mental Illness

Scientists have found that chronic stress plays a major role in the onset of many psychiatric conditions, including depression, bipolar disorder, and post-traumatic stress disorder.

Studies indicate that chronic stress results in long-term changes in the brain. These changes might help explain why those who experience chronic stress are also more prone to mood and anxiety disorders later in life.

Stress might play a role in the development of mental disorders such as depression and various emotional disorders.

In one study, researchers performed a series of experiments looking at the impact of chronic stress on the brain. They discovered that such stress creates more myelin-producing cells but fewer neurons than normal.

This disruption results in excess myelin in certain areas of the brain, which interferes with the timing and balance of communication. The researchers found that stress can also have negative effects on the brain's hippocampus.

Imaging studies indicate that stress can disrupt the body's serotonin and dopamine systems, which may play a part in causing such conditions.

If you or a loved one are struggling with a mental disorder, contact the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) National Helpline at 1-800-662-4357 for information on support and treatment facilities in your area.

For more mental health resources, see our National Helpline Database.

2

Stress Changes the Brain's Structure

The results of these experiments also revealed that chronic stress can lead to long-term changes in the structure and function of the brain.

An important part of the brain known as the gray matter is responsible for higher-order thinking such as decision-making and problem-solving. But the brain also contains what is known as "white matter," which is made up of all the axons that connect with other regions of the brain to communicate information.

White matter is so named due to the fatty, white sheath known as myelin, which surrounds the axons and speeds up the electrical signals used to communicate information throughout the brain.

When chronic stress leads to an overproduction of myelin, it doesn't just result in a short-term change in the balance between white and gray matter. It can also lead to lasting changes in the brain's structure.

Doctors and researchers have noted that people with post-traumatic stress disorder also have brain abnormalities, including imbalances in gray and white matter.

Not All Stress Is the Same

It's important to remember that not all stress impacts the brain and neural networks in the same way. Good stress, or the type of stress that helps you perform well in the face of a challenge, helps to wire the brain in a positive way, leading to stronger networks and greater resilience.

Chronic stress, on the other hand, can lead to an array of problems. Where good stress contributes to greater resilience, chronic stress is more likely to increase your susceptibility to mental health issues later on.

3

Stress Kills Brain Cells

In addition to changing the structure of the brain, the hormones that your body's releases when it is stressed can even destroy the neurons in your brain, particularly those that have been newly formed.

Stress can also limit or even halt the production of new neurons in the hippocampus.

The hippocampus is one of the regions of the brain heavily associated with memory, emotion, and learning. It is also one of the two areas of the brain where neurogenesis, or the formation of new brain cells, occurs throughout life.

Increased Your Risk for Neurodegenerative Diseases

Chronic stress and prolonged exposure to cortisol also increase the production of glutamate. Glutamate is an excitatory neurotransmitter that plays a vital role in mood regulation, cognition, and memory functions. Excessive glutamate, however, can contribute to the damage or death of brain cells. 

Excessive glutamate is associated with neurodegenerative conditions such as Alzheimer's, Parkinson's, and Huntington's disease.

4

Stress Shrinks the Brain

Stress doesn't just impede the development of brain cells; it can also shrink overall brain volume. Even among otherwise healthy people, stress can lead to shrinkage in brain areas associated with regulating emotions, metabolism, and memory.

When we are constantly exposed to high levels of cortisol, there's a risk we might experience shrinkage in brain volume, particularly in critical areas such as the hippocampus and prefrontal cortex.

Memory and Thinking Problems

In one study, researchers have found that this can lead to problems with memory and thinking. Participants with high cortisol levels lose greater brain volume and perform worse on cognitive and memory tests.

While people often associate adverse outcomes with sudden, intense stress created by life-altering events (such as a natural disaster, car accident, or death of a loved one), researchers suggest that it is the everyday stress that we all seem to face that over time, can contribute to a wide range of mental disorders.

The effects of stress also appear to be cumulative. Exposure to more stressful events is linked to smaller gray matter in the prefrontal cortex, a brain region linked to self-control and emotions.

Reduced Resilience to Future Stress

Chronic, everyday stress appears to have little impact on brain volume on its own but may make people more vulnerable to brain shrinkage when faced with intense, traumatic stressors.

In other words, exposure to prolonged stress can make it more challenging for people to meet the demands of future stressors.

Different kinds of stress affect the brain in different ways. Recent stressful events (job loss, car accident) affect emotional awareness. Traumatic events (death of a loved one, serious illness) have a greater impact on mood centers.

5

Stress Hurts Your Memory

After you've experienced a stressful event, have you ever found that your memory for the details seems a bit fuzzy? That's because sometimes stress can make events can be difficult to remember.

Even relatively minor stress can immediately impact your memory, such as struggling to remember where your car keys are or where you left your briefcase when you are late for work.

Animal studies have shown some of the ways that stress may impact memory and learning. For example, chronic stress has been shown to hurt spatial memory or the ability to recall information about the location of objects in the environment and spatial orientation.

Another study revealed that high levels of the stress hormone cortisol were connected to short-term memory declines in older rats.

It is also important to note that while animal studies can provide valuable information about the potential impact of stress, more research is needed to learn more about how stress affect memory in humans.

Some Stress Can Boost Memory

Again, it is important to remember that not all stress is created equal. Feeling a little bit nervous before you give a presentation at work may help you perform better. But too much stress or stress that happens when you are trying to learn something can be harmful.

A little stress at the right time can give your memory a boost. The wrong stress at the wrong time, however, can make remember more difficult.

For example, research suggests that when stress occurs immediately before learning, memory can be enhanced by aiding in memory consolidation.

However, feeling stressed when trying to remember something can have the opposite effect. In such cases, feeling stress when trying to recall something from memory can interfere with your ability to retrieve the information.

16 Sources
Verywell Mind uses only high-quality sources, including peer-reviewed studies, to support the facts within our articles. Read our editorial process to learn more about how we fact-check and keep our content accurate, reliable, and trustworthy.
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By Kendra Cherry, MSEd
Kendra Cherry, MS, is a psychosocial rehabilitation specialist, psychology educator, and author of the "Everything Psychology Book."