What Happens When Your Brain is Under Stress?

Sharon Moore May 09, 2013

Stress – it’s something we all want to get away from. But the fact remains that stress is part of life. You see it everywhere, from your messy room to your supercilious boss, on your bank account, and almost everywhere you look at. But too much stress can be overwhelming. When ignored, it can put a toll on your health and make you vulnerable to almost any disease.

You probably know that stress weakens your heart and your immune system. But did you know it affects your brain too?

How’s Your Brain under Stress?

Do you notice that when you’re stressed, it feels like almost everything is falling apart? You find it hard to focus on your work, you become forgetful of your usual activities and the most important matters like your mum’s birthday or your wedding anniversary, you easily get infuriated, you suddenly become uninterested in the things you love to do, and you somehow become emotional.

The question is – why?

For decades, scientists have been trying to understand how stress affects the brain. Thanks to the arrival of new technologies such as the fMRI scanning machines, it is now possible to peek into someone’s brain and study what actually happens in there. New research published in the Journal of Neuroscience suggests that chronic stress creates physical changes in the brain, affecting key areas which are involved in memory formation and emotional processing. Here, the researchers found that stress affects two important regions in the brain: the hippocampus and the amygdala. When under stress, there is an enhanced activity in the amygdala (the part that regulates emotions and pleasure) which results to enhanced emotional symptoms. Because of this, the brain finds it difficult to transmit factual information and just rely on emotional experiences.

Another thing that happens in the brain when it’s under stress is the elevation of the cortisol levels. Just like all hormones in the body, cortisol has an optimum range, and an excess in this level can be dangerous, even toxic. When your brain is under stress, your cortisol level remains high – a big factor in many mental illnesses, including depression, anxiety, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), and burnout. That’s why you get easily irritated and angry over simple matters. Excess release of cortisol may also affect your circadian rhythm and lead to poor immune system, insomnia, and disrupted metabolism.

The effect of too much cortisol does not end there. It also creates havoc on the hippocampus – the area in your brain that is responsible for forming new memories. Too see how cortisol affects the brain, researchers at Stanford University inserted either cholesterol or stress capsules into the hippocampus of vervet monkeys and examined their brains one year after. They found that cholesterol did not cause too much change but cortisol did. It specifically weakened cells in the hippocampus, caused the neurons to shrink and become disordered. Just imagine the same things going on in the human brain who receives a high dose of stress on a daily basis.

All these scientific facts tell us one thing – our brain is very much vulnerable to stress, just like our heart and all other parts of our body. And when stress conquers your brain, expect for the worse symptoms – poor concentration, forgetfulness, and influx of emotions. So before your neurons shrink and your brain cells rupture, you want to slow down, take a deep, gentle breath, and tell yourself “Oh yes, I need a break!”.

Dear Readers,

What are the healthy habits you do whenever you are stressed? Share your stress-busting tips by posting a comment below.