It's All About Stress: Its Impact on our Mental Health and Addiction

As a mental health professional, I don't think people fully understand the gravity of how stress impacts our mind and body, especially when it comes to developing mental health disorders and making the symptoms much more intense. I'm Evan, your resident mental health and addiction therapist. And in this video, I'm going to detail the five ways stress impacts your mental health and your recovery from disorders. Now, I'm going to do this using a metaphor of us being like a car. First off, just like different brands of cars have certain susceptibilities to malfunctions, whether that be electric or transmission.

We as individuals are also prone to different mental health symptoms when we are under stress, or even genetically, whether that be anxiety, depression, or something more severe, like schizophrenia. Which brings us to number two, which is how when we put stress on a car, whether it's revving the engine too hard or leaving it outside in the winter unprotected, it's more likely to have those mechanical functions it's more prone to. Just like when we experience more stress, whether that be through childhood trauma, or just being in a stressful environment like work or a family situation, or even financial difficulties, this makes it much more likely for us to develop those symptoms and therefore a disorder.

The third point is some individuals are going to develop that disorder whether they're under much stress or not. Some people are just that much more prone. For example, some individuals who never experienced trauma or significant stress may develop an addiction. Now, in the same way, certain cars are probably going to have issues no matter what. They may not be built quite the same way, like an old Ford Pinto versus a newer Toyota. Now, just because we are that much more prone, and no matter what we would experience that disorder, doesn't mean there's something wrong with us.

Everybody has different genetic vulnerabilities to various mental health disorders, but also physical health disorders. Often these things run in families. And number four is the impact of the stress hormone cortisol on our mind and body. So, just like sometimes when we're driving, we need to hit the gas a little harder, maybe to get us out of a situation that may be dangerous. However, when we do this too much, that puts stress on the system the same way cortisol does, we need this for survival.

Very often, if we're in a dangerous situation, our adrenaline pumps and releases that stress hormone. However, when we do that too much, when we have too much consistent exposure to cortisol, this can lead to inflammation in the body, mental health disorders, and all sorts of other physical ailments. Over time and the last point is routine and preventative maintenance is necessary. Just like in a car, we need to maintain our oil changes, rotate the tires, and all the other things that come with maintaining our vehicle.

In the same way, we have to do that with our minds and body, whether that's through mindfulness therapy, exercising, eating healthy, also putting ourselves in as few stressful situations as possible. Whether it's our relationships or the job we choose to be in, we don't always have that luxury. We're always going to be exposed to some level of stress. But the more you can address it and work on self care, the more healthy you're going to be. Mind and body.