Among the stress-related complications:

Central Nervous System Damage

Your brain and nervous system are the central components of the body’s fight-of-flight response. The CNS tells the body what to do and coordinates the body systems, limiting blood and oxygen flow to the less important systems, like digestion, while re-routing blood and oxygen flow to the more vital systems, such as the brain and cardiovascular system.

When your stressor doesn’t go away after the short-lived rewiring, the CNS fails to tell the body to return its systems to normal. This can eventually cause the CNS to rewire the body, causing chronic anxiety, irritability, and even depression.

People with chronic stress suffer from headaches, mood problems, insomnia, or develop behavioral or substance abuse problems. Depression has also been shown to be common in those suffering from chronic stress.

Cardiovascular Wear and Tear

In addition to the CNS, your cardiovascular system is hit just as hard by chronic stress. The same hormones that are released by the body to initiate the fight-or-flight response cause the heart to pump faster and harder. The blood vessels constrict to raise blood pressure, which helps the body more efficiently deliver oxygen to the brain and heart to increase strength and energy to decide on a response and take action.

While these physical reactions are necessary if you’re about to be devoured by a hungry predator, they aren’t meant to be sustainable over an extended period of time. When you expose your body to long periods of stress, the heart becomes taxed, and your blood pressure becomes elevated as the blood vessels become damaged. This damage presents an increased risk for heart disease and related problems, including heart attack and stroke.