Title: 5 Surprising Ways That Stress Affects Your Brain
Headings: 5 Surprising Ways That Stress Affects Your Brain
5 Surprising Ways That Stress Affects Your Brain
Chronic Stress Increases Mental Illness
Stress Changes the Brain's Structure
Stress Kills Brain Cells
Stress Shrinks the Brain
Stress Hurts Your Memory
A Word From Verywell

Content: 2
Chronic, everyday stress appeared to have little impact on brain volume on its own but may make people more vulnerable to brain shrinkage when they are faced with intense, traumatic stressors. “The accumulation of stressful life events may make it more challenging for these individuals to deal with future stress, particularly if the next demanding event requires effortful control, emotion regulation, or integrated social processing to overcome it,” explained the study’s lead author, Emily Ansell. 10
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
Debbi Smirnoff / E+ / Getty Images
If you've ever tried to remember the details of a stressful event, you are probably aware that sometimes stress can make events can be difficult to remember. Even relatively minor stress can have an immediate impact on your memory, such as struggling to remember where your car keys are or where you left your briefcase when you are late for work. One study found that chronic stress has a negative impact on what is known as spatial memory, or the ability to recall information the location of objects in the environment as well as spatial orientation. 11 A 2014 study revealed that high levels of the stress hormone cortisol were connected to short-term memory declines in older rats. 12
The overall impact of stress on memory hinges on a number of variables, one of which is timing.