When you’re stressed, you can often literally feel it in your body. Your muscles become tense, your stomach begins acting up or your heart rate soars. These are common physical reactions to the cascade of stress hormones, like cortisol and adrenaline, that your body releases when it senses a threat.
But stress has psychological manifestations as well, and they can often be harder to identify. That flood of stress hormones might make you feel your emotions more strongly than usual, causing surges of anger or sadness that seem to come out of nowhere. They can affect your thinking, too—you find yourself being more overwhelmed or unfocused.
This kind of psychological stress response can be sneaky and surprising. And just like prolonged physical stress, mental stress can cause harm—potentially setting you up for depression, anxiety and other physical or mental health issues, says Vanina Popova, M.D., Senior Director, Clinical Leader, Neuroscience TA at the Janssen Pharmaceutical Companies of Johnson & Johnson.
While you can’t always control the source of your stress, you can learn to ID it and react before it takes a serious toll on your health. For National Stress Awareness Month, take this quiz to find out how well you understand the emotional and psychological fallout from stress—and read about coping tools for dialing stress back.
