Stress is a natural part of life. There are certainly times where it’s okay to stress out a little, such as when you’re about to go on a first date, or you need to give a big presentation. However, when stress is taking over your life, it can be debilitating and cumbersome. The impacts of stress on your brain can prove to be challenging, but with the appropriate treatment, you can overcome these challenges. For women’s mental health treatment in CO, one of the best options is Women’s Recovery. Contact our exceptional team today at 833.754.0554 to learn more about your treatment options.
How Stress Can Impact Our Minds
The impacts of stress on your body are hard enough to deal with at any given time. Too much stress can lead to chronic headaches and chest pain. However, the impacts on the mind are equally challenging.
Chronic Stress Can Lead to Mental Health Problems
Mental health is a topic that has frequently been in the news lately. Unfortunately, some research suggests that one of the causes of mental health problems is too much stress. According to this research, stress can play a part in developing mental health conditions, including depression and anxiety.
Stress Can Change the Structure of the Brain
Your brain consists of neurons and support cells, otherwise known as gray matter. These parts are responsible for your ability to solve problems and make decisions. However, it also consists of white matter and myelin, which your brain uses to communicate. When you are consistently stressed out, your mind produces too much myelin, which speeds up the electrical signals that transmit the information in your brain. This overproduction changes the balance of white and gray matter, which ultimately alters your brain’s structure. This leads your mind to be more vulnerable to mental health conditions and can lead to the need for a mental health treatment center.
Stress Impacts The Brain’s Ability to Protect Its Neurons
While stress cannot impede your brain’s ability to create new neurons, it can make them more vulnerable. In fact, many experts say that a single stressful event can kill neurons in the hippocampus portion of your brain. This section is the part of the brain that handles your ability to learn, handle emotions, and remember things.
Stress Impacts the Size of the Brain
One of the impacts of stress is that it can cause your brain to shrink. When you expose your brain to stress, there is a smaller amount of gray matter in the prefrontal cortex, which controls your emotions and ability to control yourself.
When you continuously go through stressful life events, it can become more challenging to deal with stress in the future. This fact is particularly true if the event requires control of your emotions and specific mental processes to overcome it.
Stress Can Impact Your Ability to Remember Things
Because stress impacts the area of your brain that helps you remember things, it should come as no surprise that stress can make remembering things tricky. For instance, you may have noticed that when you’re stressed, you might not remember where you left your purse or your car keys. Additionally, you may have difficulty remembering the stressful event in the future.
Get Mental Health Treatment in CO at Women’s Recovery
At Women’s Recovery, we know that the impacts of stress can be frustrating. However, we also know that with the right mental health treatment in CO, you can overcome it. At Women’s Recovery, we offer a variety of outpatient mental health treatment options, including:
Don’t let the impacts of stress hold you back any longer. Contact Women’s Recovery today at 833.754.0554 to learn more.
