Your shoulders tense, emails ping constantly, and the ticking clock seems louder each minute. If you often feel tense, restless, or unable to relax, you’re not alone. These are normal reactions to chronic stress, not personal flaws.

We often picture trauma as a tragic event, but it can also build slowly from constant pressure, emotional overwhelm, or unsafe environments.1 When stress is constant, your nervous system learns to live on high alert. After a while, these stress responses can start to feel like part of your identity.

Your nervous system protects you by helping you react to threats, then ideally returning to balance when the danger passes. But with prolonged stress, it forgets how to relax and starts to see the world as uncertain.2

Over time, your brain gets better at spotting threats, stops asking, “Is this dangerous?”, and starts assuming it probably is. You react to stress more quickly, making it hard to pause, manage emotions, or see different perspectives. Stress hormones keep you on edge even when nothing is wrong.

Ongoing stressors, such as caregiving, chronic illness, or daily pressures, can keep the body’s stress systems activated over time, essentially........

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