Chronic stress isn’t just an unpleasant feeling — it’s a real, measurable physiological state, and understanding the basics can help you recognize it in yourself before it becomes a bigger problem. When your body perceives ongoing threat (financial pressure, conflict, overwork), it stays in a heightened state of alert, which over time affects sleep, digestion, immune function, and mood.
This is general education, not a diagnosis or a treatment plan — if you’re dealing with significant, ongoing stress, a licensed professional is the right next step, not just this article. What we can offer here is context: the exhaustion you’re feeling if you’ve been under sustained stress isn’t weakness, it’s biology doing exactly what it’s designed to do under perceived threat.