Chronic Stress - How it creates real symptoms

Have you been living with ongoing stress, anxiety, or physical symptoms that don’t fully make sense?

Stress and nervous system dysregulation

Your nervous system is responsible for how your body responds to the world around you. It controls things like your heart rate, digestion, breathing, and stress responses — all automatically. When your system is balanced, you can move flexibly between:

• Feeling calm and connected

• Responding to stress when needed

• Returning back to a settled state afterwards

But when your system has been under stress for a long time, it can become dysregulated. This means it can get stuck in patterns of:

• Fight or flight (anxiety, tension, overthinking)

• Freeze or shutdown (fatigue, brain fog, low mood)

• Disconnection or overwhelm

Why this happens

Your nervous system is designed to protect you. In short-term danger, this works incredibly well. But as humans, we often don’t fully complete these stress responses. Instead, we may:

• Suppress emotions

• Push through stress

• Ignore what our body is signalling

Over time, this can leave your system feeling like it’s constantly under threat — even when you’re safe. This can lead to what we call chronic stress or nervous system dysregulation.

How this can show up

When your nervous system is dysregulated, it can affect both your mind and body. You might experience:

• Anxiety, panic or constant overthinking

• Chronic pain or tension

• Fatigue or burnout

• IBS and digestive issues

• Brain fog or difficulty concentrating

• Low mood or feeling disconnected

• Symptoms that don’t have a clear medical explanation

These are not random. They are your body’s way of trying to cope.

The science behind it

Chronic stress can affect how your body regulates hormones like cortisol through something called the HPA axis (your stress response system). When this system becomes overactive or dysregulated, it can contribute to:

• Ongoing anxiety and stress responses

• Increased inflammation in the body

• Chronic pain and fatigue

• Digestive issues like IBS

• Reduced resilience and recovery

• Check out more possible symptoms here...

This is why chronic stress can have such a wide impact on your health.

The good news: your nervous system can change

Your nervous system is not fixed. Through a process called neuroplasticity, your brain and body can learn new patterns. This means it’s possible to:

• Feel calmer and more regulated

• Reduce symptoms of anxiety and chronic stress

• Change how your body responds to triggers

• Feel safer and more at ease in yourself

You don’t have to stay stuck in survival mode

If your system has learned these patterns, it can also learn something new. With the right support, it’s possible to feel calmer, clearer, and more at home in your body again.

Start with a free call

If this resonates with you, you’re very welcome to get in touch. We can gently explore what’s been going on for you and how I can help you.

MH Wellbeing, Maria Hancock MSc GQHP

Specialist in Anxiety, Stress and Chronic Symptoms

Trauma-Informed Somatic Therapist, Hypnotherapist, Mindfulness Teacher, SIRPA Pain Recovery Practitioner

Local areas: Horley, Reigate, Redhill in Surrey and Crawley, Horsham, Copthorne in West Sussex. English Speaking Online Therapy.