Is it true that constant stress for a cpl years can throw you into a depression,...?

Question

and / or change youre feelings on life. Plz can someone tell me what happens to your brain, long term, under long term stress.

Answer 1

Stress comes in different guises and what is stressful to you will not necessarily bother someone else. However, our bodies respond to stress in the same way. Adrenaline is the number one stress hormone; it speeds up the heart beat, breathing and metabolic rate to give us a necessary rush of extra energy. Adrenaline is produced and stored in our two adrenal glands that are situated on top of the kidneys and with long-term stress these glands will deplete. Stress is often seen as negative but if stress is balanced with relaxation then its negative effects may be diminished and a balance can be achieved. Stress may also play a positive role as it strengthens our capacity to cope so that we are better prepared to deal with crisis. Adrenaline moves, motivates and energises.

Unfortunately modern stress is relentless and experienced day after day never giving us time to relax and balance ourselves. Stress caused by losing our job, failing exams, being late and stuck in traffic all gets bottled up and leads to anger, frustration and irritability. Over stressing our system releases excess stress related hormones, enzymes and other chemicals that result in leaving our bodies anxious, our muscles tense and feeling exhausted, eventually we burn out.
SRESSING THE SKIN
Stress effects our skin in a variety of ways.


Adrenaline redirects blood away from the skin and sends it to the muscles instead. This is why in times of relentless stress the skin becomes pale and "washed out".
Anger, irritability, excitement and frustration unleash chemicals, which stimulate the sebaceous glands into pouring out more oil. The excess sebum can block the pores and encourage the pimples to form. This is why we tend to break out in spots on the eve of an important occasion.
Chronic stress makes muscles tense up and become stiff. This prevents the flow of blood bringing enough oxygen and vital nutrients to the skin. Tension also is responsible for slowing the swift removal of wastes from the underlying tissue. Stressed skin lacks vitality and looks congested.
Strain slows down the rate of cell turnover so the fresh epidermal cells take longer to reach the skin surface and much of their moisture has disappeared. Under constant pressure the skin looks dull and sallow.
Continuous stress increases cortisone secretion, which suppresses the body's natural immunity. The skin's defence breaks down and allows the skin to be irritated by outside chemicals and pollutants.
Stress shatters serenity and fuels self-doubt. It is important to balance, regulate and compose your inner body environment and that will then express itself on the surface of the skin.

Stress on the Brain
Those aggravating things that go wrong in the day and those irritating things that go bump in the night – disrupting routines and interrupting sleep – all have a cumulative effect on your brain, especially its ability to remember and learn.

As science gains greater insight into the consequences of stress on the brain, the picture that emerges is not a pretty one. A chronic overreaction to stress overloads the brain with powerful hormones that are intended only for short-term duty in emergency situations. Their cumulative effect damages and kills brain cells.

Attack of the Adrenals”-A Metabolic Story
The ambulance siren screams it’s warning to get out of the way. You can’t move your car because you’re stuck in a bumper-to-bumper traffic jam that reaches as far as the eye can see. There must be an accident up ahead. Meanwhile the road construction crew a few feet from your car is jack-hammering the pavement. You are about to enter the stress zone.

Inside your body the alert goes out.
Attention all parasympathetic forces. Urgent. Adrenal gland missile silos mounted atop kidneys have just released chemical cortisol weapons of brain destruction. Mobilize all internal defenses. Launch immediate counter-calm hormones before hippocampus is hammered by cortisol."

Hormones rush to your adrenal glands to suppress the streaming cortisol on its way to your brain. Other hormones rush to your brain to round up all the remnants of cortisol missles that made it to your hippocampus. These hormones escort the cortisol remnants back to Kidneyland for a one-way ride on the Bladderhorn. You have now reached metabolic equilibrium, also known as homeostasis.

Inside Homeostasis
When a danger finally passes or the perceived threat is over, your brain initiates a reverse course of action that releases a different bevy of biochemicals throughout your body. Attempting to bring you back into balance, your brain seeks the holy grail of "homeostasis," that elusive state of metabolic equilibrium between the stimulating and the tranquilizing chemical forces in your body.
If either the one of the stimulating or tranquilizing chemical forces dominates the other without relief, then you will experience an on-going state of internal imbalance. This condition is known as stress. And it can have serious consequences for your brain cells.

Parasympathetic and Sympathetic Nervous System
The sympathetic nervous system (SNS) turns on the fight or flight response. In contrast, the parasympathetic nervous system (PNS) promotes the relaxation response.

Like two tug-of-war teams skillfully supporting their rope with a minimum of tension, the SNS and PNS carefully maintain metabolic equilibrium by making adjustments whenever something disturbs this balance.
The strongmen on these teams are hormones, the chemical messengers produced by endocrine glands. Named after a Greek word meaning "to set in motion," hormones travel through the bloodstream to accelerate or suppress metabolic functions.

The trouble is that some stress hormones don't know when to quit pulling. They remain active in the brain for too long – injuring and even killing cells in the hippocampus, the area of your brain needed for memory and learning. Because of this hierarchical dominance of the SNS over the PNS, it often requires conscious effort to initiate your relaxation response and reestablish metabolic equilibrium.

The Emotional Brain- Limbic System
The primary area of the brain that deals with stress is its limbic system. Because of its enormous influence on emotions and memory, the limbic system is often referred to as the emotional brain. It is also called the mammalian brain, because it emerged with the evolution with our warm-blooded relatives, and marked the beginning of social cooperation in the animal kingdom.

Whenever you perceive a threat, imminent or imagined, your limbic system immediately responds via your autonomic nervous system – the complex network of endocrine glands that automatically regulates metabolism.
The term "stress" is short for distress, a word evolved from Latin that means "to draw or pull apart." The Romans even used the term districtia to describe "a being torn asunder." When stressed-out, most of us can probably relate to this description.

Distress Signals from Your Brain
Your sympathetic nervous system does an excellent job of rapidly preparing you to deal with what is perceived as a threat to your safety. Its hormones initiate several metabolic processes that best allow you to cope with sudden danger.

Your adrenal glands release adrenaline (also known as epinephrine) and other hormones that increase breathing, heart rate, and blood pressure. This moves more oxygen-rich blood faster to the brain and to the muscles needed for fighting or fleeing. And, you have plenty of energy to do either, because adrenaline causes a rapid release of glucose and fatty acids into your bloodstream. Also, your senses become keener, your memory sharper, and you are less sensitive to pain.
Other hormones shut down functions unnecessary during the emergency. Growth, reproduction, and the immune system all go on hold. Blood flow to the skin is reduced. That's why chronic stress leads to sexual dysfunction, increases your chances of getting sick, and often manifests as skin ailments.
With your mind and body in this temporary state of metabolic overdrive, you are now prepared to respond to a life-threatening situation.

Getting Back to Normal
After a perceived danger has passed, your body then tries to return to normal. But this may not be so easy, and becomes even more difficult with age. Although the hyperactivating sympathetic nervous system jumps into action immediately, it is very slow to shut down and allow the tranquilizing parasympathetic nervous system to calm things down.
Once your stress response has been activated, the system wisely keeps you in a state of readiness.

Stress is Not All Bad
Bear in mind that an appropriate stress response is a healthy and necessary part of life. One of the things it does is to release norepinephrine, one of the principal excitatory neurotransmitters. Norepinephrine is needed to create new memories. It improves mood. Problems feel more like challenges, which encourages creative thinking that stimulates your brain to grow new connections within itself.
Stress management is the key, not stress elimination. The challenge in this day and age is to not let the sympathetic nervous system stay chronically aroused. This may require knowledge of techniques that work to activate your relaxation response.

Stress Activates Immune System-Study

Some kinds of acute stress are beneficial. For example, Ohio State University researchers found that stress from engaging in a memory task activated the immune system, whereas the stress from passively watching a violent video weakened immunity (as measured by salivary concentration of SIgA, a major immune factor).
Their results suggest that deadlines and challenges at work, even if annoying for a short time, could be a good thing that helps strengthen the body's defenses.
Stress Compromises the Blood-Brain Barrier


Stress can dramatically increase the ability of chemicals to pass through the blood-brain barrier. During the Gulf War, Israeli soldiers took a drug to protect themselves from chemical and biological weapons.
Normally, it should not have crossed the BBB, but scientists learned that the stress of war had somehow increased the permeability of the BBB. Nearly one-quarter of the soldiers complained of headaches, nausea, and dizziness – symptoms which occur only if the drug reaches the brain.

The BBB (Blood Brain Barrier)


Permeating the human brain are 400 miles of blood vessels – providing nutrients, fuel, and oxygen, while removing waste and excess heat. The capillaries in this vascular system also comprise what is called the blood-brain barrier (BBB), a protective network unique to the central nervous system.
Present in all vertebrate brains, the BBB is laid down within the first trimester of human fetal life. Although far from perfect, it does shield neurons from some poisons, viruses, and other toxins in the bloodstream – as well as from unpredictable fluctuations in normal blood chemistry.

Primary and Secondary BBB


The primary BBB is formed by cerebral capillaries that are different from those elsewhere in the body. Most capillary walls contain tiny openings called "slit pores" that permit molecules to diffuse easily into the surrounding tissue – somewhat like a soaker hose.

Cerebral capillaries do not have these clefts. They are lined with firmly connected endothelial cells, whose intercellular junctions are as tight as any in biology. Molecules must pass through cerebral capillary walls by active transport with certain carrier molecules, instead of through slit pores.
The secondary BBB surrounds the cerebral capillaries. It is composed of "glial" cells, the other family of brain cells that outnumber neurons by a factor of ten. Certain types of glial cells form a buffer between the brain's capillaries and its neurons. These support cells further obstruct toxins from the bloodstream, while regulating the correct flow of necessary nutrients.

To cut it short--
Is it true that constant stress for a cpl years can throw you into a depression,...? YES,it does.

Answer 2

Yes, constant or intermitant stress can cause people to go into a depression. Stress causes all kinds of changes in the body. These changes mostly start with cemicals (hormones) that are released in responce to the stress. The human body is always trying to stay in balance. And, the chemicals in the brain then have to change too - in an attempt to be in balance. This can throw the whole balance off - kind of a cascade or snowball effect. Anyway, if you think you or some one you know may have depression - know that depression is a real illness - just like kidney disease or diabetes. Depression can be treated - there are a lot of safe medicines on the market now with few or no side effects. Call your doctor today. Counceling is also a good idea - to help put the stress at ease. If you or a friend are thinking about hurting yourself or someone else - please take this seriously - call 911, a local ER or an EMS.

Answer 3

YES, stress can cause some people to jump off of buildings! It can cause all sorts of health problems.
You may want to do some research or ask your doctor about long term effects and what it physically does to your brain, as I am not a doctor, but I have had extreme stress for many many years, and I've been on depression/anxiety medication for 6 years now because of it. The stress and depression are still there, but I'm not trying to kill myself anymore.

Answer 4

constant stress and depression make ur brain feel inferior in all aspects. in the long term your depression will burn out through your skin leading to psoriasis. u develop white itchy patches all over your skin, knees, back, arm pits etc.
once psoriasis is grown up, it is very very difficult to cure.