Stress gets blamed for just about everything.
Poor sleep. Headaches. Low energy. Irritability. Weight gain. Burnout. Anxiety. High blood pressure. Lack of motivation.
But stress itself is not necessarily the enemy.
Stress is a normal biological response that helps us react to challenges, demands and potential threats. In small doses, stress can actually be useful. It can sharpen your focus before an important presentation, increase your alertness during an emergency or motivate you to finish something before a deadline.
The problem begins when stress stops being temporary and starts becoming the way you live every day.
Work deadlines, finances, family responsibilities, health concerns, relationships, caregiving, traffic, social media, emails, notifications and lack of sleep can all contribute. Even good things, such as getting married, starting a new job, buying a house or having a baby, can create stress.
Understanding the difference between normal stress and chronic stress is important because stress affects much more than your mood.
Stress is the physical and mental response your body produces when it believes something requires your attention or action.
When the brain detects a challenge or threat, the sympathetic nervous system activates and hormones such as adrenaline help prepare the body to respond. Heart rate increases, breathing becomes faster, muscles tense and blood pressure can temporarily rise. Another part of the stress response, called the hypothalamic pituitary adrenal axis, helps regulate hormones including cortisol.
This is commonly known as the fight or flight response.
It is not a malfunction. It is a survival system.
If a car suddenly pulls out in front of you, you want your body to react immediately. You do not want to calmly analyze the situation for five minutes. You need heightened awareness and faster reaction time.
Once the threat passes, the body is designed to move toward recovery.
The trouble comes when the alarm keeps going off even though you are not facing an immediate physical danger. Today, the threat may be an overflowing inbox, financial concerns, an argument, lack of sleep or worrying about something that has not even happened yet.
MedlinePlus explains that stress hormones increase alertness, muscle tension and pulse. Short term, those changes can help us respond to a challenge. Long term, repeatedly keeping the body in that heightened state can contribute to health problems.
The simplest way to understand stress is to look at how long it lasts and what caused it.
Acute stress is short term. It usually appears quickly and decreases after the situation passes.
Examples include narrowly avoiding a car accident, giving an important presentation, having an argument, competing in an athletic event, taking a difficult test or dealing with an unexpected problem at work.
Acute stress is not automatically harmful. In fact, short term stress can help improve alertness and performance when the challenge is manageable.
Chronic stress lasts for weeks, months or even years.
This might include ongoing financial problems, an unhealthy relationship, constant workplace pressure, caring for a sick family member, living with chronic pain or health problems, or repeatedly sleeping poorly while juggling work and family responsibilities.
This is the type of stress that deserves the most attention.
People can become so accustomed to chronic stress that they stop recognizing it. Feeling exhausted, irritable or overwhelmed simply becomes their version of normal.
MedlinePlus warns that long term stress may contribute to conditions including high blood pressure, heart disease, diabetes, depression and anxiety.
Some stress comes from experiencing or witnessing an event involving serious injury, violence, disaster or another frightening situation.
The stress response after trauma can continue long after the immediate danger is gone. For some people, those symptoms can develop into post traumatic stress disorder and require professional treatment.
Not every stressful experience is trauma, and not every person who experiences trauma develops PTSD. But persistent symptoms after a traumatic event should not simply be dismissed as everyday stress.
Not all stress is bad.
A challenging workout is a perfect example.
When you lift weights, your muscles, cardiovascular system and nervous system are intentionally being challenged. Then you recover. With adequate nutrition, sleep and recovery, the body adapts and becomes stronger.
A similar idea can apply to life.
Learning something difficult, competing, starting a new career, speaking in front of a group or working toward an important goal can all create stress while also producing growth.
The key is whether the challenge is manageable and whether recovery follows it.
A healthy life does not require eliminating every stressor. It requires preventing stress from consistently exceeding your ability to recover.
When stress becomes constant, its effects can reach throughout the body.
The American Heart Association notes that chronic stress can affect sleep, energy and mood while contributing to behaviors and physical changes that influence cardiovascular health. Stress can temporarily increase heart rate and blood pressure, while ongoing stress may contribute to high blood pressure and behaviors associated with heart disease and stroke.
Stress can also show up as headaches, muscle tension, stomach problems, disrupted sleep, irritability, difficulty concentrating and changes in appetite.
Mental health is affected too. Stress and anxiety are related, but they are not exactly the same. Stress generally occurs in response to an external situation. Anxiety may continue even when there is no immediate threat. When worry, fear or tension become persistent and begin interfering with everyday life, it is important to pay attention. The National Institute of Mental Health provides additional information on the differences between stress and anxiety.
One of the biggest problems with chronic stress is what it can cause us to do.
People become overwhelmed and stop exercising. They sleep less. Food choices deteriorate. They isolate themselves. Alcohol consumption may increase. Some smoke, vape, overeat or spend hours staring at a screen trying to mentally escape.
Unfortunately, those behaviors can make the original problem worse.
We should be careful with claims that stress simply “makes you old.” Human aging is much more complicated than that.
However, researchers are increasingly studying the relationship between prolonged psychological stress and biological aging.
A 2026 scientific review described associations between chronic psychological stress and several processes related to aging, including inflammation, mitochondrial dysfunction, cellular senescence, changes in DNA regulation and telomere attrition. Researchers are still working to understand exactly how these mechanisms interact and how much can be reversed, but the relationship between long term stress and biological aging is an important area of research.
This is another reason stress management should be considered part of a healthy aging strategy, right alongside exercise, nutrition, sleep and maintaining social connections.
Stress management does not mean sitting quietly and pretending your problems do not exist. Effective strategies help your body recover while also helping you deal with the source of the problem.
Some of the strongest options include regular exercise, consistent sleep, spending time with supportive people, eating regular nutritious meals, getting outside, practicing breathing or relaxation techniques, limiting excessive caffeine, journaling and addressing problems that are actually within your control.
One exercise I recommend is dividing your stress into three categories: what you can control, what you can influence and what you cannot control.
You can control whether you exercise tonight, what time you go to bed, what you eat, how much alcohol you drink and how much time you spend on your phone.
You may be able to influence a relationship, workplace situation or financial problem through communication, preparation and better decisions.
You cannot control another person’s behavior, the past, every unexpected event or everything happening around you.
A tremendous amount of stress comes from spending energy trying to control that third category.
Exercise will not eliminate your responsibilities.
Your bills will still be there when the workout ends. The difficult conversation may still need to happen. Your deadlines will not magically disappear.
But exercise can change how your body and mind respond to stress.
The CDC reports that a single session of moderate to vigorous physical activity can improve sleep, reduce feelings of anxiety and lower blood pressure. Regular activity provides additional benefits for brain health, cardiovascular health and depression risk.
Research is also moving beyond the old explanation that exercise simply releases endorphins.
A 2024 systematic review examining exercise and stress reactivity found that an acute bout of exercise produced reliable reductions in blood pressure and cortisol responses to later stressors in the studies reviewed.
Strength training deserves a place in this conversation too. A 2025 systematic review and meta analysis involving adults with diagnosed depression or anxiety found benefits from aerobic exercise, resistance training and programs combining both forms of exercise.
That does not mean exercise replaces medical or mental health treatment when it is needed.
It means movement is one of the most accessible tools we have to support both physical and mental health.
Walk. Lift weights. Ride a bike. Swim. Hike. Practice yoga. Play a sport.
Find something you can continue doing.
The World Health Organization recommends that adults aim for at least 150 minutes of moderate intensity activity each week, with muscle strengthening activities involving major muscle groups at least twice per week. More activity can provide additional benefits, but something is always better than nothing.
One of the biggest differences between healthy and unhealthy coping is whether the behavior helps you recover or simply helps you escape temporarily.
After a stressful day it is easy to think, “I need a drink.”
Alcohol may temporarily decrease emotional discomfort, but repeatedly using alcohol as a stress management tool can become part of the problem.
The National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism reports that drinking to cope with stress can provide temporary relief while increasing negative emotional states between episodes of drinking. That can encourage additional drinking and create an unhealthy cycle.
Alcohol can also alter normal sleep physiology, which is particularly important because good sleep is one of the body’s most important recovery tools. The National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism provides additional information about alcohol, sleep and co occurring mental health conditions.
Nicotine can create a similar illusion of stress relief. Someone who smokes or vapes may feel calmer afterward, but nicotine dependence itself produces cravings and withdrawal symptoms that feel stressful. Smokefree.gov notes that smoking does not solve the source of stress and that nicotine addiction can actually create additional stress.
Overeating, compulsive shopping, excessive screen time and constantly avoiding uncomfortable situations can serve a similar purpose. They may temporarily distract you without helping you solve or adapt to what is creating the stress.
The question to ask yourself is simple:
Is this helping me handle my stress, or am I simply trying not to feel it?
Exercise, sleep and other healthy habits are powerful tools, but there is a point when self care alone may not be enough.
The National Institute of Mental Health recommends seeking professional help when severe or distressing symptoms last two weeks or longer. Warning signs can include persistent sleep problems, significant appetite or weight changes, difficulty getting out of bed because of mood, trouble concentrating, loss of interest in things you normally enjoy, inability to complete normal responsibilities, or persistent irritability and restlessness.
You should also consider talking with a health care or mental health professional when stress or anxiety is interfering with work, relationships, sleep or everyday activities, when you increasingly depend on alcohol or other substances to cope, or when you feel that you simply cannot manage what you are experiencing.
Getting help is not a failure to manage stress correctly. Sometimes the appropriate way to handle a problem is to bring in someone trained to help you deal with it.
If you or someone you know is in immediate emotional distress or thinking about self harm or suicide, call or text 988 to reach the Suicide and Crisis Lifeline. In a life threatening emergency, call 911 or go to the nearest emergency department. The National Institute of Mental Health provides additional crisis and mental health resources.
After more than two decades of working with people of different ages, professions and fitness levels, one thing is very clear.
Everyone is carrying something.
The business owner has stress. The parent has stress. The physician has stress. The teacher has stress. The retiree has stress. And sometimes the person who appears to have everything completely under control is carrying more than anyone realizes.
Exercise will not make every problem disappear.
What it can do is give you a productive place to put some of that energy while helping you build a stronger body, improve your health, sleep better and create time away from the constant noise.
Train your body.
Protect your sleep.
Eat in a way that supports your health.
Stay connected to people who are good for you.
Address what you can change.
Learn healthier ways to respond to what you cannot.
And be careful about habits that only numb the problem.
You may not be able to control everything creating stress in your life, but you can control what you do next.
Sometimes the best place to start is simply to get moving.
Committed to your overall health,
Coach Fred