Is Stress Making You Sick?
How Chronic Stress Impacts Your Body and Mind in Young Adulthood
Stress doesn't always manifest as we anticipate. For many young adults, it goes beyond just having a busy schedule or racing thoughts; it can also include chest tightness, inexplicable stomach problems, breakouts that won't go away, or feeling exhausted even after a full night's sleep. Stress is frequently described as "normal." We all sense it, in a sense. However, when stress becomes chronic, your body begins to store it. Chronic stress can actually cause illness over time. At Manhattan Integrative Psychiatry, we help patients understand how stress affects the body and the mind and how integrative therapy can promote internal healing.
Why Stress Hits So Hard in Young Adulthood
There are many pressures associated with this stage of life, including dating, family expectations, financial strain, career uncertainty, and self-discovery. You're supposed to remain composed. Beneath the perfectionism and productivity, however, many young adults are experiencing physical exhaustion, disconnection, and overwhelm.
This constant internal pressure causes the body to react. At times, it appears as follows:
This chapter of life comes with pressure from all directions—career uncertainty, financial stress, dating, family expectations, and trying to figure out who you are. You're expected to hold it all together. But underneath the productivity and perfectionism, many young adults are feeling overwhelmed, disconnected, and physically depleted.
The body reacts to this nonstop internal pressure. Sometimes it looks like:
Skin flare-ups (stress rash)
Panic or shortness of breath
Trouble sleeping or staying asleep
Digestive issues, nausea, or appetite changes
Increased blood pressure
Fatigue that doesn’t improve with sleep
And yes, chronic stress is linked to more serious health concerns too. Ongoing dysregulation of your nervous system can play a role in heart disease, autoimmune flares, and has even been explored in studies asking, can stress cause cancer?
Can Stress Make You Sick?
The short answer: yes. Chronic stress affects your nervous system, hormones, immune response, digestion, and more. It’s not just emotional—it’s physical. When left unchecked, stress can become a root cause of health challenges.
If you’ve asked yourself:
Why am I always exhausted?
Why do I feel off, even when nothing is “wrong”?
Why can’t I relax?
These could be early signs your body is sounding the alarm. You should not wait until burnout or illness to take your stress seriously. At Manhattan Integrative Psychiatry, we will help you manage your stress utilizing a whole-person approach.
Our team of professionals takes an integrative approach to therapy. That means we don’t just treat symptoms—we look at how stress is affecting your whole system, and we work with you to shift that from the inside out.
Emotional Processing
Sometimes what looks like stress on the surface is connected to deeper wounds—past experiences, attachment injuries, or even post-traumatic stress complex. We create space to explore those safely and gently. Stress can make the smallest tasks feel hard. We’ll work with you to build daily rhythms that support your mental health—like better sleep, movement, nourishment, and emotional boundaries.
Body Awareness & Healing
Our approach includes mindfulness, grounding, and tuning into your body’s cues. You’ll learn how to notice when stress shows up physically—and how to respond instead of shutting down. You don’t need a crisis to reach out for support. You don’t have to wait for the “right” time or until things fall apart. If you’re feeling the effects of chronic stress, your body is telling you it’s time to pay attention.
Therapy can help you reconnect—with yourself, your body, and your life. We work with clients to understand how stress affects them individually, whether through physical symptoms, emotional overwhelm, or changes in behavior, and support them in creating daily routines and self-awareness practices that foster calm, focus, and long term resilience.
Let’s figure this out—together.
