Why is stress bad for your memory?
Everyone deals with heavy stress at some point in life. It is a kind of tension that occurs emotionally and physically.
As we know, it is a feeling which may come from anything, a moment or thought. Moreover, stress can easily make you feel frustrated or nervous or angry. It is a bodily reaction that can be good or bad.
It helps you avoid the dangers or a deadline if it occurs short term, but sometimes, it can also harm your health when it is long-term.
Like that stress interconnects with memory also. It can affect the formation of memory. But how does stress affect the brain and nerves?
If we see the reason behind it, stress generally kills brain cells. As a result, people lose the ability to be social and interact with others. The brain starts to shrink due to chronic stress.
People experience difficulty learning or remembering anything while being stressed.
It is one of the symptoms of brain stress. So, let’s know all the reasons why stress is bad for memory…
Bad Effects of Stress on Memory
Here we will discuss the bad effects of stress on memory.
When our body secretes stress hormones into the bloodstream it causes some changes in the brain which can cause damage.
Let’s know more about these damages:
#1: Flight or Fight Response
People who suffered from chronic stress find it difficult to deal with the homeostasis state. It stays in a continuous flight or fight situation.
These physiological effects of stress impact very negatively on learning power and memory.
In this situation, people experience difficulties in adapting to new situations and environments. They also experience to have impaired memory.
#2: Memory Formation
A person’s neural correlates can get affected by acute stress. It can interfere with memory formation.
The ability to focus while processing an image may get hampered. If a person’s attention and emotional condition are harmed during a stressful situation it becomes difficult for them to focus on memory formation.
The neuronal state of memory formation can also aid stress.
#3: Short-Term Memory Loss
Memory issues, such as forgetfulness or confusion, are generally related to depression.
It becomes difficult to concentrate on work or other duties, make judgments, or think clearly during stress. So, there can be sudden memory loss due to stress.
Memory loss can also occur by stress and anxiety. Short-term memory loss is mostly linked to depression.
#4: Long-Term Memory Loss
After a stressful event has passed, it is a lot easier to recall precise information. While it is difficult to recollect the specific information in a stressful scenario.
The main effect of stress on long-term memory is that it increases memory consolidation while impairing memory retrieval.
Cortisol is the stress hormone generated in stressful situations in our bodies. It is responsible for this poor influence on memory retrieval caused by stress.
Furthermore, it is seen that chronic stress has the potential to affect biological pathways of the body, which may disrupt the brain’s immune system.
This disruption can negatively affect the normal brain process, which may increase the risk of developing neurological diseases like Dementia.
#5: Reduces the Ability to Retain Episodic Memory
A person’s recollection of events or experiences from his or her own life is episodic or autobiographical memory.
Episodic memory is frequently used interchangeably. Stress tends to reduce the accuracy of autobiographical recollections. But it does not change the frequency or confidence with which they are remembered.
Flashback memories might occur after exposure to a traumatic and emotionally draining incident. The less accurate the autobiographical recollections are, the more flashback memories there are.
Let’s have a look at the remedial action you can take…
Remedial Action
If there are so many interconnections of stress with our memory, then there should be ways of recovery also. Let’s shed light on how to reverse memory loss from stress?
You can change your day-to-day activities; it will affect you a lot. Try to include some physical activities.
Keep yourself mentally active and try to socialize regularly. Have healthy diets, manage your sleep pattern, and organize the things inside or outside of yours.
All these bits of advice will be helpful for you…
Conclusion
In this article, we got to know the reasons behind the stress that is bad for our memory.
Stress cannot always be taken negatively; it can aid memory formation sometimes. We have also discussed the occurrence of memory loss due to stress.
There may be a question that arises in your mind “is memory loss from stress permanent or not?”
So, these changes in the brain are not necessarily permanent. Of course, stress negatively affects the brain, but our body and brain can recover from it.
Doctors give you several solutions that can help you to get rid of the stress. There are therapies and medications and also includes some lifestyle changes that develop your stress management skills.
There are so many alternatives to calm your anxiety and stress, so you need not worry about it.
So, people, we hope this article was informative to you…!
READ MORE: What does stress do to the body?
