 Hello Psych2Go viewers, we want to start off this video by giving you all a huge thank you. With your help, we at Psych2Go are closer to our goal of making psychology more accessible for everyone. Now onto the video. Everyone has experienced stress at some point, but what is stress exactly? What happens to your body when anxiety overtakes you, and what does stress do to your veins? There are six things that happen to your body when you experience anxiety. But first, what is stress? Stress is commonly defined as a state of mental or emotional strain or tension that people experience when there are negative or emotionally and physically draining circumstances. Anxiety is defined as a feeling of worry, nervousness, or unease about something with an uncertain outcome. Most people experience stress and anxiety at some point in their lives. Depending on the level of severity, they can detrimentally impact one's quality of life. Although stress and anxiety share many of the same emotional and physical symptoms, uneasiness, tension, headaches, high blood pressure, and loss of sleep, they have very different origins. You usually know what causes your stress, whereas for anxiety, it can come out of the blue. Now onto our list. 1. Nervous system. No pun intended. You've probably heard of the fight-or-flight response, and stress and anxiety tend to activate this fight-or-flight feeling. This is related to your sympathetic nervous system, SNS, and parasympathetic nervous system, PNS. The main difference between these is that the PN system takes care of the resting functions such as lowering your heartbeat at rest. The SNS controls the action state and the functions that are a part of it. When stressed or anxious, your sympathetic nervous system becomes more active, sometimes even overactive. 2. Digestion slows, and that can be pretty bad. Most digestive processes take place during a calmer resting state. So naturally, the two systems have different effects during stress. When stress and anxiety get you into an action state, the digestion process is suppressed. 3. Unwanted or unhealthy weight loss. This prolonged stress and anxiety decreases your digestion, your appetite is likely to suffer too. You might not feel as hungry as usual because of the stress, or just not mentally in the mood to eat. 4. Sleep problems and exhaustion. When your mind and body are going 100 miles per hour because of the anxiety, it sounds quite logical that your sleep will be affected too. Your body won't properly go back to its resting state. In the 2007 Stress and Anxiety Disorders Survey, researchers found that around 7 out of 10 adults with anxiety experience sleeping problems. Lack of sleep can also increase the effects you are already experiencing from the stress and anxiety. 5. Muscle Tension. Apart from difficulty relaxing mentally, stress can also make it harder to relax your muscles. The constant tension can result in muscle aches that can last from anywhere from a few minutes to days. 6. Wear and tear on your veins. Stress and anxiety cause your blood pressure to rise and over a long period of time this can wear down your veins more than average. It could possibly slightly increase your chances of cardiovascular disease. It's unclear by how much this chance would increase and naturally it is neither a guarantee nor does it occur in everyone who has long term stress. All things considered, it's interesting to see how some things like stress and anxiety can have effects beyond the mental ones. What others do you know or have experienced? Let us know in the comments below. Also, if you liked this video, be sure to check out our other videos on anxiety. And don't forget to like and subscribe for more content. Thanks for watching!