How Stress and Anxiety Affect Your Skin?
It’s no news that daily life can be demanding. From the everyday hustles and bustles, we face in our career, family, relationships, or academic life to unprecedented events such as accidents, sickness, or loss of loved ones. Consequently, as humans, our bodies are subjected to a series of stressors throughout our lives. While this is part of our daily life, experiencing this unending stress can manifest physically in different ways, starting from our skin.
In most cases, it can trigger an increase in oil production, acne breakouts, irritation, inflammation, dryness, premature aging, and so on. If you wish to understand how this all works, join us as we explore this subject. In this article, we’ll be discussing how stress and mental health affect your skin and the simple ways to relieve stress and its impact on your skin. Don’t forget you can always schedule a FREE consultation with us if you have any questions at the end.
So, let’s get to it!
How Does Stress & Anxiety Affect Your Skin?
Our bodies are generally designed to fight off perceived threats like stress. When we are stressed, the brain responds by sending a fight or flight signal via a series of glands, thereby causing an increase in the production of a hormone known as cortisol. This hormone is responsible for regulating blood sugar, blood pressure, and how your body responds to stress.
Once the production of cortisol is increased, it sends a surge in the amount of oil produced in the sebaceous glands. However, this action can cause issues on the skin, such as the following;
As you already know, clogged pores are one of the major causes of acne breakouts. The excess oil produced due to increased levels of cortisol will likely clog pores and trap dead skin cells. Once this process occurs, the skin is highly susceptible to developing acne breakouts at that point.
Without being told, you may have noticed that people who undergo prolonged stress seem to age faster. Once the cortisol level is on the increase, its excess binds with skin cells to fasten the loss of elastin and collagen on the skin. As a result, the skin begins to form fine lines, thin out, and lose its elasticity and firmness.
Another consequence of having cortisol in excess is slow wound healing. The excessive presence of the hormone affects the immune system and interrupts the body’s ability to heal faster from wounds. This process can lead to prolonged inflammation.
Elevated cortisol levels due to stress can also weaken the skin barrier, thereby affecting the skin’s ability to retain moisture. This action in general affects your skin’s health and promotes the appearance of fine lines or flakiness on the skin.
Cortisol can also interrupt the activities of the immune cells responsible for protecting the skin against pathogens. When this occurs, it leaves the skin vulnerable to various skin conditions, especially the ones that come with irritation. On the other hand, stress can trigger autoimmune problems and worsen the state of inflammatory skin conditions, such as Eczema, Psoriasis, Rosacea, Alopecia, Vitiligo, etc.
Other effects of stress and anxiety on the skin include profuse sweating and stress hives (rashes). When stressed, the body produces an allergy chemical known as histamine. This action causes the skin to develop rashes as if it’s experiencing an allergic reaction.
How To Manage Stress for a Healthier Skin?
Usually, whenever we are stressed, we tend to neglect our skin and start making unhealthy choices, like sleeping with makeup and not bathing as needed. Having understood how stress and anxiety affect your skin, let’s consider diverse strategies you can adopt to help relieve stress and reduce its impact on your skin.
Just like we always say, committing to a good skincare routine is the bedrock to developing a healthy-glowing skin. You can start with the basics which are Cleansing, Moisturizing, and Applying sunscreen. For cleansing, ensure to use gentle formulas that won’t irritate your skin, such as our Blanco Facial Cleanser. Use our Eye Skin Lifting Serum and Vitamin C serum to nourish your stressed skin. On top of it, you apply the Mary Cannabis Moisturizer to keep your skin relaxed and soft. Afterward, protect with our 24-hour Sunblock.
To keep your body relaxed and refreshed, make time for leisure. You can practice relaxation exercises like yoga and slow breathing to keep your mental health balanced. After the day’s work, spend quality time with loved ones.
Avoid consuming too much of fries, and sugary foods that are mostly likely to trigger skin inflammation. Instead, we recommend healthy foods, such as vegetables, fruits, and other foods rich in vitamins and antioxidants for healthier skin.
Regardless of how busy your schedule might be, always make time for a quality sleep. At best, we recommend having about 6 to 8 hours of sleep every night. This will help rejuvenate your whole body system after undergoing stress.
If you find yourself always experiencing anxiety, especially from stress, we recommend taking it slow. If you perceive this issue is getting worse, kindly seek the help of a licensed professional like a psychologist or counselor.
Conclusion
Due to the daily hustles or pressure we experience in diverse areas of our lives, our bodies are usually subjected to stressors. However, the effects of overly subjecting ourselves to these stressors impact our skin in many ways, such as acne breakouts, premature aging, dryness, weakened skin barrier, skin irritations, and impaired wound healing.
To stay ahead of this issue, learn to unwind and relax. Develop a quality skincare routine, sleep well, map out time for leisure, and embark on exercises that will relax your mental state. In case you don’t have any routine or need our professional assistance on your skin, you are welcome to book a FREE consultation with our experts online. Click below to get started.
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