One way to understand how long-term stress affects your health is through the General Adaptation Syndrome, which describes the three stages of stress – alarm, resistance, and exhaustion – https://www.healthline.com/health/general-adaptation-syndrome.
Before you experience stress, your body is in homeostasis. This is the state where the various body systems are in equilibrium. When you first perceive something stressful, the fight or flight response of the alarm phase begins.
