By: Vanessa Smith, LPC, LCSW

Stress isn’t new. But the kind of stress people are carrying today. That’s not just pressure, it’s poison.

We live in a time of nonstop noise: unstable economies, job insecurity, strained relationships, and digital burnout. And while society preaches productivity, it rarely talks about the cost. Toxic stress, the chronic kind that grinds away at your physical and mental health, isn’t just a personal issue. It’s a public one.

Toxic stress is silent and slow. It shows up as headaches, fatigue, irritability, insomnia, and anxiety. It erodes performance at work and peace at home. It disconnects us from others and ourselves. In the workplace, toxic stress breeds burnout and resentment. In relationships, it fuels conflict and isolation. Financially, it traps people in cycles of shame, fear, and exhaustion.

We’ve normalized suffering in silence. We glamorize “grind culture” while ignoring the toll it takes. We tell people to “push through” instead of giving them tools to pause and recover. That has to change.

As a society, we need to stop treating stress like a badge of honor. Employers must create environments that support mental health, not just with policies, but with real culture shifts. Schools should be teaching stress regulation as early as math. Healthcare must treat stress not as a symptom, but as a root cause.

And individually? We need to start listening to our bodies, honoring our limits, and letting go of the idea that rest is weakness.

This is not a call for coddling. It’s a call for realism. Chronic stress is linked to heart disease, depression, addiction, and early death. It's not a phase, it's a warning.

We can’t avoid all stress. But we can change how we handle it. That starts with awareness, honesty, and the courage to say: enough is enough.