Latest research conducted by the scientists has proved that chronic stress may make your mind prone to long term mental disease such as anxiety or mood disorder in later life.
It is proved that people with stress related illness have abnormalities in brain, including differences in the amount of grey matter and the white matter in the brain.
Grey matter is the part of the brain which stores and processes information, it mainly consist of cells, these cells are responsible for processing as well as storing of information Where as white matter is majorly composed of axons which is responsible for the creation of a network fiber that are used for interconnection.
The axons are surrounded by white fatty myelin, and that's the reason for calling it white matter. The myelin sheath speeds up the flow of electric signal from one cell to other. Scientists in California discovered that chronic stress leads to creation of increased amount of myelin cell and reduces the number of neuron less than normal. This result in increase concentration of myelin cell and hence the white matter, which eventually leads to disruption of the delicate balance between white matter and the gray matter in the brain.
The experiment was conducted on rat brain which revealed the permanent change in the brain portion suggesting full possibility of later mental problems.