{"id":108847,"date":"2025-02-10T19:40:38","date_gmt":"2025-02-10T19:40:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.stress.org\/?post_type=news&#038;p=108847"},"modified":"2025-04-28T19:19:03","modified_gmt":"2025-04-28T19:19:03","slug":"turn-back-the-clock-dont-let-stress-add-years-to-your-age","status":"publish","type":"news","link":"https:\/\/www.stress.org\/news\/turn-back-the-clock-dont-let-stress-add-years-to-your-age\/","title":{"rendered":"Turn Back the Clock: Don\u2019t Let Stress Add Years to Your Age"},"content":{"rendered":"<h3 class=\"blog-entry__subtitle--full\">Slow down stress-related aging before your body and brain pay the price.<\/h3>\n<div class=\"blog_entry__key-points\">\n<h4 class=\"blog_entry__key-points-title\">Key points<\/h4>\n<ul class=\"blog_entry__key-points-item-list\">\n<li class=\"blog_entry__key-points-item\">A person&#8217;s subjective age predicts their overall health more accurately than their chronological age.<\/li>\n<li class=\"blog_entry__key-points-item\">Feeling like you&#8217;ve aged years in the last few weeks is a normal response to current events.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"field-name-body\">\n<p>In research, there are multiple ways to measure a person\u2019s age, and perhaps the one that matters most at the personal level is subjective age. This is the age that you \u201cfeel\u201d yourself to be rather than a count of the number of birthdays you\u2019ve celebrated. And depending on your subjective age, you may not feel that your birthday is much of a reason for celebration anymore.<\/p>\n<p>Our subjective age is influenced by what\u2019s happening\u00a0<em>inside<\/em>\u00a0our bodies and what is happening\u00a0<em>around<\/em>\u00a0us\u2014at the local, community, national, and global levels (Hughes et al., 2021). We are connected to one another, whether we realize that or not, and experiencing trauma or witnessing the\u00a0<a class=\"basics-link\" title=\"Psychology Today looks at traumatic\" href=\"https:\/\/www.psychologytoday.com\/us\/basics\/trauma\" hreflang=\"en-US\">traumatic<\/a>\u00a0treatment of others, even people we don\u2019t know, affects us\u2014and literally\u00a0<em>ages<\/em>\u00a0us.\u00a0<a class=\"basics-link\" title=\"Psychology Today looks at Stress\" href=\"https:\/\/www.psychologytoday.com\/us\/basics\/stress\" hreflang=\"en-US\">Stress<\/a>\u00a0can play a huge role in our subjective and biological, not chronological, age in a number of ways (Polsky et al., 2022). Stress compromises our bodies\u2019 ability to fight off illness and speeds up the aging process at the cellular level.<\/p>\n<div class=\"markup-replacement-slot markup-replacement-slot-0\" data-slot-position=\"0\"><\/div>\n<p>If you\u2019re one of the \u201cBoomers\u201d or older \u201cGen Xers,\u201d you have lived through some significant historical upheavals. On the positive side, we\u2019ve witnessed hard-fought advancements regarding civil rights, voting rights, Fair Housing rulings, reproductive rights, women\u2019s rights, gay rights, and the embrace of environmental advocacy and action. These were big wins for our nation, but the need for these victories underscores the pain of these inequities that were present for far too long.<\/p>\n<div class=\"markup-replacement-slot markup-replacement-slot-1\" data-slot-position=\"1\"><\/div>\n<p>Active participation in these struggles may have caused individual trauma for those directly involved. However, collective trauma is a term that might be applied to folks who witnessed the struggle and anguish and loss of life that it took to achieve these\u00a0<a class=\"basics-link\" title=\"Psychology Today looks at goals\" href=\"https:\/\/www.psychologytoday.com\/us\/basics\/motivation\" hreflang=\"en-US\">goals<\/a>. And collective trauma is happening across the nation now as we witness the \u201cshock and\u00a0<a class=\"basics-link\" title=\"Psychology Today looks at awe\" href=\"https:\/\/www.psychologytoday.com\/us\/basics\/awe\" hreflang=\"en-US\">awe<\/a>\u201d efforts of political leaders to shake up the federal government.<\/p>\n<p>The last three weeks of political and governmental upheaval have likely been very impactful for folks born in the 60s and 70s\u2014who witnessed the changes that were enacted when people fought for what we believe is right and good for the nation\u2019s people. Now, as rights are being stripped away and citizens\u2019 lives put in danger by the very body that is charged with protecting the nation and its people, the government, it\u2019s totally normal to feel overwhelmed, fearful, and as if you\u2019ve aged years in a month. Stress totally speeds up the normal aging process and raises your subjective age.<\/p>\n<div class=\"markup-replacement-slot markup-replacement-slot-3\" data-slot-position=\"3\"><\/div>\n<p>Fortunately, there are some actions you can take to \u201cturn back the clock\u201d and mitigate the damage that the stressors are leaving in their wake. Here are some \u201canti-aging\u201d strategies that will contribute to your overall well-being:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Volunteer for a cause you care about.<\/strong>\u00a0<a class=\"basics-link\" title=\"Psychology Today looks at Altruism\" href=\"https:\/\/www.psychologytoday.com\/us\/basics\/altruism\" hreflang=\"en-US\">Altruism<\/a>\u00a0is healing. Not only that, but spending time around people who are passionate about the changes you want to see come about builds a strong sense of pride, cohesion, and esprit de corps within the group.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Find community.<\/strong>\u00a0Connecting with others in positive ways helps us manage stress. Friends serve as stress buffers as they help normalize our feelings, share ideas for coping, and distract us from our worries.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Get outside.\u00a0<\/strong>Fresh air and sunshine lift moods, and when your mood is lightened, you\u2019re actively reducing your subjective age, and the younger you feel, the healthier your outlook and your body.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Limit your time online.\u00a0<\/strong>Guard against spending too much time marinating in news sites that only confirm your worst fears or generate new ones.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Learn a new skill.<\/strong>\u00a0Practicing\u00a0<a class=\"basics-link\" title=\"Psychology Today looks at mindfulness\" href=\"https:\/\/www.psychologytoday.com\/us\/basics\/mindfulness\" hreflang=\"en-US\">mindfulness<\/a>\u00a0really helps the brain take a break and reset. Or learn a new sport\u2014working out and exercising positively affect the brain by increasing blood flow, generating endorphins, and building new pathways between neurons.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<div class=\"markup-replacement-slot markup-replacement-slot-4\" data-slot-position=\"4\"><\/div>\n<p>You\u2019re only as old as you feel, and if you\u2019re exposing yourself to stress and trauma-inducing stimuli without an emotional safety plan in place, you\u2019ll be aging yourself a lot quicker than nature would. We can\u2019t keep the world from churning, but we can keep ourselves from being churned up by events we cannot control.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<h5><a href=\"http:\/\/stress.org\">To learn more about stress, go to stress.org<\/a><\/h5>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<div class=\"blog-entry-references\" data-hide-large-count-items=\"false\">\n<p class=\"blog-entry-references-label\">References<\/p>\n<div class=\"blog-entry-references-content-items\">\n<div class=\"blog-entry-references-content\">\n<p>Hughes, M. L., &amp; Touron, D. R. (2021). Aging in context: Incorporating everyday experiences into the study of subjective age.\u00a0<em>Frontiers in Psychiatry<\/em>,\u00a0<em>12<\/em>, 633234.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"blog-entry-references-content\">\n<p>Polsky, L. R., Rentscher, K. E., &amp; Carroll, J. E. (2022). Stress-induced biological aging: A review and guide for research priorities.\u00a0<em>Brain, Behavior, and Immunity<\/em>,\u00a0<em>104<\/em>, 97-109.<\/p>\n<p>By <a href=\"https:\/\/www.psychologytoday.com\/us\/contributors\/suzanne-degges-white-phd\"><strong>Suzanne Degges-White, Ph.D.<\/strong><\/a>, is a licensed counselor and professor at Northern Illinois University.<\/p>\n<p>OP-Psychology Today<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.pexels.com\/photo\/man-in-black-jacket-wearing-black-headphones-3831645\/\">Photo by Andrea Piacquadio<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Slow down stress-related aging before your body and brain pay the price. Key points A person&#8217;s subjective age predicts their overall health more accurately than their chronological age. Feeling like [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":110678,"menu_order":0,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"give_campaign_id":0,"pmpro_default_level":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false},"categories":[12,178,142,15],"tags":[137,141,143,145,155,120,175,165],"class_list":["post-108847","news","type-news","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-adult-stress","category-burnout","category-health","category-mental-health","tag-american-institute-of-stress","tag-health","tag-mental-health","tag-relaxation","tag-research","tag-stress","tag-stress-reduction","tag-stress-relief","pmpro-has-access"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v25.5 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Turn Back the Clock: Don\u2019t Let Stress Add Years to Your Age - The American Institute of Stress<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"A person&#039;s subjective age predicts their overall health more accurately than their chronological age. 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