How Unprocessed Emotions Show Up as Physical Illness?

A racing pulse, a tense neck, a queasy stomach these are often the first signs of something amiss.

- Megha Suryavanshi

Blood tests come back fine. Yet the symptoms linger. Increasingly, researchers and clinicians recognize that the root may lie in unprocessed emotional stress. When feelings aren't fully experienced or released, the body carries them and symptoms emerge not out of imagination, but as genuine physical signals rooted in how emotions interact with biology.

At the centre of this mind-body conversation sits the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis. It's the system that organizes our stress response releasing cortisol and other hormones when needed. Short bursts, okay. But if those bursts don't stop? The system remains in overdrive. And that's no good. Sustained stress starts compromising immunity, digestion, sleep, heart health you name it. Studies dating back to the mid-2000s confirm that people under lasting emotional pressure have significantly elevated cortisol a clear sign of chronic stress baked into the body.