Mental Attitude: Stress Can Lead to Mental Illness.
A new study explains why people suffering from chronic stress are prone to mental health problems later in life. Researchers have found excess white matter in some areas of the brain in chronically stressed people. This excess of myelin disrupts the “delicate balance” of the brain, causing communication between brain cells to slip out of normal timing. It is this timing issue that most likely leads to anxiety and mood disorders.
UC Berkeley, February 2014