Stress truly is a killer. I remember the most stress I had ever been in in my life. I could not sleep and when I did it was for a few minutes at a time. I needed melatonin to sleep for these few minutes. I didn't have an appetite and my gut health became unhealthy because when I did eat, it was junk food. One of the days I woke up throwing up...literally sat up and bed and tried to make it to the bathroom. I could not think clearly. My hair was falling out in chunks. So yeah, extreme emotional upset leading to stress can lead to many physical health problems. Eventually I prayed multiple times a day saying, "Dear Lord, I cannot handle this. Please, take all of this burden from me. I cannot do it. I am so sick."
I tried not to think about the root cause and instead told myself, "God is in control." My health started to come back and I had more energy.
It isn't too surprising if you know about trauma and/or victims. The emotional toll messes with the cortisol and can cause chronic Addison's Disease because the adrenal glands are worn out and refuse to produce cortisol. We need cortisol for many functions. In abuse victims cortisol runs high because the fight and flight response is often on. The abuse victim does not often relax and usually have insomnia problems (often goes to bed late and wakes up early because they fear for their safety).