How long stress lasts also determines whether it negatively impacts your blood pressure and your health. There are two types of stress:
Acute or short-term stress happens suddenly when we respond to immediate danger such as a near-miss in traffic. The intensity of the stress depends on what causes the stress and how you respond.
New research shows that people who have been exposed to a traumatic event—such as a serious car accident, a terrorist incident, domestic violence, or war-related combat—are at higher risk for developing high blood pressure and related health problems, even if the event only took up a short period of time.
Chronic or long-term stress occurs over a long period of time and doesn’t appear to have an easy or quick solution. Job difficulties, everyday traffic congestion, and relationship problems are all examples of chronic stress.
This kind of stress tends to have more negative health effects than short-term stress because it causes long-term changes in the body that can throw all of your systems out of balance.
So both types of stress—certain types of short-term stress and stress that occurs over a long period of time—can have a negative impact on your blood pressure.