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In the simplest terms, stress is experienced as a threat to the organism. Whether real or not, the thought that someone or something is threatening me now or in the future produces significant changes in the body. In the "fight or flight" reaction, the body increases its heart rate and blood pressure; adrenaline is pumped into the blood to provide maximum strength to the body. All functions which are unnecessary to carry out the ultimate decision to flee or to fight are diminished: digestion, cellular repair, procreation and other non-essential functions either cease of operate at a much-reduced level. In those cases where the fight or the flight occurs, the body uses the chemically-induced energy to achieve its goal. Within a very short time, the body has burned the adrenaline and other chemicals and returned to a normal, non-threatened, state.
Now when a judge, lawyer, or law student experiences stress, he or she usually cannot run away or fight the source of the stress. So this preparation the body makes for fight or flight is not physically resolved: the chemicals remain unburned in the body. Depending on a number of factors including genetically determined capacity for abuse, the nature and amount of stress, and the life choices made to exercise vigorously, etc, the body slowly begins to experience systemic degradation: digestive, circulatory, pulmonary, immune, affective, etc. Minor symptoms of this degradation are often ignored or seen as unrelated to the more fundamental problems. Increased frequency of colds, headaches, stomach upset, various aches and pains, allergies, marital dissatisfaction and discord, family conflicts, career dissatisfaction, irritability, abuse of alcohol or other drugs, increased involvement with gambling, sex or other addictive activities—these and more are related to the systemic degradation of the body due to chronic stress.
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