Stress, Emotion, and New Habits: The Brain Under Pressure

By DMD Staff

Last updated: February 22, 2025

This article is the fourth part of a five part series on the neuroscience of habits. Read the first article here to start the series from the beginning.

Welcome to the fourth installment in our series on the neuroscience of habits. In our previous articles, we explored the fundamental habit loop and the powerful role dopamine plays in reinforcing our daily routines. Now, we turn to neuroplasticity—the brain’s remarkable ability to reorganize itself in response to new experiences. Understanding neuroplasticity is key to breaking old habits and establishing new, healthier ones.

Habits never exist in a vacuum. They are shaped by our environment, our relationships—and most crucially—our internal emotional climate. While many of us think of habits as straightforward “cue-routine-reward” loops, the reality is more nuanced. Stress and emotional states can hijack these loops, either accelerating a positive habit or plunging us deeper into harmful behaviors. This article delves into the neuroscience of how stress and emotion intersect with habit formation, shining light on why it can be so hard to maintain good habits when life gets tough—and how we can use this understanding to our advantage.

How Stress Influences Habit Formation

When we encounter a stressful situation—whether it’s a looming work deadline or an argument with a loved one—the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis kicks into gear. Corticotropin-releasing hormone (CRH) signals the pituitary gland to release adrenocorticotropic hormone (ACTH), which then prompts the adrenal glands to secrete cortisol, the body’s primary stress hormone. Cortisol’s job is to help mobilize energy and keep you alert and ready for action. But in chronic stress, these elevated cortisol levels can start to rewire brain circuits that govern habit and motivation.

Research published in the journal Psychoneuroendocrinology shows that sustained cortisol release can disrupt the prefrontal cortex (PFC)—the area of the brain responsible for executive functions like decision-making and impulse control. When the PFC is under duress, our capacity for self-regulation weakens. This can make us more prone to defaulting to older, less adaptive habits even if we’ve been working hard to change them.

Emotional States as Habit Triggers

Emotions serve as potent cues in the habit loop, sometimes overshadowing environmental triggers. For instance, the simple act of feeling anxious can drive a habit like stress-eating or nail-biting. A study in Biological Psychology found that individuals who experience high levels of daily anxiety are more likely to fall back into “comfort habits,” often automated coping mechanisms that provide immediate relief—like grabbing a sugary snack or doomscrolling on social media.

Negative emotional states—such as anger, sadness, or shame—amplify cravings for quick dopamine hits that may temporarily alleviate discomfort. In the short term, these habits might help you feel better. Over time, however, the basal ganglia (a key player in habit formation) starts “tagging” these emotional states as cues. You begin to crave the rewarding behavior whenever a similar emotion arises.

The Amygdala’s Role in Emotional Habits

The amygdala is frequently dubbed the “fear center,” but it’s more accurately an emotional salience detector that evaluates how significant or threatening a stimulus might be. When an event triggers intense emotion—positive or negative—the amygdala lights up. It communicates closely with the hippocampus (involved in memory) and other regions to lay down emotional memories.

Because the amygdala is highly active during stress or emotionally charged moments, any habit performed in these states can become deeply imprinted. For example, if you habitually reach for a glass of wine whenever you feel overwhelmed, the emotional response (stress) and the reward (relaxation or numbness) become tightly linked. Over time, your brain essentially fast-tracks this response into an automatic routine.

Stress, Emotion, and Habit “Stickiness”

One paradoxical aspect of habit neuroscience is that stress can actually make certain habits “stick” more firmly, whether or not they’re beneficial. Chronic stress can inhibit regions like the prefrontal cortex that support flexible thinking and self-control, shifting more behavioral control to subcortical structures such as the basal ganglia. This process, highlighted in a 2018 article from Nature Reviews Neuroscience, makes it harder to adopt new behaviors or break old ones because you’re relying on the more rigid, automatic habit pathways rather than reflective decision-making circuits.

This same mechanism means that if you establish a healthy habit in times of stress—like going for a jog or calling a supportive friend instead of diving into a bag of chips—it can also become a strong default response. Your brain, under stress, is more prone to hardwiring the habits you practice repeatedly.

Emotional Regulation as a Key to Habit Change

Because stress and emotion hold such sway over habits, emotional regulation skills can significantly affect our ability to form and sustain new behaviors. Techniques such as mindfulness meditation and cognitive reappraisal (rethinking a situation to change its emotional impact) can lessen the emotional intensity that drives impulsive, automatic actions.

For instance, a paper in Frontiers in Psychology demonstrated that mindful awareness training reduced participants’ tendency to engage in habitual eating when stressed. The study posits that when people become more aware of their emotional triggers in real time, they can create a pause—a moment of conscious choice—before the brain shifts into an automatic routine.

Breaking Unhelpful Habits Under Stress

1. Identify Emotional Cues
   Monitor when, where, and how your stress or emotional states arise. You might track them in a journal or use a habit-tracking app. Notice the feelings that tend to trigger unwanted routines—like boredom, anxiety, or frustration.

2. Replace, Don’t Just Remove
   Eliminating a habit without filling that void often leaves a craving that is easily re-triggered by stress. Swap in a healthier behavior—listening to music, stretching, or texting a friend—so you’re still meeting an emotional need, just in a better way.

3. Use “If-Then” Planning
   Cognitive psychologists recommend setting “if-then” statements, such as: “If I feel stressed and want to snack, then I will do ten deep breaths and have a glass of water first.” This approach helps the prefrontal cortex stay engaged and counters the pull of the basal ganglia’s automatic responses.

4. Practice Incremental Exposure to Stress
   Gradually expose yourself to mild stressors while consciously practicing healthier habits. If you can navigate small stress challenges successfully, your brain learns to generalize this new habit loop to more intense scenarios.

Transforming Stress into a Catalyst

It’s important to remember that stress isn’t inherently bad. A moderate level of stress, known as eustress, can enhance motivation and focus. In fact, the Yerkes-Dodson law (originally published in the Journal of Comparative Neurology and Psychology) suggests that an optimal amount of stress improves performance. The key is balancing stress levels so that they don’t undermine self-control and emotional stability.

If you can train yourself to respond to stress with constructive habits—like problem-solving, seeking social support, or engaging in short bursts of exercise—you capitalize on your stress hormones to fuel adaptive, rather than maladaptive, routines. Over time, this reorientation helps make healthy behaviors your go-to coping mechanisms.

Leveraging Emotional Insight for Better Habits

In practice, understanding how stress and emotion shape habits means embracing emotional insight. Instead of denying or suppressing feelings of frustration, anxiety, or sadness, acknowledge them as valuable signals—akin to a dashboard light that alerts you to what’s happening internally. By naming the emotion (“I’m feeling anxious”), pinpointing its source (“a major project deadline”), and having a predetermined response (“take five minutes to breathe or walk”), you break the direct link between stress and your unhelpful routines.

Additionally, sharing your emotional triggers and habit goals with trusted friends or a therapist can amplify accountability. Research in the journal Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience shows that social support not only buffers stress but also modulates activity in brain regions linked to threat and safety. This collective buffering can help stabilize emotional volatility, making it easier to stick to new, beneficial habits rather than revert to old patterns.

Ultimately, stress and emotion are powerful forces in the habit world—capable of either sabotaging our best intentions or fortifying new routines. By recognizing and skillfully managing these internal pressures, you can channel them into making your habit loops stronger and healthier. The key lies in self-awareness, emotional regulation, and a willingness to replace reflexive stress responses with mindful, intentional actions. And as we’ve explored throughout this series, each small adjustment you make—especially under pressure—ripples through your brain’s neural circuits, gradually transforming your default settings for the better.

In our next article, we'll explore how to use neuroplasticity to unlearn old habits and relearn healthier ones.

Remember, your habits are not fixed. They are a dynamic interplay of environment, brain chemistry, and deliberate choices. Mastering them is the first step toward building a life that aligns with your long-term goals and values.