Did you know that anxiety is a type of stress?
Stress of one kind or another – fear of thunderstorms, separation anxiety, stranger fear – can set off a complex chain of events.
For example, a cat with thunderstorm phobia living in a storm-prone area, would have a stress response every time there’s a storm. A cat suffering from separation anxiety would react every time they were left alone.
These cats can suffer chronic, repeated and uncontrolled stressful episodes that would often build and worsen over a lifetime.
This can shorten your cat's life...among other things. Chronic stress is associated with high levels of cortisol in the blood stream, which in turn has been related to a number of human disorders including obesity, insulin resistance, cardiovascular disease, immune disturbances, altered endocrine responses and nervous system disorders.