The Disease Caused by Stress That Few Know About

Most of us know that stress can give us headaches, ruin our sleep, or make us feel anxious. But did you know there’s a lesser-known condition that can quietly develop in your body due to chronic stress? It’s called psychogenic fever, and it’s more common than you think — yet few people know it even exists.

Psychogenic fever is a real, physical condition where your body temperature rises due to psychological stress rather than any infection or virus. In other words, your mind is so overwhelmed that your body reacts by increasing its internal temperature — almost like your emotions are “boiling over.”

Unlike the fevers we get from flu or infections, this one doesn’t respond to paracetamol or antibiotics. That’s because it isn’t caused by germs. It’s your nervous system activating your body’s heat-producing mechanisms as a stress response. In some people, the fever is mild, around 99–100°F, while in others, it can rise much higher — sometimes as high as 104°F. Scary, right?