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As younger adults, my sibling and I would always give each other “the look,” the one we’d exchange when we could tell our mom was on edge, and we almost always knew what was putting her there. So, to placate her angst, we’d both — with whatever little we were earning — slide a few hundred dollars her way. Like magic, she’d become calm.

I find myself to be the same way, quite frankly. A gift of a few hundred dollars always puts me in a better mood (and I hope the right person is reading this for the message.) I don’t mean to make light of the very real feeling my mother was experiencing. Maintaining a harmonious household and family can be costly once you add up weekly groceries, utility bills, and a mortgage, and during those particular times of unease for my mother, there was perhaps a true emergency like a leaky roof, a car repair, or a mounting medical bill.

I’m sure you’ve encountered someone who just seems on edge. It could be for any number of reasons, but it’s true that often people wear their stress on their faces and display it through their behaviors. And according to experts, financial stress has a greater chance of being the reason behind that moody disposition.

We often address the importance of achieving and maintaining good financial health so that you are properly covered for a comfortable future and life’s unexpected costs. But there’s an equally important reason to ensure your financial well-being: to protect yourself against the very real toll that financial stress can take on your health.

You see, financial stress, physical health, and mental health are all linked. In fact, financial stress is consistently ranked as the number one cause of stress for most people worldwide. Health experts have said it triggers the fight-or-flight response in the nervous system, which acts as the body’s emergency alert, preparing you to confront or flee from danger by increasing your heart rate, dilating your airways, and surging your body with adrenaline. If persistent, this can lead to chronic insomnia, anxiety, depression, aches and pains, a weakened immune system, and an elevated risk of high blood pressure and heart disease.

Beyond the physical and emotional toll, financial stress can also push people toward unhealthy coping mechanisms like overeating, excessive drinking, misuse of alcohol or prescription medication, gambling, or illicit drug use. It can take you down a long spiral that makes everything worse and even harder to recover from.

So, what do we do with this information? Just as with every ailment, the sooner you identify the problem, the sooner you can start a treatment plan. That might mean sitting down and finally looking at the full picture of what you owe, having an uncomfortable conversation with a partner about household spending, or picking up the phone to ask for help before a small issue becomes a crisis. None of these steps feel good in the moment. They rarely do. But avoiding them only prolongs the discomfort and allows stress more time to take root in your body and your mind.

The relief that comes from facing a problem head-on is almost always greater than the dread of anticipating it. Like the saying goes, rip the Band-Aid off in one fell swoop—because that’s the fastest and easiest way to address your problems, both with your health and your finances.