Brazil is experiencing an unprecedented mental health crisis in the workplace. According to official data from the Ministry of Social Security, in 2024 alone, the National Social Security Institute (INSS) received 472,000 requests for leave due to mental and behavioral disorders. Anxiety leads the reasons, with 141,414 cases, followed by depressive episodes (113,604).
The alert intensifies with recent data presented by the Labor Prosecution Office (MPT) and the International Labour Organization (ILO) in Brazil: mental health-related absences increased by 134% between 2022 and 2024. Among the main reasons are reactions to stress (28.6%), anxiety (27.4%), and recurrent depression (8.46%).
For Dr. Lilian Gontijo, a specialist in Family and Community Medicine at the Hospital das Clínicas of UFMG, also trained in Geriatrics and Gerontology, who works with an integrative functional approach, these numbers reflect the collapse of a lifestyle model based on excessive demands and disconnection from the body’s real needs. ‘We live in a culture of hyper-productivity, with increasingly blurred boundaries between work and personal life. The human body was not made to remain on constant alert,’ she says.
According to her, chronic stress manifests throughout the entire body: from hormonal and digestive changes to neurological and emotional symptoms. ‘Persistent muscle pain, sleep disorders, irritability, palpitations, cognitive failures, low immunity, and menstrual irregularities are common signs, but often treated in isolation,’ she explains. ‘The problem is that the body is screaming on multiple fronts at the same time.’
In the Integrative approach, care begins with detailed listening, a patient history assessment, and laboratory investigations that seek evidence of inflammation, hormonal dysfunction, cortisol dysregulation, and impact on gut microbiota. ‘Stress is biochemical, emotional, and behavioral simultaneously. The integrative approach allows us to see these layers together and act before it turns into a chronic disease,’ she states.
Dr. Lilian emphasizes that many patients only realize they are becoming ill due to stress when they receive a diagnosis of something more serious—such as an autoimmune condition, a metabolic syndrome, or a disabling depressive episode. ‘These diseases don’t appear out of nowhere. They are built day after day by a lifestyle that ignores subtle signs.’
How to identify the signs before the body collapses?
Constant irritability, insomnia, apathy, difficulty concentrating, recurring pain, and persistent digestive changes are not just signs of tiredness—they are physiological warnings that the body is under overload. ‘Many people think it’s normal to live tired or sleep poorly, but these symptoms are the tip of the iceberg. The body is trying to communicate that something is off balance,’ explains Dr. Lilian. Feelings of a ‘racing mind,’ reduced work performance, low immunity, high blood pressure, and hormonal changes also deserve attention, especially when they become frequent.
According to the doctor, when patients seek help early at the first signs, the chances of reversal are much higher. ‘In Integrative Functional Medicine, we can intervene before this overload escalates into more serious diseases. Chronic stress is silent but profoundly disruptive. Recognizing the signs and acting with awareness is an act of care—and often the beginning of a life change.’
