Does acute stress damage the brain, or only chronic?

Question

There are a lot of studies suggesting (and some proving) that chronic stress causes atrophy in the hypothalamus region of the brain. How chronic must the stress be to have a malignant effect on brain function, though?

For example, can being aroused into a cantankerous, viotriolic, screaming fit in real life for an hour do anything?.....Or, is it the act of repressing that anger and dwelling on it for weeks or months that causes the harm?

And what kind of stress is necessary? When I had a neurological evaluation to assess the extent of a few unrelated deficiencies, the neuroscientist and MD that administered the tests said that I appeared to be laden with a lot of stress, but my heart beat is always calm, and "ruminating" on things is something I thoroughly ENJOY doing! It isn't an act of stress, for me -- in fact, it even calms me down. So how could that be harming me?

Answer 1

Probably because you think about $^it way too much.  But so do I and I just got my results from the Neuro and my brain and heart are fine - he told me to let my mind rest and go to the coast for a week.  HAHA