Xdebug always listening for new requests and prevents webpages from loading in case I don’t listen

I have a strange setup on my new workplace and it works like this: if I have PhpStorm running and have “Start Listening for PHP Debug Connections” on, then my local PHP application works fine. As soon as I close PhpStorm completely (and consequently stop listening to PHP debug connections), then my webpage is not loading (nginx times out after a minute).