If you are stressed, you are not paying attention to the details around you. Without the ability to see details you cannot have a broad perspective on the information you are receiving and can cause you to be unnecessarily over-reactive.

PTSD manifests in thoughts, emotions, and body sensations, and these are related to trauma. Unmanaged stress can exacerbate negative emotions rooted in stress, such as aggression, hostility, and jealousy.

PTSD tends to give you an overwhelmingly negative outlook on life, and unmanaged stress can exacerbate these feelings. It is difficult to perceive goodness in the world after a traumatic experience, and stress can make PTSD’s daily self-battles feel like impossible tasks to accomplish, making the negative attitude easily grip an overstressed person. It is challenging enough to generate positive thoughts when you have PTSD, and unmanaged stress can complicate matters and keep your state of mind on a downward spiral of negativity and pessimism.

Pessimism, negativity, and even cynicism are desperate attempts to defend yourself from a perceived and imminent danger. If you do not expect for anything good or positive to happen, then when those things don’t happen you don’t have to feel disappointed. This thought process perpetuates the cycle of negativity in PTSD sufferers, further isolating or disillusioning them about their surrounding environment. It can also perpetuate all trauma related reactions you might be experiencing, as only positive thoughts and coping mechanisms will help you overcome PTSD’s symptoms.

The higher your stress levels are, the lower your creativity will be, especially if you are dealing with events that require high levels of creativity. When you are stressed and your mind is busy trying to fight (or shield) the world around, you cannot think in crafty ways and tend to fall back on automatic habits, which is the exact opposite of creativity. A PTSD mind can be very creative, but unmanaged stress hijacks your brain an destroys your creative thinking capacity.

A PTSD mind is always in a state of hypervigilance and hyperarousal, which affects cognitive function. This ‘on edge’ feeling can manifest in the form of restlessness, and can sometimes be misdiagnosed as an attention deficit problem in PTSD sufferers. Whether it’s physical or mental, not having peace of mind with stress can keep the PTSD mind and body jittery, anxious, and insecure all the time. Restlessness can manifest when you’re awake and when you’re asleep, so make sure you figure out a way to reduce your stress.

Thought disorganization is a very big problem present for people with PTSD, and it’s often overlooked by therapists and people working on self-help steps. PTSD affects your thought process. Stress affects your PTSD symptoms, which can worsen your already disorganized and overreactive thought process. If your thought process is not fully functional, and you have unmanaged stressed fueling your PTSD symptoms, your thoughts will surely lose direction. Coping mechanism must be in place for anyone with PTSD to manage their stress. Once stress affects your thought process, you won’t be able to control your reactivity to stimuli and that’s when you can lose control. Thought disorganization plays a HUGE role in why therapy alone doesn’t work for everyone with PTSD. That’s when community comes into play - sometimes you just need a friend to tell you You are talking shit. Your therapist won’t do that.

Although stress does not directly cause hypertension, it can have an effect on it because it leads to repeated elevations of your blood pressure and the stimulation of the nervous system to produce hormones that increase it. If you already struggle with high blood pressure, unmanaged stress and PTSD symptoms can result in lifetime blood pressure problems and even turn fatal.

During stressful situations, the adrenal glands trigger the release of glucose store in different organs. This can lead to elevated levels of glucose in your bloodstream. Long term stress can have a permanent impact on your body’s blood sugar resulting in diabetes.

Unmanaged and chronic stress can affect your libido, which is your sex drive. A busy schedule takes a toll on your personal life, and if you have unmanaged stress and PTSD, having all that in your mind will make it difficult to relax and get in the mood. If you have intimacy issues, and are working to conquer your fears, stress can affect your desire, ability, and willingness to get close to a person. Chronic stress can also make women experience irregular periods.

Diarrhea is often present for people with PTSD because anxiety based disorders are linked to irritable bowel syndrome (IBS), a chronic condition of the large intestine that produces cramping, abdominal pain, bloating, gas, and diarrhea or constipation, or both. IBS is common among people with PTSD, especially those with unmanaged stress because stress hormones have a funny way of making your colon work faster, resulting in diarrhea.

Without coping skills, fighting PTSD symptoms is a full time mental and physical job, because the reality is that your mind has the capacity to produce more stress than your body can handle. It’s important to keep your stress under control so that you have energy to tackle the disorder without feeling exhausted.  If you cannot find a way to manage your stress, you will feel tired all the time, unable to function properly, wanting to rest all the time when you have to be working or studying. This can affect many aspects of your personal and professional life.

Unless you are taking medications to help you manage your PTSD symptoms or have a medical condition, most of your headaches are probably due to unmanaged stress and the impact it has in your PTSD life. Also, many medicines that treat PTSD symptoms have a plethora of side effects, headaches and migraines is one.

Regular stress caused by anxiety can turn into an irregular heartbeat. Constant mental stress can affect the dynamics of the blood flow in your body, which will change the way your heart beats and can also your heart rate. The heart simply pounds and beats faster when it is under stress, and unmanaged stress and PTSD symptoms can make you very anxious. Severe anxiety creates more anxiety.

Impatience is a mental process that gets triggered under specific circumstances. But PTSD riddles you with negative emotions of anxiety and anger, and in many situations these negative emotions can affect your ability to be patient, making you irritable and restless in situations that don’t merit impatience. PTSD and impatience can also lead to your being or responding in a rude manner to people.

Some people with PTSD have forgotten what a relaxed muscle is supposed to feel like because PTSD anxiety causes muscle tension at all times. PTSD sufferers with unmanaged stress can feel muscle tension when they are trying to relax, go to sleep, are asleep, working, reading, walking, etc. PTSD causes muscle tension all over the body, and may randomly wander to different muscles or muscle groups throughout the body. Muscle tightness includes tight, sore, and painful muscles and/or muscle tension in the face, head, mouth, back of the head and neck, top and back of the shoulders, chest, arms, back, legs, hands, digestive system, stomach, groin, feet, jaw, back, and even eyelids. In addition, a stressful situation you have difficulty coping with can produce painful sudden muscle stiffness and be quite painful until you manage to relax those muscles. If stress and anxiety related muscle tightness is not addressed, it can lead to advanced or chronic pain in the body, greatly limiting your mobility.

When the body becomes abnormally stressed, anxiety can affect coordination and bring thinking problems, which can affect speaking or make it difficult to move the tongue. From shaky voice, to quiet voice, to loss of voice, to trouble putting thoughts to words, or even stuttering, stress can cause speech difficulties. If you find yourself having difficulty speaking or moving your tongue, pay attention because your stress levels are very high and you need to work on reducing them to regain normal speech and prevent the situation from getting out of hand.

When a person with PTSD is overstressed, they can be overly anxious and feel panicky in certain situations. This can lead to anxiety induced dry heaves which can lead to vomiting.

Stress is associated to immunosuppression, which is the reduction or inability of your immune system to fight off illnesses. A compromised immune system is not good for anyone, and not helpful in your battle against PTSD. Unless you have an autoimmune disorder or other health related issue that can lower your immune system, a weak immune system is often the result of stress, poor diet, and lack of exercise. In the case of the PTSD sufferer, unmanaged stress can weaken the body’s immune system, making you more susceptible to a variety of illnesses. Paired with the cocktail of symptoms and side effects that PTSD gives a person, stress and a weakened immune system can prevent you from tackling PTSD and regaining control of your life.

PTSD makes you feel different, sometimes bad enough to make you believe you cannot connect with others. The symptoms of PTSD can also make it difficult for you to cope with group situations, as the anxiety to perform in a social setting can be too much for you to handle. In addition, the high levels of shame, guilt, and self-blame experienced by PTSD sufferers can lead to social withdrawal, isolation, and lack of motivation.

When you are already preoccupied trying to take control of your life and your actions, unmanaged stress can lead to a careless attitude for many folks with PTSD. This can manifest through a series or variety of irresponsible acts that can have damaging results for you, personally and professionally.

Without coping mechanism, just about anyone under stress shows compulsive behavior. But behaving out of compulsion takes on a whole new meaning for PTSD sufferers, as without proper techniques, those affected are more likely to act without thinking than take the time to analyze actions, reactions, and their respective consequences.

If you’ve ever been stressed, you probably had problems with over or under eating. Stress has a funny way of affecting our eating habits. For those with PTSD, irregular eating can have detrimental effects on their health and energy, as many of the PTSD associated symptoms manifest psychosomatically. Bad nutrition will just add to that problem.

Whether it’s smoking, drinking, or drugs, unmanaged stress can suck you into intoxicating substances and habits that do nothing good for your health and your PTSD mind. If you need an outlet, get addicted to a sport or a hobby like woodworking or painting.

As a person with PTSD, you are already struggling with frequent and acute symptoms of anxiety. Often, unmanaged anxiety can lead people with PTSD to rely on methods of coping that are not beneficial. Without proper coping mechanisms, your anxiety will only increase in frequency and intensity, and you won’t be able to tolerate it. Learning to manage your levels of anxiety is related to your ability to manage all your PTSD symptoms and reduce your chances of having serious health related problems later on. Remember that you will not be able to eliminate your anxiety, as it plays an essential adaptive role for your survival.

Avoidance is a big problem symptom for PTSD sufferers, and stress can really halt your progress away from the cluster of issues that avoidance brings to your life. When you are trying to reduce or eliminate exposure and reaction to anxiety-provoking situations, people, or objects, any additional or unmanaged stress can absolutely affect your efforts. If a perceived situation creates anxiety, a person may try to avoid it. Although avoidance may prove to be a plausible escape for certain situations, it neglects to deal with the root cause of the anxiety. For example, if you’re nervous because you have a huge presentation at work, you may choose to call in sick to avoid the stress of being in front of colleagues, and schedule the presentation for another day, or try to have a coworker do it. An often common example for PTSD sufferers is to avoid thinking about something which causes anxiety, preferring to leave it unresolved instead of confronting it and dealing with it. Breaking down avoidant behaviors takes time and effort, and unmanaged stress will only negatively feed your arousal of recollection of the trauma. Stress will almost certainly work against or even worsen your avoidance symptoms.

Whether the depression led you to having more traumatic experiences and develop PTSD, or the symptoms of PTSD are so upsetting that you develop depression, additional stress will worsen your depression. Depression is fairly common among people with PTSD, and stress can negatively feed your depression making you feel detached and disconnected from family and friends, and unable to find pleasure in activities you previously enjoyed. When you are already working hard at experiencing positive emotions such as happiness and joy, stress can fuel your depression, enhancing negative emotions like loneliness and sadness, which can lead you to further isolate yourself.

Avoidance is a faulty coping mechanism that makes you emotionally flat and unavailable to all who care about you, and it’s a serious problem if you have unmanaged stress. Emotional numbing is a destructive coping strategy that offers temporary relief. If paired with unmanaged stress, your avoidance can seriously exacerbate your fear, shame, and sadness, which can lead to you become reclusive isolate yourself from the things that are unpleasant or bring on painful emotions. This usually includes socializing. When your stress is under control, painful emotions can be addressed without causing chaos, but additional stress can further strengthen negative emotions, leading you to seclude yourself from things, places, and people by becoming emotionally numb about them.

Coping with flashbacks can be a daunting task for anyone with PTSD. This disconnect from reality is more challenging when your stress is unmanaged. Coping with flashbacks while trying to manage stress will only worsen the situation. During flashbacks, unmanaged stress can worsen the feelings of disconnect from the surroundings, and for some, can lead to dissociation. Additional stress can also make you have stronger negative reactions to triggers, and it can become very unpredictable and disruptive.

As a PTSD sufferer, You are already trying to manage your guilt and shame. While guilt and shame are important emotional responses present in many of the symptoms and side effects associated with PTSD, additional or unmanaged stress can make guilt and shame greatly interfere with your recovery. Stress can make it difficult for you to get past your negative experiences, and this will fuel your guilt and shame, making it difficult to move forward.

You should already know that intrusive thoughts are all those repetitive thoughts, images, or mental impulses that are unacceptable and unwanted because they disrupt your life. When it comes to managing, controlling, and wanting to get rid of intrusive thoughts that your brain perceives as threatening or dangerous, stress is almost certainly your worst enemy. Trying to be mindful of your thought process so that the unexpected, unannounced, and unwelcome thoughts don’t creep up into your head and affect your emotions and behavior is difficult. Attempting to accomplish this with unmanaged stress will be almost impossible, as the stress won’t allow you to anticipate or manage any thoughts that come to your head, or give you a chance to take appropriate action to avoid them or lessen their impact on your behavior and emotions.

Repression, is when a person with PTSD attempts to block painful memories as a distraction.  Repression is particularly dangerous for people with anger control issues, and additional unmanaged stress can turn repression into a time bomb. If you have a high risk job or conflicting situations that generally increase your stress, learning to eliminate your desire to repress memories is paramount. If you don’t, additional stress can have serious negative effects on your behavior. Remember that repressed memories don’t cease to exist, and additional stress can make them reappear in a jiffy, even with triggers that would normally not result in your losing your temper.

When sharing time with others is already exhausting, upsetting, and requires too much effort, additional stress will affect your withdrawal symptoms. Actively avoiding people and activities you once enjoyed only offers temporary relief and can be manageable to a certain extent. But allowing your stress levels to get out of control will worsen withdrawal symptoms and lead you to depression, or worse, if You are already dealing with it. Depression brought on by additional stress will almost certainly turn you into a reclusive person, borderline antisocial, and can affect your work, finances, family life, putting you in a bad state of mind and place in life. This is why managing stress when you have PTSD is so important.

Research shows that the majority of people with PTSD resort to self-medicating with drugs and alcohol at one point or another. Unmanaged stress will undoubtedly serve as the avenue that leads many PTSD sufferers to drink excessive amounts of alcohol, use unnecessary OTC medications, or get hooked on illegal substances they will later have a hard time getting unhooked from. Self-medicating does not effectively address any PTSD symptoms, immediate or future, nor does it ameliorate any feelings of guilt and shame. Instead, it can serve as fuel for any anger related issues you might have, feeding any extreme rage problems you might have, and result in a trickle down of negative effects on your ability to manage your behavior and PTSD symptoms.

For some PTSD sufferers, huge amounts of anger over a minor event can turn almost anything into a life or death situation. This is particularly true if the person doesn’t have coping skills and mechanisms in place to save the day. It is not a joke. When any little thing has the potential of becoming a huge trigger, things can go bad very fast.

If you have high hyperarousal, avoidance and irritability issues, difficulty concentrating, You are easily startled, and usually feel on edge or on guard, then You are at a higher risk of exploding with extreme rage over matters that should otherwise be non issues, or could easily be resolved.

People with PTSD already live on a constant and daily struggle with their symptoms, where almost nothing seems positive, and there’s no clear path ahead. Unmanaged stress can truly affect your feelings of hopelessness in a very negative way. When your mood is down, your PTSD symptoms will encourage you to isolate yourself from healthy relationships and even give up hope. Don’t fade away because of your PTSD stress. Even when things are not running smoothly, don’t let those “flare ups” lead you to self-medicating or other stupid behaviors that can trump your progress, and only take away from your ability to live to your fullest potential. Constant stress tends to give those who don’t have a handle on it deep feelings of hopelessness. If you live under constant stress, your outlook on things will be in line with your state of mind.

Heightened anxiety and altered arousal make the cluster of hyperarousal symptoms. They are bad news and they can be difficult to manage. Unmanaged hyperarousal can lead you to have severe sleeping difficulties. Lack of proper sleep can have detrimental effects on your memory and concentration, and can negatively affect your anger. In other words, a high level of hyperarousal can greatly affect your impulsive behavior. Managing your anxiety to reduce hyperarousal symptoms will keep your impulsive behaviors to a minimum.

You’ve been up all day because your brain won’t shut off. You are tired and desperately need to rest, but you can’t fall asleep because you cannot calm your brain down long enough to allow your mind to rest and finally be able to fall asleep. Insomnia is a very common symptom among people with PTSD, and stress will have tremendous negative impact on your sleep patterns. Unmanaged stress will worsen your insomnia, and lack of sleep will negatively affect your stress. The only solution to this paradox is to get a hold of your stress levels to reduce the anxiety that makes your mind work overtime.

Irritability is a hyperarousal symptom of PTSD, and it’s incredibly exacerbated by unmanaged or uncontrolled stress. If you think of stress and anxiety as fuel for your hyperarousal symptoms, then you’ll understand how stress can affect your irritability. When You are already working hard at not being in a constant state of fear and anxiety, any additional (out of control) stress will make you more anxious. Anxiety will make you feel more ‘on edge,’ which will worsen your hyperarousal and shorten your tolerance level, making you more irritable.

Isolation is one of the most frightening symptoms of PTSD because it keeps sufferers from seeking positive human connections necessary for life and healing. For those with PTSD, nearly every sight, sound, touch, or smell can be perceived as negative stimuli and can trigger a desire to stay away from others. Unmanaged stress will exponentially exacerbate a person’s desire to pull away from everyone. When thoughts, feelings, and emotions are affected by unmanaged stress, isolation comes up as the only solution to avoid being judged, ostracized, or criticized for actions you are having zero control over at the moment. Many people with PTSD isolate themselves to avoid others, but many others isolate themselves because they get bottled up in guilt and shame and don’t want to be a burden for others.

Stress can have many angles of manifestation, and affecting your appetite is definitely one of them. Lack of appetite is a symptom of anxiety, and if you have unmanaged stress, it can affect even your desire to eat one grape. It may be that you just don’t feel like eating, or have no desire to eat. It could be that You are not hungry, or the thought of food is unappealing or makes you nauseous. Maybe you can’t stand the taste of food. Whatever method it chooses to manifest, the end result  of unmanaged stress affecting your appetite is that your body is not receiving sufficient, or any food at all. Bringing your anxiety levels down will help you get rid of appetite related issues. To bring your anxiety down, you must manage your stress levels. Nutrition is important for PTSD healing.

Research shows that the majority of people with PTSD resort to self-medicating with drugs and alcohol at one point or another. Unmanaged stress will undoubtedly serve as the avenue that leads many PTSD sufferers to drink excessive amounts of alcohol, use unnecessary OTC medications, or get hooked on illegal substances they will later have a hard time getting unhooked from. Self-medicating does not effectively address any PTSD symptoms, immediate or future, nor does it ameliorate any feelings of guilt and shame. Instead, it can serve as fuel for any anger related issues you might have, feeding any extreme rage problems you might have, and result in a trickle down of negative effects on your ability to manage your behavior and PTSD symptoms.

PTSD has a unique way of making bad dreams turn into extremely disturbing nightmares, and unmanaged stress will make them feel more like the Nightmare on Elm Street. Whether your nightmares are trauma related or you find yourself in some other type of bad situation, PTSD nightmares are no joke, and not managing your stress and anxiety levels can greatly exacerbate their intensity and frequency. This will keep from getting the rest your body and mind need, and could lead to other dysfunctions and health related problems.

Stress can have many angles of manifestation, and affecting your appetite is definitely one of them. Overeating is another anxiety based issue for PTSD sufferers, and when they are stressed, it worsens. People who overeat often do it as a reward system. Although it’s more prevalent in PTSD sufferers with childhood related trauma, binge eating can affect all walks of PTSD people. Dealing with PTSD symptoms is difficult enough, but when you are over stressed it may seem as if nothing you do is remotely rewarding. This is when people resort to eating as a self-soothing technique to calm their pain.

But overeating is terrible for your health, and you already know that nutrition is paramount for healing from your PTSD symptoms. Bringing your anxiety levels down will help you get rid of appetite related issues. To bring your anxiety down, you must manage your stress levels. Nutrition is important for PTSD healing.

Whether it’s quick to anger or quick to break out in tears, unmanaged stress and out of control rage can lead anyone with PTSD to walk around with a short fuse. But a ‘hair-trigger temper’ that is on attack mode all the time puts PTSD sufferers at risk of exploding in anger over non-issues, as they feel on edge all the time because unmanaged stress doesn’t allow them to escape angering thoughts.

Headaches:

When it comes to PTSD symptoms, headaches don’t generally get a lot of attention, as sufferers (and their therapists) are preoccupied with other symptoms they believe can cause more distress. However, it’s paramount to understand the connection between PTSD and headaches. The presence of headaches for PTSD sufferers puts them at a higher risk of developing a variety of other physical problems, including overall physical pain. From tension to migraine to cluster, all headaches are much worse when the PTSD sufferer is under high levels of stress, regardless of source. You may have limited control over headaches caused by underlying medical conditions, but you can help your PTSD related headaches by knowing what makes them worse.

Tension Headache:

• You are sensitive to sound or light, but not to both at the same time
• You feel a feeling of swelling or fullness in your head
• Your appetite has been reduced
• Unlike migraines, tension headache pain does not get worse with physical activity
• Starting at your forehead and going back, you feel a painful tight/pressure sensation on both sides of your head
• You feel radiating pain on your neck, shoulders, or both
• Your headache or head related pain can last anywhere from 30 minutes to 7 day

Migraine:

• You are sensitive to light (photophobia) and sound (phonophobia)
• Suggestive emotional changes 2 days prior to the beginning of the migraine that include: increase in urinary frequency, stiff neck, constant yawning, feeling dehydrated and thirsty, having sudden food craving, or retaining fluid.
• Your sense of smell increases
• You feel pulsating/throbbing pain on one or both sides of your head
• Your nauseous, and feel like vomiting
• You are experiencing visual changes, dizziness, speech problems, confusion, feeling of numbness and tingling in parts of your body
• Physical activity worsens the pain
• You are having difficulty concentrating
• You are in emotional distress
• Afterwards, you have a sort of ‘migraine hangover,’ feeling fatigued, irritable, or euphoric. This is known as ‘postdrome.’

Cluster Headache:

• Excruciating (almost knife piercing) headache, usually centered on your temples or eye
• You may have symptoms similar to a migraine (light and sound sensitivity, nausea, visual changes)
• Your face flushes, you sweat, or both
• You feel restless and agitated
• Your headaches come in bursts, anywhere from 45 to 90 minutes
• You have physical symptoms such as runny nose, watery eyes, eyelid and face swelling, all on the same side as the head pain

Managing Headaches:

The most important component of managing anything related to your headaches, their frequency, and severity, is to get your stress levels under control and to a manageable state. Unless your headaches have an underlying medical component, managing your stress is the most immediate and fast acting approach to your head pain problems. In addition to stress reducing techniques, having effective and healthy stress reducing coping strategies will help you maintain your PTSD symptoms under control, and taking control your symptoms will have a positive impact on other issues such as anxiety and depression. High levels of stress are related to headaches, but if you have persistent headaches that won’t go aways despite your best efforts, it is important that you visit a doctor and address any possible underlying medical issues.

PTSD sufferers have an obvious connection to pain because the physical impact of trauma can cause pain. From the immediate physical effects and injury, to symptoms that can progress later on, pain is a common denominator among many people diagnosed with PTSD, regardless of type and duration of trauma. As a dominant side effect of living with PTSD and unmanaged stress, muscle pain can turn into a chronic condition that can trickle down into severe health related problems. For PTSD sufferers, muscle pain is directly related to the traumatic experience, and it serves as a reminder of the event, which can intensify other symptoms of PTSD. Muscle pain is caused by a continued state of anxiety, because hypervigilance keeps your muscles tightened, which keeps your muscles and joints from relaxing.

Your anxiety levels and how you perceive and respond to the environment affect your heart rate. People with PTSD live in a constant state of hypervigilance and hyperarousal, trying to watch for danger all around them at all times. Their fight-or-flight response system is always on high alert, which leads to an increase in their heart rate. Not having coping mechanisms and learned skills can be detrimental for PTSD sufferers, and can greatly affect their heart as, without skills, they don’t have escape mechanisms to understand that they are not always in danger, not allowing for their rapid heart rate to decrease. Constant activation of the fight-or-flight response will prolong rapid heart rate problems and may lead to other medical issues, or exacerbate other existing conditions the PTSD sufferer might have.

Vomiting and diarrhea are common occurrences for PTSD sufferers because they are common symptoms of anxiety and stress. As a PTSD sufferer you know these symptoms all too well. Anxiety kicks in and with it an unsettled feeling  in the stomach, followed by an urge to vomit. That awful rolling feeling in the pit of your stomach, warm, yet quite uncomfortable that comes and goes, occurs frequently, and seems to persist indefinitely. After the surge of feelings in your stomach, your anxiety can escalate or reduce. Vomiting and diarrhea can precede, accompany, or follow and anxiety episode. Elevated and unmanaged stress will make these occur out of the blue and for no apparent reason, and will also affect their intensity from slight, to moderate, to severe if you cannot regain control of the moment.