A basic article on stress management

Stress Symptoms, Signs, and Causes: Recognizing the Harmful Effects of Stress and What You Can Do About It

While this article was not written for people with PTSD it does have some interesting tips.

What do you think about the idea that we are not emotionally aware?

I personally don't agree. I don't think I am stressed because I am lacking in emotional awareness, however as I said this was written for people without PTSD.

According to Pete Walker, and I totally agree with him, affect dysregulation manifest sometimes in stress. The emotional intelligence concept is a much more complicated issue and we can't just simply possess emotional intelligence between day and night or via applying a "toolkit". There is a relationship/interaction between the right brain and the left brain. And in the case of dissociation (either right brain dissociation or left brain dissociation), emotional and behavioral disorders arise. Stress is just one of them, I don't mean temporary normal stress, but the long term, chronic stress that we feel pretty much everyday. That's why its called Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. The stress is just there and it persists. Pete Walker also shares his wisdom in his book, and clarifies that one of the issues that we need to pay attention to is our work is multidimensional, it isn't purely cognitive(CBT, thought stopping, replacing, positive thinking...etc), but also emotional. Affect dysregulation will definitely manifest in stress, if we don't have the skill to experience the whole range of human emotions (both positive and negative). anyone who expresses his anger these days and esp in our culture is perceived as someone who have a problem. Pete Walker esp stresses that unless we express the whole range of our emotions (in a safe non-destructive way of course), we will eventually repress at least the other half of the continuum, which will eventually manifest in anxiety, stress, depression and other disorders. We should work on ourselves very seriously and persistently and there is definitely no quick fix or short term solution. Thankfully I've reached a position where I can recognize what is being offered is good for me or not.

sorry for this long reply, but not everything being offered will genuinely contribute to our recovery and wellbeing.

I actually found that article in a search, I didn't particularly care for it.

Love Pete Walker. He is da man as far as CPTSD goes. He has much more of an understanding of the condition than any other person I know.