Beyond the Window of Tolerance: Stress, PTSD, and Altered Behaviour

We all experience stress differently. But how exactly does stress impact the way we react to certain situations when it comes to living with symptoms of PTSD?

Author and professor of psychiatry Dan Siegel refers to this threshold as the ‘Window of Tolerance’, a framework that measures a person’s ability to conceptualize momentary thoughts and feelings in a way that actively engages self-awareness.

When we find ourselves in a state of either hyperarousal or hypoarousal, it might be because we're reliving past negative experiences or facing real danger that sparks instinctive reactions tied to our thoughts and feelings.

Navigating PTSD requires a crucial understanding: when we begin to spiral out of our window of tolerance, it's not solely due to the current situation we face. Rather, it's often because the current situation triggers memories of past negative experiences. Without effective coping strategies, we struggle to remain grounded within our individual stress tolerances. This recognition is pivotal in managing PTSD symptoms and fostering resilience.

Let’s take the example of music: If a particular song is played during a traumatic event, you may go through your everyday life knowing the song is a trigger for you, and make efforts to go out of your way to avoid listening to that song. But then you’re hanging out in the mall one day with a group of friends, and the song happens to play without warning the moment you enter your favourite store. This experience is going to trigger your memories to refer back to the initial traumatic event where the song first played, and the trauma will appear as a focal point within your window of tolerance.

Without an effective coping strategy in place to cope with the song in unexpected moments, you might enter a hyporaroused state, where you freeze up, shut down, and become submissive to the traumatic memory’s influence — reliving a negative experience, even though the song itself in that very moment has no element of trauma associated with it.

Or, you might enter a hyperaroused state where you are filled with anger that the song is even playing to begin with, and start ranting about how much you dislike the lead singer, and demand that you and your friends leave the store immediately.

To your friends, either of these reactions might seem extreme and unexpected. What they may not realize, and what you might struggle to explain in the moment, is that your mind and body are responding to a trigger. This reaction is based on pattern recognition, connecting the current situation to a past experience that feels familiar. You might not be in any active danger, but trauma triggers can flip a switch in our brain from conscious awareness to an unconscious need for escape or survival, that makes you feel like danger is imminent anyway.

By understanding your PTSD triggers, it then becomes possible to work towards taking into account your thoughts and feelings during, or even before, your stress response motions towards hyperarousal or hypoarousal.

In our next blog, we will cover exactly how to develop this self awareness, through the practice of mindfulness.