How does your SO behave when he or she gets really stressed out?

What do we get for the extra credit? More lurve?

My S.O. usually gets a headache and acts very pissed off when stressed. But, I think she keeps most of it locked up inside which causes a lot of muscle stiffness in her back. She’ll usually lash out at me even more when stressed as well.

He tries to shut out the world but I naturally try to fix things, so that makes it worse and gets angry at everything/everyone. Drinking is usually involved on weekends.

He’s a nail and skin biter (the skin around his nails) he does it pretty much all the time, but when he’s very stressed out, he’ll make his fingers bleed from biting at them. It grosses me out no matter when he does it. And I always tell him to stop. Usually if he’s stressed out, I’m also stressed out (because it probably has something to do with money) so I’m usually of no help.
Facial expression wise, he keeps his lips tighter when stressed, and usually just has a more serious look to his face..eyebrows sort of scrunched.
He also paces a lot more. I’m not sure how I would describe the personality changes, probably the same as most when stressed. He does sort of withdrawal, talks less.

He gets a a twitch to a forced smile on the right side of his face, will hug but not want to look me in the eyes and if he does look me in the eyes then he squints as if he’s in hurting. His way of doing things seems to have been to not really talk about them but just deal in his own time which has often made me think I was making him uncomfortable. We started to talk more about non-us stuff, agreed we were important enough to one another to make an effort to be understood.

runs hands through hair, walks in circles, becomes snappish, becomes horrible to travel with, stiffs cabbies, long silences, has hunted look about the eyes, misplaces keys, phone, looks for said items for 35 minutes, picks up channel remote and cycles through channels over and over makes me nauseous, leaves it on an informercial and then suddenly leaves room to have shouted convo in bathroom or start working madly on some project that involves power tools xtra credit—I open up my laptop and stick my nose in it and don’t come out

When he feels stress, he gets on the treadmill and turns on the DVD’s he has recorded. Most of them are educational, such as The Universe, How the Earth Was Made, and such, but sometimes he puts on Musicals.

If his stress is due to being tired, he takes a nap.

When he is stressed, I make sure nobody bothers him with questions or phone calls.

My partner tends to get sulky and tense. Headachey and complains of muscle tension. Very open talker though so when asked what is bothering him, I hear the whole story over and over and over. Once his rant is complete, he tends to play PS3 games that involve mass murder. LOL Sounds worse than it is… I think

My husband is not easily stressed out. He’s quite amazing, really. I’ve never known anyone to be so composed in a crisis situation. If a problem arises, you can almost see his brain shut off the “panic” feature and go straight to “compute.” He’s the complete opposite of me. I tend to go nuts first and then take a nap before I can even compose a rational thought. So, I actually appreciate that he is like that. I need him to be to balance me out.

My wife gets very cranky (where any little thing annoys her) and she develops a “fuck you” attitude if the stress continues. Luckily, she’s smart enough to go to bed before it gets that bad (usually).

I start by launching into chores. I’m easy to spot when stressed because I’m probably scrubbing something. Unfortunately, if the stress continues, I tend to get argumentative and very cynical (sometimes morose). I also do much better after sleeping.

We both respond to each other similarly. Something along the lines of, “Shut the fuck up and go to bed!!”

My ex-husband got pissy and obnoxious with nearly everyone in his path and spent a lot of time blaming everyone else for his problems. This was unfortunate, as he has no clue how to alleviate stress and was perpetually stressed out. Note I said ex husband.

My current SO tends to retreat inside himself. He quiets down and wants to be alone. I think that is mostly because he doesn’t want to lash out. I have learned that if I leave him alone and wait patiently, he will talk when he is ready.

Me, I get cranky and can be just plain mean.

She behaved quite abusively. Let’s just say, we’re not together anymore.

She gets that far away look in her eyes. When I ask her how she is doing she says, “okay” versus good or nice.

My husband gets very quiet and sleeps a lot, generally in front of the television.

My Husband tends to yell at me when he is stressed . He tries to order me around . No one but me can read his mood. He is a great pretender . I am not .

He gets quiet for awhile and then, when he says something, it’ll be about what he’s concerned about and that’s the only way I know he has been stressed out. I’m a lot more vocal but he was trained by his parents to “act civilized.” Internalizing stress can make you ill.