Graceful - yes the low low tolerance for stress is a huge trigger. Ant's explanation that it sends more glutamate into your brain is great and makes sense. I get this when I am out in public - my brain is stimulated into more action and I start getting more and more on edge the longer I'm out. It's getting better, but that's been the hardest struggle with my PAWS is that anxiety being away from the house. Last night and today I felt myself pass another milestone - like one less brick was taken off my chest ... or one less log on satan's torturous anxiety fire. Every six to eight weeks or so the volume clicks down a little and my baseline anxiety goes down. I still ramp back up and have bad days, but after a few bad days I go back to the new baseline -- which is getting closer and closer to normal, thank the gods above. We've all talked about this a few times, but these new baselines always seem to come right after a string of very bad days - and for me most often the last bad day is crushing depression. Then the next day boom, something good has changed.