Difficulty Concentrating
Imagine trying to read one page of a book, send a simple email, or even follow a friend’s story—and your brain just… quits.
The words blur. Your mind jumps to the worst moment of your life. Suddenly, you’re back there instead of here.
For anyone who’s lived through something terrifying, losing the ability to concentrate doesn’t just feel frustrating—it feels like the trauma keeps stealing from you long after the danger is gone.
It’s insult on top of injury: you survived the worst day, but now everyday things like work, school, or even feeling normal slip through your fingers because your mind won’t stay put.
If this sounds familiar, it’s important to know this: you’re not lazy, broken, or “failing to get over it.” Your brain is still trying to protect you.
When someone experiences trauma—especially repeated stress or adversity in childhood—the brain learns to stay on constant alert for danger. Even when life becomes safer, the nervous system doesn’t automatically stand down. Researchers call this state hypervigilance, and it’s a core feature of trauma-related disorders, including PTSD (Shin & Liberzon, 2010).
Hypervigilance means the brain’s threat detector—the amygdala—is working overtime. Its job is to scream “Watch out!” when danger appears. After trauma, that alarm system becomes hypersensitive. It keeps scanning for threats that aren’t actually present, pulling attention away from whatever you’re trying to focus on: homework, work tasks, conversations, or even relaxing.
Brain-imaging studies show that when people with trauma histories encounter anything that feels emotionally charged or threatening, the amygdala becomes highly activated while areas responsible for focus and decision-making—particularly the prefrontal cortex—lose influence (Hayes et al., 2012; Shin & Liberzon, 2010). In practical terms, the brain shifts resources toward survival and away from concentration.
Researchers have also found that this constant threat-monitoring makes attention jump around more than usual, which is mentally exhausting and makes sustained focus difficult (Aupperle et al., 2012). The more the brain hunts for danger, the harder it becomes to stay on a single task. It’s a self-reinforcing loop.
Hypervigilance acts like a phone that won’t stop buzzing with notifications. Even if none of them are urgent, your brain keeps checking—just in case.
The good news is that there are simple ways to help calm this alarm system and reclaim some of your focus.
One surprisingly powerful tool is slow, controlled breathing, often called box breathing. It’s used by first responders and military personnel because it helps bring the nervous system out of survival mode and back into balance.
Slow breathing activates the parasympathetic nervous system—the part responsible for rest, digestion, and recovery. When this system comes online, physiological stress decreases, heart rate variability improves, and the brain becomes less reactive. Studies show that controlled breathing reduces stress hormones and improves attention and emotional regulation.
Here’s how to do box breathing:
Breathe in through your nose for 4 seconds
Hold your breath for 4 seconds
Breathe out slowly through your mouth for 4 seconds
Hold with empty lungs for 4 seconds
Repeat 4–6 times, or until your body feels calmer
Research suggests that even a few minutes of slow breathing can improve focus by reducing physiological arousal and helping the brain shift out of constant threat scanning. With regular practice, the nervous system learns more quickly how to stand down, making concentration easier over time.
You can do this anywhere—before a meeting, in the car, or when your mind starts racing. It’s free, takes only a minute or two, and gently reminds your brain that the danger has passed.
And sometimes, that reminder is enough to help your focus come back online.
If you found this resource helpful, let us know.
Works Cited
Aupperle, R. L., Melrose, A. J., Stein, M. B., & Paulus, M. P. (2012). Executive function and PTSD: Disengaging from trauma. Neuropharmacology, 62(2), 686–694. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuropharm.2011.02.008
Hayes, J. P., Hayes, S. M., & Mikedis, A. M. (2012). Quantitative meta-analysis of neural activity in posttraumatic stress disorder. Biology of Mood & Anxiety Disorders, 2(9). https://doi.org/10.1186/2045-5380-2-9
Shin, L. M., & Liberzon, I. (2010). The neurocircuitry of fear, stress, and anxiety disorders. Neuropsychopharmacology, 35(1), 169–191. https://doi.org/10.1038/npp.2009.83
Zelano, C., Jiang, H., Zhou, G., Arora, N., Schuele, S., Rosenow, J., & Gottfried, J. A. (2016). Nasal respiration entrains human limbic oscillations and modulates cognitive function. Journal of Neuroscience, 36(49), 12448–12467. https://doi.org/10.1523/JNEUROSCI.2586-16.2016
