Priscilla Presley Developed an Ulcer From the Stress of Hiding Her True Feelings From Elvis 

Priscilla Presley enjoyed much of her time with Elvis Presley, but sometimes the stress of the relationship was too much to bear. Elvis’ emotions changed rapidly, often because of his career problems. Priscilla’s biggest problem with this was that he wouldn’t talk to her about it. She felt helpless in the face of his distress, and he didn’t want to hear about her feelings about the situation. The stress of this eventually gave her an ulcer.

Priscilla Presley was in agony over the stress of her relationship with Elvis

As Elvis’ career began to fade in the mid-1960s, he grew frustrated and upset. He didn’t like the projects he had to work on, and his music sales were declining. Priscilla tried to give him advice, but this only made him angry.

“I didn’t understand his difficulty in revealing his weaknesses to me,” she wrote in her book Elvis and Me. “Whenever I stated my own opinions too strongly, especially if they differed from his, he’d remind me that his was the stronger sex, and as a woman, I had my place.”

She spent long hours next to him at night, wishing there was anything she could do to help him.

“There were nights when he slept restlessly, beset by worries and fears,” she wrote. “I lay silently beside him, anxious about what he might be thinking and whether there was a place in his life for me. Lost in our separate miseries, we were unable to give each other strength or support.”

Priscilla decided that the best course of action was to paste on a smile and try to lift Elvis’ spirits. This often didn’t work either.

“I would put on my brightest smile, my prettiest dress — and my phoniest personality — and try to rouse his spirits,” she wrote. “When I couldn’t get him out of the dumps, he would shut himself up all day in his room. This left me devastated. Afraid of doing or saying the wrong thing, I suppressed my real feelings and eventually developed an ulcer.”

Priscilla said that the stress of this dynamic impacted their relationship

Priscilla explained that Elvis’ career had a direct impact on the happiness of their relationship. Early in their relationship, he spoke excitedly about their future together. When he was happy, she felt she could safely discuss her opinions. When he was frustrated with a project, she learned to keep her thoughts to herself.

“I look back now and realize that our love affair was dependent on how his career was going,” she explained. “During protracted periods of noncreativity, his temper often flared.”

Priscilla Presley said she learned to sense when Elvis felt anger 

Priscilla got used to these mood swings and could sense when Elvis’ temper was about to boil over. She explained that the entire atmosphere in the room shifted.

“You could sense the vibration when he was angry,” she wrote. “The tension in the room mounted to flash point, and no one wanted to be around for the explosion. Yet if anyone decided to leave, they automatically became the target for his rage, me included.”

Elvis threw things and berated the people around him. Whenever his flash of negative emotion passed, he made excuses.