interesting word, Germanic origin and Middle English connected with freight which might explain how it came to be used in the sense of load or burden, causing tension / distress etc

can be used without with eg “they had a fraught relationship”, “next month looks like being particularly fraught”

there are so many different ways in English of saying the same thing, or using the same words to say different things  

Forgetting the CovIdiocy pandemic seemingly overnight, today the mainstream media is fraught with worry over the invasion of a Eurasian money laundering operation... err, I mean country.  😆