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Old Feb 16, 2006, 03:28 PM
Anonymous29319
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Ok taking care of the trigger doesn't mean getting rid of it. it means noticing when you are triggered, finding what it is that is triggering you and then putting coping tools in place so that the trigger no longer bothers you for example.

I was raped by a family member. There was no getting around having contact with him at family gathering. Everytime I saw him I flashed back to the day he got me and so on. Not only that this family member had very dominent gene traits so that no matter what relative I was around from his side of the family I went through panics and flashbacks. At first I didn't see the connection but then I started paying attention to how I was feeling. I noticed that it was one specific gene trait I was keying into to -the eyebrows. Once I made that connection Whenever I started felling uncomfortable I used the coping skill of self talk - I told myself ok take a breath, it is just an eyebrow, every human being has eyebrows, now look at the rest of this person, his hair is different, his face is not my abuser, the clothes are different. now you can sit here and keep being afraid or you can get up and go to the bathroom. Then I got up and went into the bathroom where I let the water get real cold and washed my face making sure I could feel the water. I also did this when in contact with the abuser. I learned to recognize when I was uncomfortable and would find a reason to walk away from him. As I got stronger at walking away from him I learned to start coming up with reasons why I couldn't attend that family gathering or go to touch base with some and then leave before it got too uncomfortable. This way wasn't getting rid of the people that were triggering me but it was taking care of myself so that I wasn't getting triggered at least so often.