Hi fancy, welcome back to the forums. I can experience that too, being badly triggered and struggling for a day or two. I find that I have to take some time to figure out "how the trigger happened and what it means", and once I take time to sit and think it over and talk about it with my T, I begin to feel better.

If something triggers me and I have a bad day feeling "anxiety", I take some time out to go lay down and just allow myself to relax and I just let my mind relax. Usually, after about 1/2 hour, I am calm again. What I am doing when I do that is I am signaling my brain to realize there is no emergency and so my brain stops producing the cortisol that gets me more and more anxious to where I can't think. After a while, the cortisol dissipates and I don't feel all wound up.

It all depends on what happens to you when you are triggered. If I get a flashback, which could be without seeing things, but just the memory of how I felt when I was younger, I realize that it comes in like a wave and then eases up. So I make sure I "relax" and allow it to pass. Usually once I am able to figure what happened in my mind on a conscious level, I can talk it out and remind myself that I am "ok now" and I "self sooth and make sure I self comfort too".

You need to realize that these "triggers" are reminding you of an experience and what you "felt" at the time. These triggers are not meant to say, "you need to feel this way now" too. That is what "confuses" people who struggle with PTSD. They begin to think about triggers as "how they have to keep feeling and responding to certain situations". No, that is not the case, instead, what you need to do is "talk them out with a good T who can "validate that "yes" something wrong happened and comfort you and help you to finally get the "attention and help you needed before but did not get". You can also come here and talk out your triggers too, that way you will have access to others who can "validate you, how the trigger feels, and also comfort you and help you get to a point where you can finally do "now" what you were not able to do "then". You need to help that "part of you, or child in you" to finally be able to "express whatever is needed and this time see that you "get what you need from others and even yourself".

It may take time for you to slowly "gain" on finally being able to "quiet and sooth that child in you", so that means "talking out the triggers as much as you need with people who can "validate and comfort and give you the right feedback". It is important that you do not "hide out or be alone with your challenges, all that does is re-enforce that sense of abandonment". This is why people who struggle get very angry with the "just get over it and deal comments" because that is " a dismissive and unsupportive response that is "not nurturing".

People are often very afraid to discuss their past or childhood, this is because they feel they will be poorly thought of, or worse, that whomever they tell will "again" abandon them. That is why a therapist needs to establish "safety" with patients, first and foremost. It is "important" to develop the right support when challenged with complex PTSD, and that means having people who will "listen and comfort and validate as much as you need them to".

This is why it is very difficult to be around "family members" who never "validated the person who struggles" or "anyone else that is dismissive and says things that mean you are "left alone again to "just".

(((Comforting Hugs))))
OE