Archipelago, interesting.

I don't get triggered often, but when I do, it's really bad. The worst of my trauma is emotional abuse and neglect, and so certain phrases, words, or attitudes towards me are very triggering. Also, if I feel rejected or criticized by someone, it might cause me to spiral into an emotional flashback. I have some mild physical triggers, but it isn't often that someone swings at another person's face or something like that, so they're not a big problem.

My biggest problems are the hopelessness, hyperarousal, paranoia, and extremely low self-worth all caused by the PTSD. Those are the big things we're working on, and my T often likes tracing my current mindset back to my past, so I am hoping the journal with all those stories will help her do that a little better. She is very careful about asking me directly to tell her stories because I can sometimes have panic attacks and paranoia that last for days afterwards and we still haven't worked out a way to bring me down from that state successfully. I have a million coping mechanisms, but the only thing that really seems to work is medication once I hit that highly triggered state.