Quote:
Originally Posted by toomanycats
There's a difference between getting triggered and being retraumatized.
Getting triggered is going to happen. I have absolutely been extremely triggered in therapy to the point of leaving suicidal -- but retraumatization is different.
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I agree with this distinction. There have been times when I have shaken, had my teeth chatter so hard I thought they might break, and once I threw up in the trashcan conveniently located next to the chair. Whether these were emotional flashbacks or some kind of fight or flight, they were always in relation to something from my past that was very traumatizing.
I have not been re-traumatized in therapy. Sometimes I have had to tell my T to help me push ahead rather than allow me to spin in avoidance. He has always been careful to take things at my own pace, and we developed a container exercise to do when I needed help putting things away before I left (imaginary process where he opened his desk drawer or file cabinet or whatever and I mentally sent my can of worms into).