Hi Carmina,

I can empathize with you greatly; the hyper-vigilance is not fun.

You are right - there is no way that coping strategies can prevent that physiological reaction, however, the good news is you are aware of your triggers and CAN (albeit, with great difficulty) lessen the intensity once you are triggered through self awareness and coping strategies.

I got triggered a couple weeks ago and my body has been locked in hypervigilance throughout the day since then. I am a lot more sensitive and feel constantly on edge. I haven't been able to shut if off but I have been able to distract and force myself to do something different. My tendency is to sit with the feelings all the time, thinking to myself that the only way to combat the feelings is to sit inside the pain and learn to tolerate it. While this can and does help some of the time, lately I have found the most helpful thing to do in those moments is to get up and move my body. Simply moving can distract my mind (however small) as well as filling my 5 senses with stimuli unlike the trigger.

For myself that could mean putting on a diaper, snuggling my cute teddy bears and turning on a fan, drinking tea, watching a youtube video about cute animals.

These kinds of things help me to feel safe.

Do you have these kinds of strategies once you are in that state? Do they help? I know we cannot necessarily prevent the triggers themselves, but we can try new things to cope. I can see why putting earplugs in your ears would make you feel more vulnerable - I would also not recommend doing that simply for other reasons such as fires or emergency situations.

Thanks,
HD7970ghz