Hi folks,

On a recent thread, someone (I think it was Wants) mentioned that analysts believe we can have triggers at an unconscious level.

This made me wonder how we can cope with triggers if we don't even know we are having them. Then I wondered how we do cope with our triggers, and so that's my question.

How do we cope with our triggers?

As I understand it, a trigger is a painful mental event coming from some stimulus in our environments or just from inside our own heads. These events are replays of past pain or fear of future pain. Some of us have many conscious triggers every day, especially when we are in depression.

My method, which seems to have worked quite well, is to remind myself that the pain is coming from the trigger and not from the event I am remembering or are afraid of happening. As psychologist Dorothy Rowe said, "It's not what has happened to us that makes us ill, but the way that we deal with it."

So I am on duty most of the time, redirecting the triggers, until they start passing me by of their own accord. It's a long job, but I think it works if we can stick with it. I remind myself that every bad thing in the world is not automatically pointing at me, other people have suffered as well.

There was a time when triggers caused me to act (in a bad way), and then a time when triggers caused me to hurt fresh every time, and nowadays there is a lot of time when triggers are just boring. They are still there, but I'm not suckered by them anymore. Let's hope it stays that way.

Does this make sense? Anyone else have coping strategies?

Cheers, Myzen