Constantly triggered

I am in a near panic state and am experiencing acute and destabilizing anxieties that are being triggered in every area of my life including work/career, my home, my social life, and my love life. I am so triggered by the sudden increase in stress levels occurring in each of those areas of my life, that I do not feel emotionally safe anywhere. I do not feel safe at work, in my home, going out socially, or if I ever dared to venture into dating again. the dating world.

I just went on a new anti anxiety medication yesterday, to be taken daily. But right now I am concerned about whether I can even work next week. Unfortunately, I have so much on my plate, that taking time off from work is just not feasible.

I don't know how to cope with this state I am in or effectively manage my symptoms.

Anyone have some immediately applicable, fast acting coping strategies for sqeulching trauma responses and emotional triggers?

I think it is PTSD that is happening here for me.. like past traumas that have occurred in each of those areas of my life at various times, and now I am suddenly being retraumatized constantly by all of them happening at once.

I am so very, very sorry that you are in the situation you describe. You have been on this Forum much longer than I have and have helped more people so I don't know if I can be helpful to you.

There is something that helps me a lot but to be quite honest with you, many people have told me it does nothing at all for them.

Sometimes things that really help one person are totally worthless to others in the same kinds of situations.

I have a kind of "mantra" I say to myself when the stress of past and present traumas and difficulties are crushing me from every side. What I say is: "Could be worse, but isn't worse, thank goodness." Or if it is about things I fear in the future, I say to myself: "No matter what happens in the future regarding work, relationships, health and so on, I will still be able to say: "could be worse but will not be worse, thank goodness.' "

I get caught in a kind of "could, should be better" frame of mind. It makes me sad and ramps up my anxiety to great heights and even leads me to have panic attacks and rolling panic attacks.

I find I can disarm this with "could be worse but isn't worse" frame of mind. I could be worse, but am not worse. Other people could be worse but are not worse. Things, situations and events in my life and the world could be worse but are not worse, thank goodness.

I know it must sound crazy, but reframing my mind to gratitude really lowers my anxiety and unhappy and distressing feelings.
The worst I've ever felt in my life was when I had life threatening food poisoning that caused my to throw up constantly and without any pause or relief. I felt so, so sick and bad.

Now when I feel nervous or bad about something in my life, I think well at least I am not suffering from that food poisoning right now. And it helps me.
I am not on fire. I am not starving to death. I am not stranded in a desert without water and facing a slow and painful demise. Thank goodness!

People have told me that doing what I do has helped them but many more people have told me that it doesn't do a thing for them. So I am only sharing it with you in the hope that maybe you are one of the few who can benefit from it.

Hopefully other members here will have better words for you and more helpful words than my poor words.

It is awful beyond words when so many things join together and threaten to crush one. Pressures at home and work and everything else can be crushingly heavy.

PTSD in particular is crushingly heavy to bear in my experience.

I hope you are able to find things that really and truly help you. So sorry you are suffering!!

I'm not sure of the new medication you're on but I was on Buspirone and it was like being on LSD. I was literally tripping and hallucinating. My doctor now has me on Fluvoxamine and I am 100% better for it. You might want to talk with your doctor and see what your options are. Also, not sure how much you exercise but that can help. All the best to you.

@Yaowen, thank you sooo much.

You've always been here to respond to my cries and pleas for help over the years. You are always so kind, so thoughtful with your replies, and so compassionate and understanding. I just love you!!

And all that you wrote is very helpful to me. I love love love your mantra. What you wrote serves as a great reminder to me to still be grateful for what I do have, even in moments or periods of enormous stress/emotional distress.

That is definitely helpful and I will be sure to keep it in mind every day.

What I realized hours after creating this thread is that due to all these different triggers occurring, I do not feel emotionally safe in any area of my life right now. And that is making me feel incredibly ungrounded, like a kite flying with no string attached. I am also constantly looking around wherever I am now, feeling on guard about anyone or anything coming to rain on my parade.

I went to a concert last night and met up with a girlfriend I've made during the last year who follows this band around the state like I do. Her boyfriend made a rather rude and mean comment to me after the show ended, which turned my entire mood sour. When I woke up, I felt like he had ruined the whole night for me with that one mean comment.

I am so sensitive to anything anyone says to me right now that could be interpreted as a slight or insult. I think perhaps another solution is for me to just completely isolate myself from the world and from society altogether. I am so traumatized & triggered that I don't want to be around any people at all.

I may need trauma therapy... I don't know. This is a pretty severe emotional state I am in.

YIKES @Revenge Tour. That sounds scary! Really weird since that's the precise anti-anxiety medication I am currently taking. So far so good.. no side effects, nothing.. I've only been taking it since Friday though.

I do need to be better about exercise. I am very sporadic with it. I use meditative videos on youtube every morning, which is my way to try and ground myself before work every morning.

You sound a bit like you're suffering from exhaustion - physical, emotional, and mental. It makes every little nerve raw, and like your last one is constantly sticking out, waiting to be hit.

When that happens to me, it's a sign I need as much physical and mental rest as possible. I'll cut back obligations to the bare minimum, and sleep/rest the remainder of the time until things feel better. Now when I recognize I'm getting exhausted, it's usually just one down-day, but at times, it can be a week or so of minimal activity. It's hard, because it can feel wrong to do nothing, but letting a body and mind rest and heal, sometimes really helps.

Be gentle with yourself. There's a lot going on

Yep. Just be careful with it like anything else. One morning I was on my way to work when I was on Buspirone and I nearly passed out while driving a 3,500-pound van. That stuff gives me the willies. If it works for you, awesome. And, yes, meditation is SUPER helpful.

I don’t know if I can add anything except to say exercise is an excellent suggestion from RT. Only one thing, be careful about the intensity, it’s been my experience when anxious that cardio can aggravate it sometimes, maybe it’s the adrenaline I don’t know.

Meditation sounds good, yoga, Pilates, swimming are all good in my experience- they focus your brain on the action and can calm thoughts . Focusing on the breathe is good too.

Thanks so much. You're right. Today I was able to get out of my state of high anxiety enough to focus on getting some work done, but am making sure to rest on a day off too. I know I will have to work tomorrow and Tuesday nights after work to keep up the pace, so today I feel my body and mind automatically choosing rest over anything else. Tomorrow, it's right back onto the anxiety and panic wagon at work... I have a therapy appt in the afternoon and pray that she can also give me helpful advice.

Thank you.

It's funny... in my head I know I agree and want to start exercising again, but my body and emotions are screaming no at me. I am so triggered at this stage that even being out in public can be unnerving, especially driving around town thinking I could spot my abusive ex husband any moment. I am finding a sense of safety mostly from inside my home, with some of the curtains drawn.

Guess I am not at that point yet to take that leap.

Yes I understand not feeling mentally ready for exercise, I’m only just restarting gently exercising myself after a long lapse too.