Hate August

This is always the worst month for me. The heat triggers me with being hot and feeling trapped. Have a large number of memories that are triggered this month. Last night one got me with my guard down. el*v*s, yeah he died so my years ago yesterday. el*v*s trigger traced back to the first time of abuse being on the day he died. Great now I get to be reminded of it every year. So many nightmares last night. I'm not a happy camper today. and my T is out of town till friday at a training. so I can't reach him. no one is in T's office but the secretary, she's nice and all, but not "MY T". August is also when we escaped from some of the abusers. spent days on a bus. I'm just really overwhelmed with triggers that keep popping up of late. hard to do anything else. Anyone got any good tips for triggers? Hard when the heats a trigger, have to go outside sometimes. But any ideas of things that worked for anyone is wanted. Thanks, Monty

(((((((((((Monty))))))))))))
i wish i had a good tip for you. one way i deal with a really bad day, that probably isn't the best health wise, it to treat myself to a peanut buster parfait at Dairy Queen. it gets me away from the house, to a relatively safe place. i bring a light book and enjoy. another is i found a coffee shop that has a back room. i go and have a cup of joe, read or study my sign language, and take as long as i need to regroup. you can do a "Vicki"--she takes the bottle of Hershey's syrup and takes a couple of swigs right from the bottle, then the dogs come lick her face--at least she starts to laugh a bit.

seriously, triggers are c**ppy. i've read all the stuff on relaxing, breathing, etc and when in the middle of it all find that it is really hard to do. it takes practice, i guess. so sometimes the best is to remove myself from the place i'm in now and find a safe, distracting place. bookstores (with a coffee shop), friend's house to talk, take a nap with a favorite blanket and stuffie (doesn't always work because i keep thinking), we have an indoor airconditioned walking path in this area i have gone to.
not sure if any of this helped. Vicki says to stock up on the Hersheys in july
w_i

I go to the gym when I can, not to work out but to use their pool because it is a safe place. If I can't go there I have photos I will get out of another safe place. The hard part is remembering to do either of these things.
Caroline

Vicki- Hershey's, there ya go girl !!! There is always room for chocolate or a chocolate chip cookie dough Blizzard from DQ.
With T we have created a safe place in our head. But is hard to calm down and go there. Ya know I guess it takes a lot of practice. The bookstore sounds like an idea. I don't have any RL friends, so is really know one to talk to in RL but T. I hate to bug ppl. Think that's one of my biggest problems is knowing when and asking for help. I tend to shut down and go it alone when things get hard. Even with T. The only ones to seem to understand the best are my kitties. Last night I had one sleeping on my chest and another laying on my side. The one likes to clean my toes for me. He's not right, tends to like smelly things.

Hey Caroline,
I'm waiting for my yoga class to restart. Since my H is in school I can use their gym and classes there when school is in. So I'm waiting for the class to restart soon. I really get alot from the yoga class. The breathing exercises at the end of class helps me a lot to calm things down. My T say's that he can tell when I go to class ( normally the day before T ) cause I'm able to do the harder work in T with a lot less problems. Guess the moving and stretching helps. I tend to draw up and can't move well when I get stressed. When I would have finual exams in school I would get to the point where I couldn't turn my neck. 2 weeks and I'll be back in my class. I really need to stretch.

Maybe you could get some yoga exercises on a DVD? That would allow you to do your yoga at home.
C