dealing with triggers

I've learned a couple of useful things since joining PC. First, for some reason i had never heard of a 'mixed state' before... that was a personal revelation.

I have also become more aware of the fact that I'm routinely getting triggered by events in life and certain situations or thoughts I have about them if I focus on the triggering item. I've got triggers for anger, for irritation, for annoyance, for fear... etc.

The first step for me is just to say yes I am being triggered now. what is the second and third steps. How do you deal with triggers?

Personally I distract myself and do something I enjoy.

Or escape the trigger if possible.

I don't know, I could be wrong, but a trigger isn't just something that upsets you. I'm actually getting irritated by people overusing the word trigger just to describe having any emotion about anything. A trigger, to my knowledge, is actually referring to some kind of stimuli that provokes an aspect of your disorder. So my flashbacks are triggered by something. My panic attacks are triggered by something. But my annoyance with someone is just being annoyed by someone, it's not the same as a trigger. I mean, a trigger refers to the lever you pull on a gun to fire a bullet. Like the train leaving the station. A panic attack, a flash back, a mania episode, a delusion, those are trains leaving the station, bullets leaving the gun. Annoyance, irritation, not bullets, not trains.

I'm just saying, I hear a lot of people refer to triggers when they're not really triggered, they're just feeling an emotion.

To answer your question: since you know you're being triggered, the question is, what are you being triggered to? If it's a flashback, then knowing what the trigger is helps take away it's power. But a flashback, typically you will do exercises to ground yourself into reality. With a panic attack, when triggered, you will do things to slow your breathing and get your body to relax down from the fight or flight effect. I don't have mania or delusions, so I am not sure how they deal with those when triggered.

Today I was triggered into a full blown panic attack by an email about my lawsuit. I handed the problem off to my lawyer, acknowledged that it was a triggering situation, then worked to slow my breathing, put on some music to distract myself, then try to coerce my mind into focusing on something else.

Honestly, if you find that you have something that is triggering you into having a disordered behavior, it's something to work with a therapist on to change. CBT helps, I hear DBT also helps.

Sorry about my beginning rant, had to get that off my chest.

Seesaw

I feel I am reacting automatically and without nuance and my behavior becomes totally predictable and it seems to be related to things in my past more than what is actually going on in the moment. That is what I was using the word trigger to describe.

EDITED TO ADD: I dont' want to define the word 'trigger' for anyone else. Just let it be whatever popped into your mind when you read the title of the thread. I realize now there may be many definitions.

So that's sort of like a flashback...or maybe a quasi flashback. I think one thing that can help when you get triggered back into the past like that is to ground yourself in the moment. Remind yourself of the facts going on around you.

Can you give like an actual example? And what it reminded you of?

For example, one of my traumatic experiences was being snowed in with my mom when she had a psychotic break. At one point while I was sitting in the living room, she went into the kitchen and started futzing around with all these knives and silverware. Shortly after she was throwing stuff at me...Fast forward a few years later, sitting in my boss's office. She gets up and walks behind me and starts futzing with stuff on her desk, and all of a sudden I'm in a half hallucination that I was back in that cabin and I was frozen with fear for my life...

So I would focus on the facts at hand, on the present. I'm not in the cabin, I'm at work. My boss is not my mother. She is not going to throw things at me. She is not having a psychotic break. I am not snowed in. I can leave if I want to. etc...

Seesaw

for me a "trigger" is anything that causes me to react or feel any kind of emotion, kind of like someone standing with a gun. something happens whether its good (hunting, target practice, ...) or bad (wars, crime...) and that persons brain reacting to these triggers causes them to squeeze the gun trigger which makes the gun react by firing out a bullet.

any time I encounter anything that causes me to react is called a trigger, the reaction (feelings, physical and mental) is called being triggered for me.

how do I handle my triggers, that cause me to feel triggered (happy, sad, emotional, wanting to act out in negative ways....I go out in nature, take a walk,take a break from what ever is making me feel triggered. if its a positive trigger I just enjoy it.

I only know I get thoughts that disturb me. Its usually when I'm trying to sleep or relax. I try not to think about topics that would lead to disturbing thoughts, ie triggers. The problem is they seem to come up from like out of nowhere. I feel so exhausted when I wake the next morning. One of the thoughts deals with memories of how a man who lived with me abused me Warning possibly triggering: It was in the middle of the night from bed. I felt I needed to relieve myself He wouldn't let me. My only choice was to hold it in through the night. A therapist told me it sounded to her he tortured me. Its not surprising I am diagnosed with PTSD. Triggers are a part. Its far from this one experience.

Thank you for sharing mugwort. One of the memories that haunts me is being 8 or so and my Mom was jabbing at me with the end of a broomstick while i was hiding under the bed away from her so I wouldn't get beaten. When my cat lies under the bed I can get angry at her. It's a ridiculous association I know but that is how my brain has been working recently.

Please use the brackets if you're going to talk about that kind of stuff!

[trigger ] [/trigger ]

Without the spaces.

Thanks for this thread....

I try to focus on something to pull myself away from the flood of emotional reaction I am having.

My T told me to say to myself I am not a powerless child now, I am a grown woman who has accomplished many things in life.

It really would depend upon the 'trigger' but if it is something someone has said or done then I would remind myself that is usually to do with 'them' and 'their stuff' not to do with me.

Well done on realising that about your own reactions, that is a big part of the positive progress!

Hi Tecomsin,

My therapist helped me learn about boundaries—-I had weak boundaries in the sense I’d overextend myself to help others, for example. I learned how to be more assertive. Admittedly, I have trouble with self-care being priority, meaning taking care of ME first. So, understanding and using boundaries helps.

It may include cutting out toxic people in your life. For example, a friend that triggers you in the sense where you feel lousy around them. A therapist can help with this. Also, with anger....

If you’re triggered and you have PTSD...all I know is that therapy is helpful. (I’m starting this type of therapy with a trauma therapists).

Some people we may have to interact with...a therapist helped me with that ALOT, as to my mother.

I hope this helps. You have my support. xo

I believe that it's important to know what truly triggers us and find tools to cope with triggers.

I am excruciatingly weary of people who badge "triggers", or who use "being triggered" as an excuse for their behavior, basically, people who are obsessed with, loyal to - or even addicted to - what they perceive as triggers. "You will take my TRIGGER over my cold, dead body because it is MINE and I will NOT give it up!!"

It gets old. At some point we all have to grow up and live in the world- or, if one truly cannot do that, live in a setting in which you are taken care of...assisted living, or a group home, for example.