[thelionkinglives]

Hey guys. As some may know, I've been posting when things "trigger" me in hopes of having you guys aid in helping me understand how to get past this stuff. i'm going to need to in order to function the way I want to in life. My eventual goal is to teach high school mathematics in a very rough district.

Today is the Anniversery of the Columbine High School shootings. As some of you know my wife was going to NIU during the Valintine's Day shooting last year. She had a class in the auditorium where the shootings took place that semester, which I believe now was a tipping point to all my mental health issues. Certainly not the only one but definantly the tipping point.

Obviously I was more aware of it & thinking about it today already. Well today there was a shooting in one of the high schools in our district. The kid was shot in the leg, I'm not sure of his condition.

I was not triggered as aggressively as I was with physically seeing the domestic violence trigger last week. However, once again my short term memory was horrible again today. I missed a lot of turns driving today, I accedently gave a woman incorrect directions to the local junior college that I went to....I went to that school for 2 years but simply screwed up the directions. My palms have been sweaty most of the day.

Does this sound like a typical trigger in regards to PTSD?
What can I do to ease the effects? I am going to work in these schools I have to be able to function.

[phoenix7]

yes it feels like a ptsd trigger -are you seeing a therapist?

I am sorry that there is so much violence to remind you - with time triggers do get less but you have to work at it - for me it was exposing myself to the triggers over and over till they had no effect - but I dont know how you would do that as your trigger seems to be volence - a therpist would talk you through the events over and over in some therapies to make the impact less - there are lots of different techniques they use

EFT - a tapping therapy (like acupressure) helped me - you can see it in action on www.tapping.com - there is a great book - The ptsd sourcebook by Glenn Shiraldu that has heaps of techniqeus and therapies in it - it is really well written and has exercises you can do to help

take care P7

[thelionkinglives]

Originally Posted by phoenix7

yes it feels like a ptsd trigger -are you seeing a therapist?

I am sorry that there is so much violence to remind you - with time triggers do get less but you have to work at it - for me it was exposing myself to the triggers over and over till they had no effect - but I dont know how you would do that as your trigger seems to be volence - a therpist would talk you through the events over and over in some therapies to make the impact less - there are lots of different techniques they use

EFT - a tapping therapy (like acupressure) helped me - you can see it in action on www.tapping.com - there is a great book - The ptsd sourcebook by Glenn Shiraldu that has heaps of techniqeus and therapies in it - it is really well written and has exercises you can do to help

take care P7

Yeah, it does seem like violence is a trigger which is magnified because it's actually is around my immediate environment. Not in my home but in my community. I use to be some what numb to it which allowed me to function, until the NIU shootings.
I know another obvious trigger is stories of parents that kill their children which is a personal connection as well but it still has that violence element.

No, I don't have a T. I'm on the medical card & it is hard to get into one so I'm just learning & trying it on my own.

I've heard about the emmersion idea & have even heard about it being used with combat vets through virtual reality. Maybe I need to start playing Grand Theft Auto again, lol....that would be funny if there was actually a theraputic use for violent video games, hmmm.

But with violence even with the early success with the combat troops if that is the greatest idea. I'm not sure it's good to get completely numb to violence.

On the other hand though, since I'm personally not a violent person I maybe I wouldn't need to worry as much about getting numb to it as someone who acted violently as a reaction to a PTSD issue...

you've got my wheels turning