[hol!day1]

This is probably one of the hardest things to come to terms with. I have experienced lots of psychotic episodes in the past and every time I have had an episode somebody would find out, which results in another long stay in hospital. I haven't been in hospital for about 5 years (I think, suffer from dissociation problems too).. which is great !!!

The only way I could stop being hospitalised was not allowing people in my life, except an online T from another country.

However recently this T now wants me to connect with others even if it is through support groups. This is concerning, it worries me connecting to people again. Will my levels of mistrust esculate again, will I again experience psychotic episodes.

[newtus]

do you know what triggers you?

[hol!day1]

Hi
Nope, No one ever asked me that before and I never looked at triggers.

[costello]

Originally Posted by hol!day1

Hi
Nope, No one ever asked me that before and I never looked at triggers.

It might be useful to think about it some.

You mention abuse in your signature. People with trauma histories often do have things that trigger them. My adopted son, for example, always gets a bit nuttier in the spring, especially May. He was removed from his mom twice in May - 2000 and 2002. Then, he disrupted several foster placements in subsequent years.

Being aware of what triggers you can be helpful. You can know you're not going crazy. Your mind is just trying to keep you safe. It's associating the trigger with danger, and it's trying, in its own misguided way, to help you avoid being hurt.

[hol!day1]

Wow, that 's great and very interesting. I never seen it that way before. I don't recall my past, I suffer from dissociation problems too.But by the sound of it. I might not need to know the cause, just the trigger would be useful.

[hol!day1]

So do others take that recommended schizophrenic test, regularly. I scored 13 . Should I just take it as a baseline and if I increase than tell someone. I don't think I am having a psychotic episode now. But in the past I never thought I suffered from psychosis. So it's hard to determine if my behaviours are normal now.

[costello]

Originally Posted by hol!day1

Wow, that 's great and very interesting. I never seen it that way before. I don't recall my past, I suffer from dissociation problems too.But by the sound of it. I might not need to know the cause, just the trigger would be useful.

Yes, knowing triggers can be very helpful. My son's is a general feeling that "spring is in the air, so my world is about to be turned upside down again." But it doesn't have to be that. It can be a specific object or taste or sound or a person who brings to mind someone else - anything that takes you back mentally to a time when you were in danger, physically or psychically. Your amygdala detects the danger, possibly before you're consciously aware, and your mind takes an evasive maneuver to make you safe.

Maybe you dissociated during the original traumas, so now your mind "knows" to dissociate when it believes you're about to suffer a similar trauma. Our minds are really wonderful that way. Most of the time it helps keep us safe, but sometimes it over-reacts and we have to learn to use our frontal lobes to override the danger signal from our amygdala. The problem is the amygdala reacts more quickly to danger than our frontal lobes do. So we move to make ourselves safe before we have time to think. That's great if it helps us jump out of the path of a speeding car. It's a bit more problematic if we're dissociating when we smell paint thinner, because our mind associates that smell with sexual abuse we suffered when we were very small.

[hol!day1]

Wow and thankyou. You know so much about all of this. Your so intelligent. Me on the otherhand have so much to learn. I had no idea psychosis was some sort of trigger, let alone some sort of connection to one's life experience. I thought it was just a chemical imbalance, or a mood problem. So I avoid many foods. I worry constantly that I maybe poisoning the body and I try to stay fit to keep my mood in a better place. I know this doesn't always help the voices get the better of me from time-to-time.

It sounds like I was wasting my time on take care of the body . I am going to spend more time focusing on triggers.

[newtus]

Costello is
amazing right?

She definitely is. : ]

[hol!day1]

So true !!