Taking Control of Your Trauma Triggers

Everyone who has experienced some trauma will have triggers at some point in their lives. Triggers are events or situations that your nervous system recognizes as potentially harmful and threatening. Your body kicks into survival mode often before you have had time to properly assess what is going on.

This is your body trying to help you, but trauma triggers tend to cause a fair amount of emotional dysregulation. Taking control of your trauma triggers can be a long process to learn. However, when you put the work in, they will no longer control your emotions. You will be better able to process past trauma.

A Tale of Two Systems

There are two systems inside everyone that work together to keep you safe, healthy, and regulated. One is a complex area of your brain known as the limbic system. Here, all of your emotions and psychological responses are processed, your moods are regulated, and your behaviors are determined.

The limbic system in your brain works together with the central nervous system in your body, sending physical sensations, signals, chemicals, and hormones to all the parts of your body. This creates movement and mood. Everything you see, hear, and feel is processed in your brain, which coordinates with your body, making for emotional and physical responses.

When you see something scary in a movie, for example, your brain interprets what you are seeing. It sends the chemicals to the parts of your body that need to respond to the situation, even though there is no physical threat to you.

You might feel a prickling sensation on the back of your neck, cold sweats down your spine, or a rush of energy preparing you to run away from the danger or meet it in a fight. These two complex systems are working inside you, trying to keep you safe, even though they cannot distinguish a real threat from a fictional one.

Trauma triggers are much the same. The limbic system and the nervous system have kept a record of every experience you have ever had in your life. They immediately recognize situations that feel familiar. As soon as you experience something that matches a traumatic event in your past, your body primes you with feelings, chemicals, and hormones to respond to the threat.

Your body and brain are trying to help you, but just as in the case of watching a scary movie, they cannot distinguish a real threat from an imaginary threat. You might find your emotions suddenly elevated, and your heart rate increased without even knowing why.

Reflections of Pain

The processes in your brain and body might happen so rapidly that you don’t know you are having a trauma trigger or why you are triggered. Suddenly, your pulse might quicken or your mood changes without explanation. Trauma triggers frequently cause emotional dysregulation. Your whole mood may change for days, all because you encountered a trigger without even realizing it. Sometimes you can begin to see a pattern if you pay close attention to your moods and physical sensations.

For example, if you feel angered by authority, it may be because you were controlled or silenced in your childhood. If you feel distraught over being left out of a social gathering, you may have unresolved abandonment trauma. If feedback feels like criticism, you might have had a caregiver who was overly critical of you. Your friends not replying to your texts might be triggering if you had a parent who used silence to communicate their disapproval, anger, or disappointment with you.

It’s not always easy to know what triggers you and how your triggers link to experiences from your past. Often, the only way you can know that you have been triggered is because your sudden mood shift or emotional response is disproportionate to the experience you have just had. This is how triggers cause people to become dysregulated.

Taking control of your trauma triggers begins with being curious and asking questions about what is going on with you. Processing trauma does not happen overnight, but every journey starts with a single step, or in this case, a specific set of questions to consider.

The Three W’s

Triggers can be difficult to deal with. Not only do they affect your mood and body, but they can also begin to affect your relationships and even your career. Every trigger provides information, though, and you can learn about yourself if you ask, “What is going on with me right now?” “Where is it coming from?” and “What do I need in this moment?”

What is going on with me right now?

When you are triggered, pay attention to the way you feel. Remember that triggers come from two places: your brain and your body. Consider what emotions you are feeling, what sensations you have, and what is happening in your body. If the trigger has caused an extreme physical reaction, such as an elevated heartbeat, a panic attack, or brain fog, there are breathing and grounding exercises that might be helpful to learn.

If you are having a primarily emotional response, try to name what emotions you are feeling.

Your body is trying to help you face a threat, even when the trigger causes an overwhelming response. You will feel more in control when you can identify what is happening. Simply naming an emotion or identifying a sensation is a form of taking control of the situation.

Where is it coming from?

Think of what event could’ve caused the reaction. It might not have been an immediate reaction; maybe you were replaying an event or conversation from the previous day in your head, and it resulted in you having a powerful physical or emotional response. Consider what threat you are sensing, what you are afraid might happen, and what the worst-case scenario is from this event.

When you begin to notice patterns, you can begin to know what your deepest fears are. If you have a secret anxiety or fear, playing the scenario out to the worst possible conclusion will help you assess whether your fear is grounded and believable or not. You might experience embarrassment or shame if you explore these questions, but you have nothing to be ashamed of. You are growing and learning still, and everyone has similar experiences.

What do I need?

Consider what would make you feel better in this moment. Would you feel better if you were understood or seen? Do you need to talk to someone about your experiences and offload some tension? Would it help if you had a quiet environment in which you could calm down? Is there someone you need to talk to or a situation you need to confront?

Triggers are helpful because they point to an area in your life that needs help. Whether it’s something you need more of in a relationship or at work, or a situation you need to confront, you begin truly processing past trauma and growing when you start paying attention to what is going on in yourself. It’s not an easy process, and it might be two steps forward and three steps back, but what matters is that you are paying attention and trying to understand yourself.

Next Steps for Dealing with Trauma Triggers

It’s not easy to work on yourself and dig into past traumas alone. Everyone has a blind spot and needs someone who can see things from a different perspective. You might benefit from speaking to a counselor about your triggers and traumas.

Every session is confidential, and you determine the depths to which you are willing to go. To get started, contact our offices today about meeting with a counselor. Begin a journey to recognize your trauma triggers and be liberated from them.