Opinions On Stress Reactions Wanted

[NarcSis]

I think I just started a twitter war. I reacted to a tweet, I got a misguided reply, I reacted again with calculated conscious wording.

After that I began to shake, I feel like I am trembling inside and I am hyperventilating. Can someone help me figure this out?

I know I can't take being questioned on anything now, it's very triggering for me where as before my trauma I used to be able to stand my ground and reason clearly, I break down now. Is it simply low stress tolerance or is it something deeper?

Does anyone else get like this with the smallest things or is it just me?

 

[Deleted member 12723]

You are not alone. I get triggered over any kind of disagreement and I have so much anxiety.

I do not know what it is for you.

But I so relate and identify. I hate that it happens when it does.

Hang in there, it will pass. I wish you well. Remember to breathe and try to do something nice for yourself. Hugs.

 

[NarcSis]

Thanks Gizmo, this reaction surprises me every time it happens, I don't know why since I know it happens.
It scares me and makes me feel so darn fragile and vulnerable, all I can do is cry.

I don't know how to work it out, will it always be there? Has anyone been able to overcome this? :banghead:

 

[DharmaGirl]

I do it too. Whenever I stand up for myself. I believe we will overcome it when we continue to stand up for ourselves.

 

[Deleted member 12723]

Medic I think with practice we will be able to overcome this one. We need to gain confidence in ourselves ability to overcome. We need some successes, I think that will be very useful.

 

[a3a2]

Oh, Medic, I can understand this so well. I ache for you! Even as I read this, I can feel the emotions of several other conflicts rising in me....conflicts that others would have easily dismissed, but that sent me spiraling.

Can you see your t soon and talk through it? This always helps me put things in the proper perspective.

 

[WillThereBeCake]

Does anyone else get like this with the smallest things or is it just me?

Medic72, I do this too, and I get worked up the way you do as well. If my husband is home, he tells me, "Never type Mad!" and that's my queue to do my grounding work. The reason isn't small. If you are doing what I do, it's a little thing my brain does that I have called, "Connect the Dots". Just like a kid's puzzle, my brain starts going into all the other times that I was crying for help about something and was ignored or demeaned, and the past pains from those situations comes flooding back all at once, all together. It is completely overwhelming.

I avoid any kind of flaming wars for just this reason, but there have been times where it's not an issue of being right, there are important issues at stake. Not opinions, life saving stuff. Like the time a friend posted about these weird symptoms her cat was having. The other people in the conversation were saying it was no big deal. However, I happened to know that it was a rare, but deadly condition that needed vet treatment immediately. I couldn't get through to her just to take her cat to the silly vet. Sadly, I was right, the cat died the next day. I was in tears, not just for the beloved pet, but out of the total helplessness I felt trying to get someone to believe me.

Even if the topic is something minor, it becomes major in my head for the above stated reasons. The only way I have found to get past it is to walk away and do my grounding exercises. You can't fix stupid - them not you :)

 

[Venusian]

I go through this everytime someone wants something that I disagree with. I used to just let them, I would roll over and let them take the lead. It felt like I was so disconnected from what "real" people wanted that everyone else always knew best. This was complicated by my fear of anger. I was second guessing myself at everything I did. I still find myself doing that over things that happened 20 years ago that just pop into my head at random times.

I only just began to recognize this as my memories of my trauma began to return. My reactions to situations were so tied to the PTSD that I didn't know I had and situations that I didn't remember I had gone through. Recently, I don't know what changed, I have been able to be more assertive when I know I am right. Maybe it was just the "knowing" that I was right and the "why" behind the way that things were done. Also knowing where the roots of my anxieties originated and doing all the work that I have done on them has helped. When I begin the second guessing over things that don't matter anymore, I just tell the thoughts to "GO AWAY". If I am alone I usually say it out loud.

I still avoid conflict if I possibly can, I am ususally the one who finds compromises before things escalate into conflict.

 

[The Albatross]

Figure out what may have caused the reaction, repeat, repeat, repeat (as opportunities in life crop up, no need to start a twitter war again). Normalize the experience, the body reaction and fireworks in the brain will slowly calm as the initial "connection" is rewritten and changes.

 

[JustBe]

Yup. Conflict of any kind makes me go fuzzyheaded and floaty. Anxiety kicks in big time and I isolate.

 

[Sick of Fear]

I can totally relate and for me it goes back to my childhood, always being told I was wrong an denied care when coming forth with abuse. I try to avoid disagreements when I know they're with people that won't disagree respectfully because I go into extreme defense mode.

Best wishes to you. You are not alone!

 

[safenow]

I can so relate to what you are going through.

Day before yesterday I met a man on the bus who started a conversation, and during that, he ask what I used to do for a living. When I told him I had been a legal secretary he ask if I could help him. He said, "It will only take a couple of minutes to just type this one form." (I hate going out in public)

I tried to tell him I can't do that, but he wouldn't listen. He kept telling me more and more and by the time I was able to get away from him I was shaking so bad. It took me telling him what PTSD is before he seemed to understand. But then, yesterday I saw him again, and he said, "if you would just come to my house for a little while and type this for me, I'll pay you." I said I don't go to a man's home without someone with me. He said, "My son will be there." I told him again, no. He ask me to go to the library with him and type it there. It took me several minutes to get away from him, and needless to say, I'm still upset about it.

If I could have helped him, I would have. If I could do stuff any longer I'd be earning a pay check not living on disability. Sigh.

Last night, during my sleep, I aligned the paperwork in my computer so I could just type the answers and then print it out. Sounds easy right? It used to be easy for me to do that. Now, forget it. It would take me all day to just remember how to set the stupid tabs to match the form. Makes me want to cry just thinking about not being able to do it.