Triggered And Dissociating

[SeekingAfrica]

Hey everyone,

I was planning a very busy day with few meetings and lots to do, but...but I had one of those nights with lots of memories and I woke shaky. Then right now I kind of got triggered.

Sometimes instead of other things that makes my brain really foggy, like it floods me with a wave of sleep. I get sleepy very fast and to point where I can't keep my eyes open, like I'll almost faint.

It's happening now and I don't know how to get through my day. I just want to go to my office(because it's only mine and I can be alone) and sleep this off.

I have doctors thing and meeting in the evening and those I can't skip, but there are few hours until then. And I can't even get myself to go in a bus. I feel horrible. Not sure what to do with it...

 

[Gs172003]

Hey everyone,

I was planning a very busy day with few meetings and lots to do, but...but I had o...

I do that too. No idea why.

 

[SeekingAfrica]

I do that too. No idea why.

What do you do when it happens? I pretty much spend all day on the bed/couch in my office, sleeping or watching Youtube mindlessly. I couldn't even bring myself to make food and ended up ordering.
The only things I will for sure do today is the 2 meetings I have in an hour or so.

 

[Gs172003]

I either...go to sleep

Exercise


Ground myself prior to #2

Just let it ride

Depends on why

 

[Gs172003]

Sorry it wasn't more detailed. I'm at work

 

[Gs172003]

Are you feeling any better?

 

[SeekingAfrica]

Are you feeling any better?

I was- sorry I didn't respond sooner. I actually got myself together and went to my doctor's appointment. I was really happy with that. I even managed something I've been avoiding to do for a while.

And then today as usual the next wave hit. For me for some reason few things often pile on at the same time. Or may be I'm more sensitive to things whenever I've lost a day because of memories.

In any case the date on event I have in December suddenly changed, and I already had a full calendar of events, responsibilities and health issues. I also have a trip I had to already more twice. So now I'm completely blocked. I've been looking at dates, shopping sites, booking sites and calendars for the past few hours and rearranging dates and options in my head. I just really do NOT need this right now.

I need like a week of doing nothing and resting, but I don't see this happening before January or perhaps February. I should raise to the challenge and manage this. I'm trying, but it's frustrating.

 

[Gs172003]

I was- sorry I didn't respond sooner. I actually got myself together and went to my doctor's appo...

I'm sorry

 

[Sideways]

Unrelenting standards. "I should be getting more done, I have to get more done...".

It's okay to not be perfect, it's okay to lower your expectations on yourself when you're struggling. It really is.

And despite how together the rest of the world seems to be in the lead up to the "festive" (groan) season? My hunch is that there's a whole lot of us that aren't meeting our own expectations right now.

Try and take time out to just be gentle with yourself when you need to, and whether we like it or not, we need to take time out to look after ourselves occasionally. And that's okay.

 

[SeekingAfrica]

Unrelenting standards. "I should be getting more done, I have to get more done...".

It's okay...

I was already suspecting this month is a little much for me, and calmply planning to skip some things...But all the unexpected changes in things added even more to my schedule, rather than less, and it was so fast and unexpected, I panicked....

I'm not trying to return to knowing somehow all will be okay and I just need to rearrange things and decide what I can handle. But I am not calm yet so it all seems way too hard. And yes...I'm perfectionist and really hard on myself. I'm trying to adjust that.

 

[recoveringfromptsd]

I had to struggle with this same thing tonight, I go to a trauma group run by one of the workers with the mobile crisis team, its a peer led group ( I believe she has her own history but is trained as a crisis person). The group talked about several things, 3 times subject matter came up that was triggering, If I had not had frozen oranges at that location I would have had problems disassociating and going into a FB, but luckily I did so after the first occurance I started disassociation, when I was able to pull out of it, I got the frozen orange and that's what I held in my hand for the rest of the group time. Stay in the group and being part of it is part of distress tolerance. In many ways distress tolerance is what its going to take for me to get the PE therapy (Prolonged exposure).

Grounding aids like frozen oranges, bright colored objects, clocks that have a second hand, projecting night light, are my saviors right now, without them I don't think I could stay safe.

@SeekingAfrica Have you tried grounding to keep you in the moment?

It so far has worked for me.

 

[Jensen]

I would have had problems disassociating and going into a FB

Hi @recoveringfromptsd I was following this thread and got stuck at "FB", what did you mean please ?