Triggers and avoidance

[Life Cut Short]

I am so scared of triggers, I am scared to look out of a window just in case if I see something that reminds me of my trauma...with compliments.

 

[Nam]

You must go outside. Take it small, like you are doing. Look outside the window. Go outside to get the mail, or sit on the porch for a count to ten. Gradually get to a point of walking twenty steps and walking back. Little steps every day.

If you keep going down this path of fearing triggers and fearing going out, you will become agoraphobic. And that hinders going to the doctor or therapist. Make small goals everyday. Write it here on this thread you started. We will support you!

 

[Friday]

I must be reading this wrong. You're saying you were traumatized with compliments?

 

[GWhizz]

If I avoided all of my triggers I wouldn't even get out of bed. I would never look at my child, work or be in a relationship, in fact, I wouldn't go to bed for all the nightmares that ensue.

Yes the flashbacks and dissociation is tough going. But I am choosing life. We have to fight this.

 

[Intrepid]

I can stop regardless of the triggers...now. I used to take mental health days, or quit jobs entirely due to triggers. I didn't have any choice. But after years of effort and lots of therapy, the triggers are not debilitating any more. Some don't even exist. It's like I'm a new person.

But then, there have been so many days where I didn't get out of bed because choosing whether to put on my pants or walk to the bathroom in my underwear was triggering. (Just one example) It was awful.