IME ... Avoidance doesn't work.
Shrug. Might for a little while, but in the long run triggers and stressors I haven't dealt with? Just go viral.
Let's say I'm triggered by a box of Minute Maid Orange Juice.
Avoid Minute Maid >>> Switch to Simply OJ
Box of OJ >>> Avoid OJ?
Any boxed drink >>> Buy glass bottles?
Any cold drink >>> Avoid my fridge?
- And restaurants,
- and kitchens,
- and anywhere a cold drink might be lurking
Anything swallowed >>> :O_o:
That my original trigger was a box of OJ? Is just a fluke. ANYTHING that was present, and any aspect of it, can be a trigger. So I remove one aspect, and my brain happily ( :mad: ) latches onto other aspects of the same trigger... Or worse, flings itself outward to grab onto stressors... Or both.
Even more fun? Since I was on planet earth during my traumas? My brain isn't limited to my original triggers, or aspects of them. Say I drank that OJ in the summer time. Or while wearing a bra. Or with my hair touching the back of my neck? Or I picked it up with my hand. Millions of triggers for my brain to seize on, and zillions of stressors.
Triggers and stressors are all about my brain making connections to things, and then responding as if that connection is causal. (Touch a hot burner? Get burned. Works. Wear a pretty dress? Get raped. Doesn't.) So avoidance never works in the long term, because my brain will continue making connections. The trick? Isn't to avoid, it's to sever. So when I see a box of minute maid orange juice? Instead of kicking into fight/flight, or flashbacks, or anxiety, or anything else... My brain no longer associates minute maid orange juice with trauma. Nor the box it came in. Nor any other drink. Nor any temperature of drink. Nor any act of drinking. Etc.
