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Triggers Galore And The Day Isn't Half Over!

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FindingMyself88

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I really just want to lock myself in my room right now, curl up in a ball and love on Bristol for the rest of the day. But I cannot do so.

I woke up at 7:30 am to take Bristol outside to potty. I take her to the little grassy field at the back of my apartment complex. While I was waiting on Bristol to do her business, I see a couple near by and you can clearly tell the are fighting. I try to turn away from them and focus on Bristol, but their voices carry and yelling is a HUGE trigger for me. I immediately start shaking and feel the panic attack coming on. I drop to my knees in the grass and call Bristol to my side. There was no time to use any coping skills, so I just bury my head into Bristol's shoulder while she licks my neck and try to tell myself I am safe. I cover my ears until I have calmed down somewhat and manage to get in the car and come back to the apartment.

About an hour or so later I get a knock at the door saying that we need to move our vehicles because they are cutting down the tree limbs. My mom was not awake so I had to move mine and hers. After moving hers, I am getting out of the vehicle and getting prepared to go back inside. One of the workers calls out to me "Want to come help us work?" with a sly grin on his face. He just happened to have a similar build to my cousin whom the health issues are going on with (see my last post) and who we are targeting traumas for EMDR that revolved around what he did to me. I take off running down the steps, almost fall but catch myself. I could hear him laughing.. not cool.

In 3 hours I have to take Bristol for a temperament test and intro to doggy day care. I decided it would probably help her to have a good walk and would help me too. So I leash her up and we set out to walk around our neighborhood. It is a safe place with rarely any other dogs out. The walk is going fine. We pass by the school and she sees a couple of kids, I treat her and we walk on. Then we walk past this guy working on his car in his yard. I notice, but keep walking. About 10 feet from his yard, Bristol's dog treat bag that is attached to my side falls off. I don't feel it, just hear it hit the ground. I jumped and spun so quickly, thinking it was the guy following us. I immediately break down into tears, sit on the curb and hug Bristol again. However then I get sick from the anxiety and throw up :(.

Slowly we make our way home by turning and going a longer route so I didn't have to pass the guy again. More from embarrassment than anything. I get home and try to take a cold shower and it helped some. Bristol refused to stay in my room and so she ended up in the bathroom with me. Now I am back in my room and dreading the rest of the day. I need to take her to the doggy day care and I know it will be good for her. Thankfully my mom is going. She isn't always a help, but at least she can drive and if I have a melt down, she can stay in there with Bristol while they test her.

Afterwards I plan on coming home and doing absolutely nothing :(.
 
Thanx for posting. My Son has Aspergers and suffers from anxiety and some PTSD from being bullied at school years ago. He is 18 now. He has recently told me that when my husband and I argue/have a fight that it causes him to be very stressed/depressed. So since we faught a lot when he was little I expect this is also an area of PTS for him. This post makes me realize even more what my Son goes through when he is at home or out and about. I also have PTSD and anxiety and I can very much relate to your being scared when the treat bag fell. My Son had a little therapy but it involved saying things like "I'm OK, despite the fact that I am feeling scared, there is no real danger around me right now". I am guessing that PTSD invokes a "flight or flight" response in our bodies. I am just wondering if there is any other kind of therapy for this? The counselor also wanted to do some sort of an eye movement therapy with my Son, but he said he didn't like it when he tried it.
 
@SSD65 , welcome to the forum.

There are a number of treatments for PTSD; try looking in the Therapy forum as well as checking out the great information that is all over the site.

@FindingMyself88 , that is just one rough series of encounters. Don't get too down on yourself. From my point of view, you still made it back home, and that's a victory. Therapy will continue to minimize the power of those triggers, but the most important thing is moving through them and keeping safe. I say good job. Also, Bristol is great!
 
@FindingMyself88 Well, it seems that Bristol did her job well for you today. I can understand you not wanting to go to the doggy day care, but maybe in an hour you could revisit that. If you calm down some more you might like to go after all and see what's what there. She might like to have you near during this new activity.
Freaking triggers. They're everywhere. I have gotten sick from too much anxiety too. No fun. That was three stresses in a short timespan. It's understandable that you were overwhelmed. Give Bristol a hug for me. She took care of you this morning.. Once the adrenaline neutralizes in your body you'll feel better, dont forget today is National Relaxation Day!! So get yourself some of that.
 
you still made it back home, and that's a victory

Thank you. I really don't know how I did make it back home aside from Bristol as I think I was starting to dissociate. yes, she is a great help to me.

@KwanYingirl thank you and I will definitely give her a hug for you. She always takes care of me.

I ended up backing out on going to the doggy day care today. She gets so over stimulated when she first sees dogs and it would not do her any good for me to be on edge during this process too. Instead we went to wal-mart with my mom to exchange some pants. She did awesome and I got several compliments on how well behaved she was, sitting beside me in line for so long. She made sure to lean against my leg for some support and kept her gaze almost completely steady on me. We will try doggy day care next week. For now I am going to cuddle up in the bed with Bristol and take a nap!
 
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