Identifying Triggers

Identifying triggers can be difficult andcan feel like you're reliving a past negative experience. Don't feel discouraged if you can't identify a trigger on the first try. Triggers can be memories, objects or even people that spark negative emotions. 

A trigger might make you feel helpless, panicked, unsafe, and overwhelmed with emotion. 

How to:

1. Identify your responses - identifying triggers is hard,  but it's much easier to recognise what you feel in response to the present moment. When you feel yourself becoming overwhelmed by powerful feelings,  take a moment to note down what you're experiencing.  Do you feel a sense of anger, sadness, jealousy? What about physical body sensations? Is your heart pounding?  Are you breathing quickly? By examining what you're feeling,  both physically and psychologically, it will be easier to identify what the trigger may be to an event. 
2. Ask yourself what happened to trigger you - 
3. Pause and look at the situation -

These are emotional triggers that are rooted in panic and stress. They are characterised by anxiety or nervousness that seems to come from nowhere and is centred around the trigger. 

Examples:

• Public speaking
• Giving a presentation

Most often associated with post-traumatic stress.  For many people they may consciously or unconsciously avoid situations that may trigger them. This is known as an avoidance response,  is a coping mechanism that works short-term but doesn't allow for healing long-term. 

You might feel the same things that you felt at the time of the experienced trauma, as though you are reliving the event. The mind perceives triggers as a threat and causes a reaction like fear, panic or agitation.

Examples:

• Child abuse/neglect
• War/violence
• Physical/emotional/sexual abuse
• Grief & loss

At times an irrational level of anger may be experienced by individuals in response to a situation or an object.

Examples:

• Feeling threatened/attacked
• Feeling frustrated/powerless
• Being invalidated/treated unfairly
• Lack of respect to you, your feelings and possessions