Triggers

The crazy thing about triggers is that they can come from anywhere. A trigger can stir emotions that a person may have had from something that may have happened to them. Triggers can be a smell, a place, a person, just about anything.

Those emotions can come on like getting the wind knocked out of you. Have you ever had that happen to you? It is unexpected, for sure. Whenever, I have had the wind knocked out of me, it takes a little time to recover. Although, it has been a while since that has happened, but I do remember how it feels. Most of the time, you can get back up and brush the dust off and continue on. It does not feel good though, at all. Some emotions and memories are the same. They do not feel good, but avoiding them will only hurt worse than embracing them and healing. 

Sometimes, when a trigger takes us back to a memory or a time in our lives, where we may have felt sadness or fear or anger, or many other types of emotions, we need to know it is okay to give ourselves grace for that moment. Take a step back. Reassess. Address how you are feeling. Rewrite your ending. Yes, this happened to you, but it is not you.

I did not know that I had endured anything that would have left me with "triggers', but I have. Maybe most people have endured some type of trauma or event that has left them to be a victim of some sort. 

Recently, I had read a little meme that said something about how triggers are your brain and your body, together saying, "This situation is way too familiar to some awful stuff that has happened to me before and we are not okay with it." I suppose that is when our "flight or fight" reflexes come into play. We react. 

The other day, I had a "trigger", and although, I did not know it at the time of the encounter, I sure felt it for days after. I was irritable. I was on the verge of crying, I mean, all the time. I felt like I had failed everyone around me. I was irrational. Anything anyone said, I took it to heart.

I went back to a time, I did not want to encounter again. 

Finally, after almost a week of being a "basket case", I talked to my husband. I sobbed. I told him what happened and where and how I felt. I was so angry that after all of these years, that those feelings could resurface and make me feel like that again. 

Triggers are going to always be there, but trust in Him and allow those that do love you and would not hurt you, to help you. Even if that is just someone listening to you, as just talking and getting it out there and out of the way, is everything. 

Things happen to us. People are not always good. We endure some pretty harsh circumstances sometimes.

Just don't let things, people, circumstances own you. 

I know, easier said that done.

"Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid or terrified because of them, for the Lord your God goes with you: he will never leave you nor forsake you." Deuteronomy 31:6