Understanding Our Triggers And Creating An Action Plan Towards Healing

“Avoiding your triggers isn’t healing. Healing happens when you’re triggered and you’re able to move through the pain, the pattern, and the story and walk your way to a different ending” -Vienna Pharaon

When we experience trauma, it often leaves behind emotional scars that can resurface as triggers. These triggers can have a profound impact on our daily lives, but the good news is that by understanding them, we can take steps to manage and heal. In this post, I’ll guide you through the process of recognizing your emotional triggers and offer strategies to help you navigate their effects. Understanding and managing your triggers is an important step in your journey toward healing and emotional well-being.

What Are Emotional Triggers?

Emotional triggers are powerful stimuli—often reminders of past trauma—that elicit intense emotional reactions. These triggers can range from sounds, smells, or sights to certain situations or interactions that remind us of painful past experiences. The brain stores memories through our five senses—sight, smell, sound, taste, and touch—which means almost anything can become a trigger.

These triggers serve as a form of protection. They alert us to potential threats based on our past experiences, even if the current situation isn’t dangerous. While this mechanism is designed to keep us safe, it can also lead to intense emotional responses that feel overwhelming.

The Four Types of Triggers

Triggers can be categorized into four main types, each with its own unique characteristics:

• Internal Triggers: These are feelings or emotions that arise from past experiences. For example, feeling abandoned can trigger feelings of loneliness.
• External Triggers: These are physical stimuli, such as sounds, sights, smells, or textures, that remind us of past experiences. For example, hearing a particular song might trigger sadness due to a past event.
• Trauma Triggers: These triggers are directly related to past trauma and can evoke strong emotions or reactions. For instance, a smell or a location that reminds you of a traumatic event may cause emotional distress.
• Symptom Triggers: These are physical changes in the body that can trigger larger mental health issues, such as a rise in heart rate or muscle tension leading to anxiety or panic.

Recognizing the Symptoms of Triggers

Each person experiences triggers differently. The emotional response to a trigger can range from anxiety and panic attacks to emotional instability, difficulty breathing, or flashbacks. I personally experienced this a couple of years ago during the period between Thanksgiving and Christmas. The anniversary of my father’s passing would trigger intense anxiety and depression. I found myself becoming easily agitated and argumentative, unaware of the root cause at the time.

Recognizing these patterns has been key to understanding my own triggers. Paying attention to the situations that caused distress allowed me to identify and acknowledge the emotions connected to those reactions. Once I could pinpoint my triggers, I started to develop an action plan to manage them more effectively.

Avoidance Doesn’t Work: Confronting Your Triggers

It can be tempting to avoid triggers, but avoidance rarely leads to long-term healing. In fact, it often exacerbates the problem. By facing our triggers head-on and understanding their origins, we can develop healthier ways to cope with them. Creating an action plan is an essential step in managing triggers and their associated emotional responses.

Steps to Manage Your Triggers

1. Identify Your Triggers: The first step is to become aware of what triggers you. This requires time and reflection. Tracking your emotional responses and the events that cause them can help you identify patterns.
2. Understand Your Emotional Responses: Once you’ve identified your triggers, it’s crucial to understand the emotions they elicit. Journaling can be a helpful tool here. Writing down your thoughts and feelings when you’re triggered helps you process and manage your emotional responses.
3. Create a Coping Strategy: Once you know your triggers, you can develop a set of coping strategies that work for you. Some techniques to manage triggers include:
   • Breathwork exercises to help calm your nervous system
   • Counting exercises to redirect your focus
   • Taking brief pauses to give yourself time to reflect and reset
   • Organizing elements in your environment (such as arranging items by color or shape) to regain a sense of control
4. Seek Professional Support: Working with a therapist or Life Coach can be incredibly helpful when trying to understand and manage triggers. A professional can assist in recognizing the origins of your triggers and help you develop an action plan tailored to your needs.

Healing from Triggers

While there is no quick fix for emotional triggers, learning how to manage them is a vital part of healing. By acknowledging their existence and understanding the emotions they evoke, you can create healthier coping mechanisms to respond with emotional stability. The process is gradual and requires patience, but with the right tools, you can regain control over your emotional responses.

Conclusion

Triggers may originate from past traumatic events, but they don’t have to control your present. By taking the time to identify your triggers and understand the emotional responses they provoke, you can develop an action plan that allows you to manage them in healthy ways. Seeking support from a therapist or Life Coach is a powerful step toward understanding yourself and your reactions, and it can provide the guidance you need to move forward in your healing journey.

Healing is not linear, and it takes time. But with the right tools and support, you can manage your triggers and continue your journey toward growth and self-discovery. Remember, we all can rise from our ashes and soar.

Resources:

Ridgeview Behavioral Hospital. (2023, November 14). How to identify emotional triggers in 3 steps. Ridgeview Behavioral Hospital. Link

Cooks-Campbell, A. (2023, September 22). Triggered? Learn how to recognize the feeling and keep it in check. BetterUp. Link

Pedersen, T. (2022, April 28). Triggers: What they are, how they form, and what to do. Psych Central. Link

Ponte, K. (2022, January 10). Understanding mental illness triggers. NAMI. Link