April is a tough month for me. Easter weekend marks the anniversary of when I remembered what my uncle did to me when I was a child. At 22 years old, I remembered the sexual abuse I endured. April 24 is also the anniversary of when the Armenian genocide began. The two anniversaries cause me to experience much more intense anxiety. I am triggered frequently.
This April was no exception. I decided to be extra gentle with myself by practicing good self-care. While neither stopped the triggers, they did help me cope better with them. I did not experience a panic attack. I reduced the intense anxiety through my morning mental health routine of tapping, meditation, prayer, and Bible study.
Three ways to cope with triggers
As I write this, I am writing for myself and for anyone reading it. I need a reminder next April of what to do to cope with the triggers. Before we can cope with triggers, we need to understand them. The Dawn, a rehab in Thailand, defines them as, “A trigger is a person, place, feeling or thing that immediately induces a stress-based physical or emotional response based on a past traumatic experience.” They occur because our brain perceives an emotion, circumstance, or event as a safety threat.
Now that we established what a trigger is, here are three ways of coping with them:
1. Maintain a mental health routine.
Every morning, I spend time doing things I know will help my brain heal from trauma and help me calm myself. I usually experience intense anxiety when I wake up, and that is why when I get up, I practice tapping. My favorite tapping meditation involves deep breathing. Tapping combined with deep breathing really reduces the anxiety. I also practice 10 minutes of observing my breath, followed by 10 minutes of centering prayer, a form of contemplative prayer where you sit quietly in God’s presence.
Find what works for you and stick with it. Practice what helps you heal from trauma every day. It is through daily practice that we recover.
2. Write down how you feel so you can determine exactly what triggers you.
Journaling is a powerful recovery tool. Writing down how you feel, what you experience before and after triggers, and even what you are grateful for helps you not only cope with triggers but will help you prepare for your day. I highly recommend beginning a journaling practice if you do not already have one.
3. Know that triggers pass.
Triggers will not last. April is almost over. My two triggering anniversaries are now behind me. I am still dealing with the lingering effects of the triggers, but the worst is behind me. Nothing lasts forever. That sounds like shallow advice, but when you are in the midst of a trigger, and perhaps experiencing a panic attack, repeating that to yourself can stop the panic attack.
How do you cope with triggers? Leave a comment and let me know.
Image by Hamed Mehrnik from Pixabay
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