We all have triggers. Triggers are the things that we see, experience, or are around us that pushes an emotional response. We all have to find a way to control them, handle them and most importantly address them.
Some people deal with them in healthy ways such as counseling, talking to a trusted associate or friend or acknowledge them. The unhealthy way of dealing with triggers is hoping they will simply go away, drugs, sex, relationships, etc. I am aware of my triggers because I have had more times of not handling them right that I had no choice but address them. I was tired of arguing, yelling, ready to fight, and being about drama to deflect what I hadn’t acknowledged. It was too much to keep things going! My tipping point came when I got into it with family and it spilled over into social media. I knew at that moment that I had to disengage, take a break, and handle the root of the issue. So instead of worrying who was wrong, I just dug deep into getting my life aligned. Now the issues that came up didn’t disappear but with the help of my counselor I worked through! Funny part I was in counseling and she told me that the situation was going to happen. It was almost verbatim how she described it. It’s funny now but then I was one split second from bail.
I have since seen a few family members since the whole breakdown and nothing on he inside of me moves. I hold no malice. However there are other triggers that I still work through quite often. For me they come out when I handle my children. My kids are good overall but they will every now and again make me tap into something and I find I have to work through some things. Parenthood in my opinion is sharpening me to be a better version of myself. I owe it to my children to be the parent that they need and not the parent that is in constant fight or flight so that is why I have been in and out of therapy since I had my oldest and she will be 10 this year. I have no embarrassment at all with saying that in order to control how I walk in this world is to have help. I want to spend my days being whole and not a whole mess.
How do you know that you are being triggered? Listen to yourself. The things you speak about portray where you are. If all you speak about is certain people or things that aren’t about building you to be your best, that issue you speak on still has life and you need to really deal with. When I as having marital issues and not speaking and listening to my husband all I spoke about was negativity of our marriage. I also would speak negatively about the imagery of other positive marriages. This is where the term hating does apply. I wanted my marriage to be a safe space. I wanted it to be strong from the inside out and would take issue with others who appeared that way. I wasn’t strong enough to be real about my part in my marriage. I never acknowledged how my triggers were not my husband’s to deal with. I wanted him to be understanding and fix me while I acted a fool and hide behind “for better or for worse.”
We are responsible for our own happiness. We want others to care about our triggers more than we are wiling to deal and handle them. It’s not enough to be understanding as you watch a partner do nothing. How about just regular folks watching you wallow in your triggers. Are your friends supposed to carry your triggers and the bad behavior they often demonstrate? They can love and be supportive but they are limited in making things okay. I blogged the other day about who my friends were present for my most colorful times with Marques in college. Looking back they should have raised the standard for our behavior in that if we wanted to hang the drama couldn’t come. Triggers place distance between people. Triggers is the cause of why hurt people hurt people. It’s simply still not okay to contain hurting people and having expectations that your relationship, title, or age will grace you.
You need to speak for, handle, and show up for that inner pain and deal with it. You need to trust me it’s in your best interest. Everyday I wake up even when the day before might have allowed a trigger to get the best of me and show up for myself. It’s important for me to mirror wholeness to myself as well as my children. Also social media and triggers is real. I do not argue with folks on social media. Debate is a thin line to fighting too. I will debate you with maybe 2 exchanges and that’s it. It also depends on the topic. The trolls will never engage me. Also if its family or friends that I have personal numbers to, it’s a no automatically. First I don’t post too many subjective things and on top of that I think about whether or not its someone who has a front row or at least a few rows into my life for me to get hype and it has zero outcome. Also don’t let what you think you see on Facebook. I knew of several males who made who dedications to their wives and was cheating the whole time using hashtags like couple goals. Life is complicated and comparison will leave you in self defeat! Don’t do it!
One last thing, in life we can’t always retreat but one of the things that can assist in healing is separation. I was told when I stated I needed to separate from individuals that I was wrong. I knew what I needed. I knew I wasn’t going to be okay from years of mess by staying in the midst. My counselor allowed me to see that the person needed me to stay and work things out because staying gave the other party to believe that things weren’t as bad as it was. I didn’t care if I was looked as wrong. I no longer wanted to be right. I wanted to be free to live and love. I needed healing from my triggers. I needed to separate to walk in real wholeness and know right or wrong I was entitled to how I felt but not entitled to react negatively to it! Working through triggers is a daily tussle. However if you are overwhelmed or feel overtaken in your triggers, its time to acknowledge it and get help!
