What are mental triggers? Mental triggers or called “emotional triggers” and “psychology triggers” are stimuli such as objects, people, or actions that can spark an intense negative thought and change one’s mood in an abrupt way. These triggers can be anything that recalls a sad memory, an accident you witness, or a traumatizing event you have experienced. The trigger list can go on and on because triggers are considered individualized experiences that will be different from one to the other.
Recognizing triggers
There are a lot of ways to recognize if someone is being triggered. Since mental issues are uncontrollable, it’s important to understand one’s emotional response before assuming someone is being “overreacting”, “sensitive”, or “dramatic.”
For example, mental triggers can affect a person’s physical reaction, such as sweating, rapid heart rate, unable to breathe, and feeling dizzy or shivering. Triggers can also have an impact on one’s emotional reaction, such as getting anxious, sudden urge to cry, feeling overwhelmed, lost or scared. It could also be the total opposite: the sudden urge of shouting hit things and an act of violence. In addition, people that are being triggered can have a very strong emotional reaction and often lose their insight about their actions because the rapid
swift of emotions can be confusing and hard to address.
Below are the three common types of triggers(RidgeviewBehavioral Hospital, 2022):
1.Anxiety triggers:
These are the triggers that caused panic or stress. Common examples are
health issues, financial concerns, lack of sleep, caffeine or drug overdose,
intrusive thoughts, or social hangovers.
2.Traumatic triggers:
This is often associated with PTSD. People may often avoid situations that
may trigger them on purpose or unconsciously. The symptoms may include
flashbacks or nightmares of the event. Although the avoidance behavior is able
to cope in short term, it did not heal one’s pain in the long term.
3.Anger triggers:
These are the triggers that can easily irritate and annoyed you. Common
examples are receiving insults or threats, physical violence, being ignored, or
being disrespected.
Ways to cope:
There are tons of possible ways to cope with mental triggers. It’s important for each person to identify the ways that work best for her. Different coping ways may work for different mental triggers. Below are some common ways:
1.Take a deep breath:
When we’re triggered, we often lose our objectivity, try
taking a rest and stepping away from the moment to calm ourselves down.
This makes later communication easier for both you and the interlocutor
(Stacy, 2022).
2.Name the trigger:
Identity the who, what, when, and why that is involved in
your past triggers. Observe your reaction, consider what are the patterns of it
and what are some obvious signs to prevent the risk of facing a similar
situation (Stacy, 2022).
3.Plan to address:
Create a plan to address your triggers after recognizing what
are the specific triggers. For example, you can try to confront the stressor
directly and try figuring out the solution together. If the trigger can not be
avoided, you may need to find other ways to reduce your stress and anxiety,
such as meditation, aerobic exercise, or journaling (NAMI, 2022).
4.Know you’re not alone:
Triggers may often make you feel isolated and lose
the ability to realize there are a lot of people around you. Practice showing
your emotions and talking to someone you trust. You may feel relief after
opening up (Stacy, 2022).
5.Seek therapy:
If a particular trigger is making you feel unmanageably
anxious, depressed, or stressed, seek professional help or search for a local
therapist online.Remember, you don’t need to face everything by yourself :)
Reference:
Ridgeview Behavioral Hospital. “How to Identify Emotional Triggers in 3 Steps.”Ridgeview
Behavioral Hospital, 17 Jan. 2022,
https://ridgeviewhospital.net/how-to-identify-emotional-triggers-in-3-steps/.
“Understanding Mental Illness Triggers.”NAMI,
https://www.nami.org/Blogs/NAMI-Blog/January-2022/Understanding-Mental-Illness-Trigger
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