Trauma Triggers
It’s like a paper cut, you know the tiny microscopic cuts you can’t even see. Well imagine you put on hand sanitizers (like we all should be doing regularly in the Rona age) and it BURNS. Yeah, that’s how trauma feels when you’re triggered by something you didn’t even know affected you.
Today we are diving into trauma, which is a huge thing because trauma is so stigmatized in our community. Trauma sounds like the emergency room or something crazy that’s far away from where we are. But it’s very close and if we don’t realize it now, those papers cuts will get infected. Trauma is a result of a traumatic experience that has left a lasting effect on your mental state. The “effects” can be apparent or they can leave little scars that explode when triggered.
Most people eventually realize when they are experiencing Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) when they have severe flashbacks, intense dreams or a wanting/needing to forget an event. But that is not what we are talking about here today.
The much more common experience is when an event triggers a paper cut, or suppressed trauma, you have trouble experiencing the current emotions of reality and experience the suppressed trauma of the past.
I never thought this would be me. This can happen physically, mentally or even emotionally. Sometimes when I experience a trigger, there is a physical reaction in my body. I feel tense or feel the stress that my body still remembers even though I may not. Experiencing a trigger can be mental and you find yourself replaying past experiences.
But, sometimes, which is most common, the trigger is emotional. You feel exactly how you felt when the flesh was ripped apart and the paper cut was left behind. You are so lost in the triggered experience that you can’t experience what would’ve been your emotional reaction had the paper cut not been there.
The goal of this post is to be reminded that we all have paper cuts. It’s best to find them, if you can, so we can avoid the hand sanitizer burn all together. Like real paper cuts, noticing one is hard! The cut happen so fast you have no idea its been left behind. Well Sunflowers, it’s time to do the work. It’s time we search for our own paper cuts, so we can avoid feeling the burn.
forever blooming,
Mikaela Amira
