mastering your triggers: reclaiming control after trauma
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Master Your Triggers Reclaiming Control
After Trauma
OneHealth Webinar
October 28, 2014
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What are triggers?
Trauma survivors are often taken by surprise by sudden, intense fear responses in everyday life
• Can feel like a panic attack or heart attack • Makes people feel out of control
• Sudden startle response is a PTSD symptom
• Begin to avoid things that activate this response
• Keep us from enjoying activities
• List of what to avoid can get bigger and bigger over time
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One of the hardest things for many people who have suffered a trauma is that their
triggers make them feel
� powerless
� scared
� irritable
� crazy
� damaged
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Main Symptoms of PTSD
� Alternate between feeling flooded/overwhelmed and numbing
� Efforts to avoid reminders of the traumatic event
� Intrusive thoughts and images of the trauma
� Re-experiencing
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Fight or Flight System -Wired for Survival
� Blood rushes to arms & legs
� Away from torso (digestion)
� Stronger and faster to fight or run
In the BODY
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Fight or Flight System -Wired for Survival
� Black & White thinking
� With me or against me
� Loss of response flexibility
� React vs. Respond
In the BRAIN
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Fight or Flight System -Wired for Survival
DANGER −>
cortisol + norepinephrine (adrenaline) dumped into bloodstream
� Body’s Survival System designed for ancient times
� Shortcuts focus only on essential survival functions
� Great for fighting sharks or tigers
� Not so good for when someone cuts you off in traffic
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Fight or Flight System -Wired for Survival
When else is the Fight or Flight System not so good?
When you can’t get away – no escape
Two things our bodies do when the threat is inescapable:
Dissociation – leaving in our minds when our bodies can’t go anywhere
Freeze response – more extreme than dissociation
Either way, there’s nobody home to feel what’s happening.
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Fight or Flight System –
FREEZE: the system of last resort
� All of body systems slow way down
� Pain tolerance goes way up
� Allows us to die without pain
� Incompatible with life for any length of time
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Trauma Memory vs. Regular Memory
� Ordinary events from the past feel like they are in the past
� Trauma memories can feel like they are happening right now, in the present
� Even long ago events have original emotional heat when we touch on them
� This is why we try so hard to avoid them!
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SNS (Sympathetic Nervous System) FIGHT/FLIGHT
� Where do you feel it when you get scared?
� Gut
� Chest/heart
� Throat tight
� The nerves are wired along the midline of the body
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PNS (Parasympathetic Nervous System) How we know we’re SAFE
� The “Stand Down, Everything’s OK” system
� Tells us we are safe
� Body does maintenance functions
� Digesting food
� Repairing cells
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Our Brain’s Orienting Response (Where do Triggers Come From?)
� Causes our brains to make note of what was around when the bad thing happened
� If we see it again, our bodies instantly launch a bigger response – (just like what our immune system does with germs)
� Meant to create a shortcut – like a reflex – to help survival
� Later on, we may find ourselves reacting to things that remind us of the trauma as if the danger were happening right now.
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Trauma and PTSD
� Causes our body’s natural danger alert system to become disconnected from the present.
� Reminders of the event can cause your brain’s orienting response to say “There it is! Danger!”
� Brain signals to instantly dump adrenaline & cortisol in your bloodstream so you can fight or run (survival instinct)
� TRIGGERS a Fight-Flight/Freeze response
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Getting triggered is:
� physical, biological, chemical response
� A reflex / automatic
� Body is trying to protect you (but using wrong tools)
� not voluntary
� not your fault
Can take an hour or more for the adrenaline + cortisol to
fully reabsorb, even if your brain instantly says “Oh – false alarm!”
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SOLUTION A: AVOID
� Most people try this first
� Works best if trigger is unusual
� Narrows life and choices
� Triggers can generalize to broader categories
Even if your trigger is a pink elephant, we all know how it is to just try not to think about it!
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AVOIDANCE METHODS: Dissociation/Thought Blocking/Self-Medicating/Numbing
� Increases dread
� Lower Self Esteem
� Narrows life and choices
� Can lead to addiction
� Creates more problems: health, legal, relationship
� Nobody’s “home” to register have a different, better experience
� Healing cannot happen unless there’s “somebody home” to notice
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How?
INFORMATION IS POWER
� Body’s natural defense system activates – trying to help
� May be ancient tool for modern situation
� I can use new tools to cope more effectively
Self-talk pathways REFRAME the situation:
“I’m gonna die” OR
“I can use my new tools to calm myself”
SOLUTION B: Dare to Be Present (Somebody’s Home to Heal)
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Use New Tools for Calming
� Butterfly hug
� 4/4/4 Breathing
Learning to be Present
� Mindfulness Practices
� Yoga, Meditation
Dismantle the Triggers – Rewire the Brain
� EMDR
www.emdria.org
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2014 Dr. Cheryl Arutt, All rights reserved.