Triggered . What does that mean?

 “Triggered”.What a misunderstood word.  I had someone tell me they’d been “triggered” because their children wouldn’t do the dishes.  No, that’s “frustrated “ and you can control that outcome. “ Reward reversal”. If they don’t do the work, they lose a reward. No drama, no screaming just natural consequences. 

When a person suffering from PTSD is triggered it’s as if someone shot a gun and the person is bombarded by past trauma. 

I was in a car accident and nobody from my family came to check on or support me. They actually turned their phones off. Yes, that’s cruel in itself. When you’re a person that’s suffered from abandonment and trauma a situation like that “triggers “ that person to experience every time they were abandoned and in trauma. I said something unkind to my family that I perceived was reality and the consequences were unreal.  They stopped speaking to me and judged me harshly. Which reinforced the anxiety and proved that I truly was abandoned. 

I explained what happened and was not given any grace or understanding. I still struggle from that experience.

If a person hasn’t experienced Chronic Post Traumatic Syndrome, they usually have no clue how to help their loved one. What I needed was compassion, understanding and a hug. 

I ask that we educate ourselves to understand the difference between “triggered” as being upset or angry and “triggered “ as being shot back into past trauma.  

We need each other to get through these events. If a person could get through the experience on their own, they would have by now. Please don’t isolate or run from the trauma.  Have people in your inner circle that don’t feel sorry for you, nobody needs that. Have a circle of people that will cherish you through the event, have thick skin and know that what you’re feeling has little to do with them and everything to do with past trauma. If they can’t understand, that’s ok.  All we need is compassion.  

Be ye kind one to another… especially when that person is triggered.