How to Deal With Triggers From Trauma

Trauma can play a major role in your life. It can affect not only your recovery but your daily life as well. While you may not be dealing with a traumatic event any longer, there are still triggers that can bring back overwhelming feelings and emotions. Triggers can be any external event or circumstance that produces uncomfortable emotional or psychiatric symptoms.

The first step to healing from trauma is learning your triggers and what can bring back those memories. When you know your triggers, you can then learn to cope with them or avoid them. Spotting your triggers can help prevent uncomfortable or potentially dangerous circumstances.

At Healing Pines Recovery, we provide different therapy options for exploring and learning your triggers. We aim to help you cope with the trauma you have experienced and, at some point, confront it. With the guidance and support we provide, we can help you acknowledge your triggers and help you live a life free of addiction and the fear of reliving the trauma you’ve experienced.

Trauma and the Impact It Has on Recovery

For many people, trauma can be the root of their addiction, as the use of substances is a way to escape the overwhelming feelings trauma has caused. It also can be a form of self-medication to cope with the triggers that can occur. This can greatly impact your recovery when trauma and triggers go unaddressed because there can be feelings of needing substances to cope.

Trauma can also affect your ability to talk openly about your addiction and its roots. Talking about trauma or a traumatic event can even trigger some people. So, how do you discuss your trauma without it becoming a trigger?

The first step is noticing your triggers and how they make you feel. Seeing these feelings as warning signs can prepare you for a rush of emotions. When you are ready for what feelings may come, you can notice when you are triggering your trauma too much and can slow down. Talking about trauma is no easy task. The best thing to do is take it at your own pace. It is better to go slow and ease yourself into it rather than rushing into talking about it and causing overwhelming stress and anxiety for yourself.

How Triggers From Trauma Can Affect Recovery

While trauma can affect recovery, so can triggers. Triggers can cause intense emotions to come rushing back to you and make it feel like you are reliving the moment of your trauma. When triggers go unacknowledged, they can lead some people to feel like they will relapse back to using substances. Substance use can be a way that you have self-medicated to work through these triggers. While it may have worked at one time, it is not a sustainable, healthy, or safe way to cope.

Triggers can also be closely related to post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). PTSD can be a more intense form of trauma and trigger. This is quite common among veterans. According to the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, “active coping,” which means accepting the impact of trauma on your life and taking direct action to improve things, can be very helpful.

Understanding that triggers can affect you in both an emotional sense and a physical one can be essential to realize. Recovery and healing from trauma is a process, and there is no “cure” for it. The staff at Healing Pines Recovery is here to help you find healthy coping methods to combat addiction and trauma.

Coping Tools to Combat Triggers

Learning to cope with trauma triggers can be difficult to manage independently. At Healing Pines Recovery, we aim to provide the tools you need to manage your trauma and notice your triggers.

Notice the Warning Signs

Noticing warning signs is one of the first steps in coping with your triggers. According to the National Institute of Mental Health, warning signs can come immediately or be delayed. These warning signs can include:

• Feeling anxious, sad, or angry
• Trouble concentrating and sleeping
• Continually thinking about what happened

These physical or emotional responses can present as brief or prolonged experiences. Being prepared for any length of an episode can be a great way to combat triggers.

Dialectical Behavior Therapy

You can also learn coping skills to combat triggers through dialectical behavior therapy (DBT). This type of psychotherapy is geared toward helping those who struggle with emotional responses and who may feel emotions more intensely. At Healing Pines Recovery, we offer you the option to try DBT alongside other treatment options.

Building coping methods and handling your emotions can play a huge role in recovery. The right tools and support can make talking about trauma much easier. However, being able to use healthy coping methods and be openly vulnerable can seem impossible if you are trying to do it alone. That’s why at Healing Pines Recovery, we offer you the support you need and a personalized treatment plan for you.

Trauma can affect your life anytime, and triggers can make you feel like you are reliving that moment. When you are not aware of your triggers or how to cope with them, it can make trauma seem unmanageable. If trauma and triggers go untreated, there can be times you feel like the only way to cope is through the use of substances. At Healing Pines Recovery, we are here to help you through your trauma and cope with your triggers. If you identify as male and are struggling with addiction and trauma, reach out to Healing Pines Recovery today at (720) 575-2621. We are here to help you recover.