The Doctor Is In
Being Triggered Means You’re Living in the Past Being triggered means you’re living in the past. This means that emotional reactions in the present often originate from past, unresolved experiences, not just the present situation. A trigger is an event, word or situation in the present that reminds your subconscious mind of a previous trauma, wound or painful event in the past. When you’re triggered, the emotional response is disproportionate to the current event because your mind and body are reacting with the intensity of the original past pain. For example, a minor criticism today might elicit feelings of intense shame or abandonment that truly belong to a childhood experience. In that moment of being triggered, you are not responding as your adult self to the adult situation. You are effectively living in the emotional state of your younger self who first experienced that pain, causing the past to powerfully influence the present moment. Despite triggers, it’s important to remember that you are responsible for how you feel. This does not mean you are responsible for the actions of others. Responsibility here means that after an external event happens, you have the ultimate power over your internal reaction, which includes the meaning you assign to the event and how you choose to process and manage the resulting emotion.
If you believe others make you feel a certain way, you give them power over your emotional state. Taking responsibility means recognizing that while an external event might activate a feeling, the way you interpret, hold or act upon that feeling is an internal, personal choice. By accepting responsibility for your feelings, you commit to exploring the past pain driving your triggered response so that your emotional state becomes less dictated by unresolved history and more by conscious choice in the present. So, what do we do with this? First, recognize that your intense reactions are a signal, a red flag pointing to a place where you need to heal old wounds. Next, empower yourself: Instead of blaming the person or event that caused the trigger, shift your focus to the internal pain it unearthed. Lastly, understand that your responsibility is not to stop feeling but to use the feeling as information, process the underlying pain and change your habitual, disproportionate reaction over time.
Submitted by Dr. J. Paweleck-Bellingrodt, Psy.D.
Disclaimer: Material is for informational purposes and not intended to be a substitute for evaluation or treatment by a licensed professional. Material is copyrighted and may only be reproduced with written permission of Dr. Bellingrodt.
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