Identifying And Successflly Managing Triggers

The brain is designed to rationalize. It is responsible for taking a thought or situation and leading you to a rational reaction or behavior. It is an amazing organ. A diseased brain though, like one with bipolar, can sometimes have trouble processing and reacting to negative situations. One of the reasons is that events or people cause us to react differently than we normally do and upsets our balance. Triggers cause us to respond in an irrational reactive way, instead of a rational proactive way. They put us into a survival mode which we have needed in the past to cope with a situation.

WHAT IS A TRIGGER?
A trigger is where words or situations cause us to react negatively. It causes us to flashback to something traumatic in life. It can slide us right into a depressive state. And, it can also sometimes cause a manic/hypomanic state. When it happens, we are immediately thrown back to memories of the original event. Triggers are specific to your history and can happen due to something you see, smell, or hear too.

Triggers are deceptive. It is only with recognition, self assessment, practice and patience to learn about our triggers first so that we can then identify them and seek another course of reaction and behavior. When they happen and we are unaware we have been triggered, we justify our reaction and behavior even when it makes no sense or is irrational. We often do not recognize the root of the trigger unless we follow recognition, self assessment, practice and patience. Because a trigger is associated with a negative past event, we tend to blame everything on anything but our past. We once again become the victim of our trauma. I have been in a few verbally abusive relationships in the past. I didn't understand how traumatic those were to my balance and self esteem. I blamed everything else and not the trigger. What I really needed to do was understand what had happened to me, work through it, and make the choice to leave anything abusive.

IDENTIFYING TRIGGERS
Recognizing The Moment
This will be the most difficult portion of your journey to identifying and successfully managing your triggers. Look for instances when you suddenly become anxious, resentful or angry, retreat into your shell, hopeless, or feel a flight or fright reaction. You may also have trouble breathing, your heart may race, your muscles may tense, or you may feel your stomach knot up. At first, you will trigger for seemingly unknown reasons. You may go through the entire event before you recognize that you were triggered. I also went through a traumatic experience a couple of years ago during work and suddenly found myself becoming extremely anxious every time I was supposed to work. I was unable to work for over a year. It was only later that I finally realized that working triggered me because. Every time I tried to work, my body went into flight or fight mode.

By recognizing the moment, you may find that you know you can react differently to the trigger in the future. The amount of freedom you will find in that is amazing! It will be a positive growth experience and you should be really proud of yourself. If this doesn't happen, no sweat. You will grow just from recognizing the moment and following the below steps. Remember, you are in control. You are powerful. You are no longer the victim!

Self Assessment
Triggers are very personal as we all have different experiences. A detailed look at yourself will get you in touch with your feelings. Write down the situation as soon as you recognize you were triggered (a future blog will focus on the benefits of a journal in managing bipolar). What was the event? Was there anything that happened preceding the event that could be used in the future as a warning sign. What feelings did you experience in the moment? How did you react? What do you really need in the future? Needs are not bad. Do not judge your need. You have a right to expecting to be treated in a way that fulfills your basic needs (like respect). Is this a true need, or are you taking things too personally? Once you document it, write down your action plan to detail what you plan to do when it happens again. What are the consequences for a person that does not respect your needs?

Your plan will vary depending on the trigger. Can you simply walk away from the situation? Is it the type of relationship where you can discuss the trigger with the person and they will work to avoid what triggers you? Do you need to cut ties with a person to avoid triggers because they are not willing to work with you? Do not be afraid to do this. You are your own champion. You deserve family and friends that support your efforts to remain balanced. You do not deserve to be a victim of negative situations over and over again.

Be prepared to revisit your action plans. As you become better and better at successfully reacting to a trigger, your action plans may change. An example is your action plan may include giving a person another chance no matter what the trigger is and who the person triggering is. Confidence in yourself and the freeing effect of stopping the trigger will make you more confident in responding to the trigger and your action plan may change.

Practice And Patience
Yes, practice makes better. And you will have to practice identifying and successfully managing triggers your entire life. You have triggers now, and may identify new triggers on your journey of life. This is while you need to document your triggers and your action plans for them.

Set out on this task with the firm belief that you need to give yourself time to conquer your triggers. Be patient with yourself. When you document your triggers and plans, write the action plan with the statement, "I will.." Include reasons why you deserve to take action. Remember, you deserve the basic human right of being respected. And do not expect perfection on your part. Do not expect perfection on the other parties in your life either. If you trigger with words, you need to realize that the person is used to saying things to you and it may take them time to respond to your action plan. Remember, if they don't respond, you have the right to cut them out of your life.

Be picky with who you practice on. Pick an trigger and action plan with someone you feel positive will respond. Success will boost your confidence. When you trigger, the following should be first on your action plan:

• Breathe - Take a deep breath in though your nose. Count slowly to three. Release the breath slowly through your mouth. Repeat this until you can feel yourself beginning to calm down.
• Clear your mind - If your response is flight, or you feel nervous, engage yourself in positive thought and conversation. Tell yourself you can do this. You deserve this. You are powerful. You are in control. Judging yourself is not allowed. Mind reading is not allowed. You do not know how the person is going to react. That is why it is best picking someone you are positive will respond. If you have no one in your life like that, pick the person you feel is most likely to respond.
• Accept the challenge - You are now at the go part of ready, set go. Don't back out. Don't apologize. Don't justify yourself. Speak in a clear and firm voice. Be serious. When you are serious, your voice will naturally deepen. Their human brain will recognize that you are being serious. Tell them the trigger and follow it with what behavior you expect from them in the future. You owe them no more information than the trigger and the expected future behavior. Then, depending on the person, you may want to tell them the consequences of not responding to you the way you need.

To balanced and productive days my friends,

Laura