Anyone with PTSD or C-PTSD knows about triggers. Triggers are those things that send us rocketing into a flashback or emotional flashback, or at the very least, remind us of some painful trauma we’d just as soon forget about. They also can trigger a panic attack or dissociation.
As painful as triggers can be, they also can serve a good purpose. They can show us the areas in which we need healing.
I have a very hard time going into the neighboring town where my parents live. It is full of awful memories for me, so I avoid the town as much as possible. Going past the library is the worst though. That was where my first job was, & where my mother did some very abusive & hurtful things to me. She once screamed at the top of her lungs at me in the parking lot in front of my now ex husband, the patrons & my coworkers. She humiliated, belittled, shamed & degraded me there too. Repeatedly. When I see the library building, even just driving past it, I either get a panic attack, flashback or dissociate. I’ve done them all. The one time I went inside that library a few years ago, I had to leave immediately because of having a panic attack & flashback at the same time. Naturally, I haven’t gone back to that library since.
One good thing about this is I realize that I need further healing in the area of the things my mother did to me at that library. I have dealt with so many things my mother did to me, but not the events that took place at that library. I know I have repressed some of them, but not all. I need to deal with what I do remember.
Have you ever thought about triggers this way, Dear Reader? As painful as it can be, it is a good thing when you learn about some area where you need further healing. You can’t heal from what you don’t acknowledge, so you need to know what areas you need to work on. Every event you heal from brings you one step closer to wholeness, one step further from the trauma you have endured & fills you with more joy & peace than you had previously. If you can look at triggers as a sign that you need healing in a certain area, they truly can help you.
Cynthia Bailey-Rug, Christian Author 
I understand what you’re saying, but I don’t know what I’m supposed to do once the trigger is identified. It just seems to add to my pain to allow those memories to come to the fore.
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I agree.. it does feel that way. I absolutely hate triggers, which is why I tried to find some silver lining in them..
What I try to do is something I learned from Craig Hill’s book “The Ancient Paths.” I get alone & talk to God about it. I tell Him how I feel. All of it. I ask Him to tell me the truth- am I right to feel that way? Was it wrong of that person to do that to me? Questions like that- whatever fits the situation. Then I listen for His answer, & it is always healing & helpful. When He tells me it angers Him that this thing was done to me, it was wrong & I didn’t deserve it, it helps me a LOT. Some things, I think there always will be some hurt attached to, but doing that helps me to release at the very least some of the hurt, sometimes all of it.
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