Triggers: How to Stop Being Triggered: PTSD and Trauma Recovery #1

Get the course: Change Your Brain-Neuroplasticity and Mental Health

Triggers, also known as "paired associations" in psychology, are when our brain links an object or event with the flight/fight/freeze response. Triggers often come as a result of trauma and are associated with PTSD. They can be quite strong reactions and often lead to the one thing that makes them worse - avoidance. In this video I teach you how to recognize triggers and how to overcome them through a simple, psychology-based approach.

Therapy in a Nutshell, LLC, and the information provided by Emma McAdam are solely intended for informational and entertainment purposes and are not a substitute for advice, diagnosis, or treatment regarding medical or mental health conditions. Although Emma McAdam is a licensed marriage and family therapist, the views expressed on this site or any related content should not be taken for medical or psychiatric advice. Always consult your physician before making any decisions related to your physical or mental health.

About Me:
I’m Emma McAdam. I’m a licensed Marriage and Family Therapist, and I have worked in various settings of change and growth since 2004. My experience includes juvenile corrections, adventure therapy programs, wilderness therapy programs, an eating disorder treatment center, a residential treatment center, and I currently work in an outpatient therapy clinic.

In therapy I use a combination of Acceptance and Commitment Therapy, Systems Theory, positive psychology, and a bio-psycho-social approach to treating mental illness and other challenges we all face in life. The ideas from my videos are frequently adapted from multiple sources. Many of them come from Acceptance and Commitment Therapy, especially the work of Steven Hayes, Jason Luoma, and Russ Harris. The sections on stress and the mind-body connection derive from the work of Stephen Porges (the Polyvagal theory), Peter Levine (Somatic Experiencing) Francine Shapiro (EMDR), and Bessel Van Der Kolk. I also rely heavily on the work of the Arbinger institute for my overall understanding of our ability to choose our life's direction.

Copyright Therapy in a Nutshell, LLC
----

[daniloadomaitis]

Great explanation! Thanks for that great work!

[geo]

To all my PTSD brothers and sisters Healing is painful but not impossible♥️ you can do this

[rg]

What's so interesting to me is, after experiencing trauma, I was told to 'just try to forget it' and 'learn what your triggers are so that you can avoid them.' But I don't want to allow the event that traumatized me to control my life. I want that power back. I don't want to avoid my triggers, I want to overcome them. Especially when I start ruminating and just obsessively thinking about what happened in a loop.... I don't want to feel fear and panic when I remember it, I just want to understand it and take back the power that was stolen from me. This is the only time I have heard anyone speak out and say we have to (slowly) work through and face the trauma, not avoid it. Avoidance continues the cycle of control over my life that the traumatic event has. I am sick of it. I don't want to live in fear, and I'm ready to take back my power. It's my life, my experience, and I will choose how it affects me... that's what I want. ❤️ Thank you.

[rissa]

you don’t even know how much this video has helped me. i just experienced an intense trigger and it made me realize that i’m so tired of avoiding my triggers and living in fear and anxiety. But i didn’t know how i could possible get rid of them and i felt scared that i would have to live with this alone my whole life. But i found this video and it has changed so much for me. Now i finally know how to face my triggers and get rid of them. I can’t thank you enough! ❤️

[toxicappls]

I've been treated for anxiety the same way so when I developed PTSD I thought I could overcome my triggers like that too but it got worse. I knowingly faced my triggers again and again and my flashbacks became so intense they lingered for days and while I was in them I could just cry and shake, I couldn't even speak or close my eyes or move. Sometimes taking a step back is the right thing to do. Not everytime and not forever of course. But maybe start working on your triggers after you worked out your trauma a little in a safe environment.

[alle]

Where was this video my whole life. You saved me money from buying book after book after book all in a few min lol

[owlseyeseeit]

My whole life has been a trauma. I’m 45 now and wasn’t diagnosed till 11 years ago. The meds are horrible! Re wire the brain.. sounds too good to be true. Anxiety is bad, but that’s not even the worse. God Bless all PTSD Sufferers. ❤️

[SuperRachaelatyoutub]

I love how you slow things down and explain them in a calm measured way!

[cyndigooch]

I've experienced extreme trauma since I was a child and get easily triggered, especially by people's anger directed at me, including death stares! I even get triggered when I make a minor mistake; however, I'm much better with the latter one than I used to be. 😥

[johnnysalter]

She knows very little about PTSD, maybe what was understood about 25 years ago not today. If anyone is struggling stay away from her. I have suffered with it for most of my life, and recently I found this study and it has helped immensely. The Body Keeps The Score: Brain, Mind, and Body in the Healing of Trauma. by Bessel van der Kolk. If you listen to her it won't work, she'll convince you that it is you, and then you'll be more depressed.

[wrathofviolets]

I keep coming across your videos. I feel like you're going to help save my life. Thank you. My ex committed suicide in my closet last year and oddly enough I have had a harder past 6 months than the first 6 months. Harder being a severe understatement. You are amazing; thank you so much for all you do.

[sofiaharper]

The problem is that once I’m triggered that feeling will stay there forever.. it doesn’t stop until I “avoid” it.

[Fire-Toolz]

this could be damaging to some people. i am close with someone who has severe flashbacks that send them into a deep panic mode, where they totally dissociate and think that there are people in their house trying to attack and sexually assault them. i am pretty freaking sure that going toward that type of trigger is the answer to getting rid of it. they are in intensive therapy & incorporating all kinds of techniques to cope with the effects of these flashbacks and traumas so that one day they will be able to live in peace. suggesting they go near people who want to assault them, or suggesting they visit those experiences in their head, or watch movies or hear stories about being attacked, in order to desensitize them, would be hugely re-traumatizing. this is totally against the advice any trauma therapist would give. this video needs way, way more nuance, or it could lead someone to completely overload their nervous system.

[JasonMarkYates]

CPTSD is the result of an emotional brain injury from childhood rejection, abuse or even a long term traumatic relationship. The problem with CPTSD is that often cognitive help is not enough, there has to be lots of different types of help given. You cant always logically think through every problem. I mention this as many sites only mention PTSD which is very different to Complex post traumatic stress disorder. The flashbacks are emotional flashbacks not particularly attached to a single event as in PTSD, but trauma over a long period of time. With me for example the first three years of my life with rejection and mistreatment from a mother with schizophrenia, and later a 22 year marriage to a very damaged child abuse survivor which dismantled me piece by piece because of the emotional intensity of it all. Hence, Complex. I think therapy in a nutshell (of which I have subscribed) has some great videos, and very helpful, so I'm not criticising anything, just spreading awareness of CPTSD.

[lyramalta]

1:37 Omg that is so cute😍 made me stop judging my brain and myself so hard and instead love it because it’s doing what it knows best through repetitive behaviors. And I can change it ♥️

[xx]

Trauma has been apart of my life for a very long time, and this helped me. Thank you

[yazajag]

Wow, this was great. Someone else mentioned in the comments how they had never heard the subject being explained that way before. Well me either and just this has helped a lot for me to look at triggers differently. Thank you for this and looking forward to watching more vides and getting more insight. 😊

[reg]

Losses from childhood abuse unhealthy relationship attachments thru out life how does a person heal from the trauma of unhealthy attachments due to childhood abuse

[inked_bossom]

I know I'm over a year late, but I suffered trauma from a non-severe car accident just a year ago. So when ever we have to drive across that three-way turn while coming home from my gymnastics, my anxiety triggers and I fear that a car is going to turn out in front of us while we're going like what happened in the accident. Not only that, but I get butterflies in my stomach and i tense/freeze up for a minute. My anxiety also triggers when a car pulls into into the lane to the left of us. It looks like it's going to collide and always makes me nervous. This video helped me so much. I can't thank you enough. ❤️

[Ana-xqyr]

This only applies to certain scenerios. If the trigger is a person avoidance is key.