Talk about how to interrupt/re-educate “trigger to response”….. how do you change your responses to triggers?
New Landscape ~ DID/MPD Support Group
New York support group for people with Dissociative Identity Disorder (DID) / Multiple Personality Disorder (MPD)
if by “triggers” we mean “things that cause panic attacks or flashbacks” then we generally deal with them by working things through rationally. it takes time, but as parts begin to understand, for instance, that we’re no longer in the places we grew up, and that the things that make them scared aren’t actually signals that things are dangerous, they’re a little more able to relax.
I tend to create someone new (temporary) to deal with a trigger. Heh. NOT a good response.
I think it takes repetition (for me anyway). Based on my experience in other arenas of life, repetition was the main way I learned something new – trying over and over again. So, I tend to think that as a trigger presents itself over and over, my responses would become less and less reactive.
I wish there was a magic cure. And maybe there are some great helps (like some say that EMDR really helps), but overall, I think it just takes time and repetition. Confronting the same fears over and over, and trying to deal with them better and better each time. If I have a little success one time (like last a little longer before melting down), then maybe I will last a little longer the next time. Eventually, maybe that same trigger won’t have the same effect anymore.
yeah, practice does make, if not perfect, at least a little better next time. it’s still hard.
as for EMDR, my experience with what i now think was probably EMDR was that it didn’t go so well for me–it worked to stir things up too much, so that i wound up more, rather than less, triggery.
but another thing that’s helped, and it seems like the opposite of what *should* help, is that if i just go ahead and allow myself to feel whatever it was that came up, then the feeling passes. weird, huh? like, if i let it out, it doesn’t build up. it sucks while it’s happening, but then it’s gone.