long term, it’s about working through the causes, dealing with them in therapy, recognizing the ways that the present is different from the past, that kind of thing. it’s a long haul, but some of the triggers have either been worked through, or are things that aren’t so hard to avoid anyways (like meatloaf: there is no reason i should have to eat meatloaf; i know why it is triggering, but i have no particular need to work through that trigger to the point where i can eat it.)
shorter term? curl up in a ball, or, more likely, space out. depends on what the trigger is. i’m working on not just pushing through, unless it’s absolutely necessary. going to the dentist is triggering for me, but when i had a horrific toothache this past week, i just muscled through; we’ll see whether i can work out a better plan for when i have to go for the rest of the work i need, but at least i got the antibiotics to deal with the immediate problem.
over my adult life, i’ve gotten less and less good at the kind of useful dissociation that i used to do, so i’m less able to be completely separate when another part is in the middle of a panic attack. it’s healthy in the long run, but a major pain in the short run!
curl up in a ball?
long term, it’s about working through the causes, dealing with them in therapy, recognizing the ways that the present is different from the past, that kind of thing. it’s a long haul, but some of the triggers have either been worked through, or are things that aren’t so hard to avoid anyways (like meatloaf: there is no reason i should have to eat meatloaf; i know why it is triggering, but i have no particular need to work through that trigger to the point where i can eat it.)
shorter term? curl up in a ball, or, more likely, space out. depends on what the trigger is. i’m working on not just pushing through, unless it’s absolutely necessary. going to the dentist is triggering for me, but when i had a horrific toothache this past week, i just muscled through; we’ll see whether i can work out a better plan for when i have to go for the rest of the work i need, but at least i got the antibiotics to deal with the immediate problem.
over my adult life, i’ve gotten less and less good at the kind of useful dissociation that i used to do, so i’m less able to be completely separate when another part is in the middle of a panic attack. it’s healthy in the long run, but a major pain in the short run!