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Triggers that down you. Triggers that lift you

white knight
Community Champion
Community Champion

How often have we felt those triggers snap us into depression? Down we go. A workplace bully only has to smirk at us. A bit of sad news. A red letter from a bill we've missed. A piece of gossip about us that reaches our ears. For many of us our trigger is unavoidable and I don't think there is much we guilt ridden over sensitive types can do about it. There are some things that medication cant control and psychiatrist session cant solve except a mental bandaid that might make us feel better until the next trigger. So if triggers that cause our emotional drop cant be stopped or lessened what can we do about them? Is there a counter measure? If the negative trigger is on one side of a weighing scale what can we put on the other side to at least try to give a balance?

Well in my view its not unlike positive motivation but in a different sense. What I've tried to do, and in most cases succeeded, is to lock onto quotes. My daughter has anxiety and it peaked last year. She attended a psychologist for one session only, she believed she would need many sessions and extended visits. after her session she rang me and told me she wouldn't be attending anymore. She said that the professional told her that her reactions about elements of her childhood were typical reactions for a child in her circumstance. That at 12yo to leave her mothers home and live with her father (me) and for her mother to disown her for such a move was bound to create many mixed and hurtful feelings. She told me she felt that his comment triggered her in a way that she found the answer to the whole problem. "I'm right now dad" she said.

Similar things have occurred to me over the decades. Once I fought corruption on a small scale at a local council. I was one of their employees. It confused me. I asked my doctor why the mayor acted the way he has, grandstanding and manipulating the facts - "power Tony, its a lust for power". That was the positive trigger I needed. There was no other need to delve into the smaller details. "Power" covered it all.

Reading through some of the threads here has found many more. Posters quote other posters because they "hit the nail on the head" as they say.

Can you, the one that falls mentally down the well of despair, use positive quotes, phrases from others to build a stairway back up?

We have a "quotes" thread here to. Ones that I have found so helpful from the likes of Churchill, Ghandi and so on

Try to focus on these. It might help.

Tony WK

84 Replies 84

Hi Quirky

Re: "talking to an insurance company trying to update house over can have me in tears."

I tend to categorise these situations. Eg if I had that experience with my insurance to me that comes under stress, to not be capable of tolerating of a system be it losing or forgetting a computer password or making a enquiry to a telephone co. The hell you've gone through with your properties would melt me also. It's the main area I rely on my wife to assist with.

So to me a "trigger" is a reminder of a past trauma brought about by all sorts of things quite different to stress. Do you see a difference?

Fatigue is mentioned here. A metaphor is an empty bucket for non stressed people. It half fills under stress and quickly drains. At a funeral the bucket might overflow. With a person with MI that bucket is nearly full and overflows with the slightest trigger. The Fatigue is reflected in the time it takes for the water to drop below full, a recovery period which can be very long.

TonyWK

Elizabeth

sorry to read your strategy isn’t working and you feel extreme fatigue .

Hopefully building up your resilience will help you cope better.

These past 2 years have been hard on you and your family.

Triggers!  What I find now, a realisation, is that something will trigger me but z week later the same thing, a comment, an incident,  won't trigger me. I'm realising it depends on my mood if I'm triggered. Any comments?

 

TonyWK 

Captain Australia
Community Member

Mate for me certain music just uplifts me immediately.  I love this song:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=04bp4bG6Zhk

Recently discovered it.  The artist is "Brother Ali" born with albinism, bullied his whole life, converted to islam, and .. his guiding principle is to "use your heart for what hearts are for" (fill it with light, not darkness)

 

I just recently completed a major life Quest (walked from Brisbane to Melbourne dressed as a superhero, long story) and since getting back I've kinda been in a state of collapse.  Overeating, no oomph, no get-up-and-go.  Not depressed, not sad, I've overcome my grief and sorrow by completing my quest -- BUT -- in a grey kind of limbo.  I hear this song and other music like it and .. it turns and faces me back in the right direction, you know ?

That's an amazing achievement.  A trigger that lifts you- music must be one of the best instant I can think of. Humans of all nationalities practice it, honour it and utilise it to pray, dream, seek inner self or dance. I find, as a poet (we have a thread ",poetry corner, post your poems here") the lyrics of some songs hit home.

My favourite song would be "brothers in arms" Diar straits or "Sally Broome" by Doug Ashdowne or Bojangles" by Sammy Davis Jnr or any Leonard Cohen songs in particular "if I be your will" sung by Antony at a tribute concert... a masterpiece.

I'll watch your YouTube clip now.

 

TonyWK