What I'm trying to do is to be aware of physical reactions in myself. I have a lot of triggers associated with confrontations; I tend to be very reactionary. I can't always stop my initial reaction- it comes too quick a lot of times- but I can be aware of it as or after I'm doing it. "Why am I shouting?" "Did I just say yes without thinking?" "I'm speaking to fast and stumbling over my words." These are all physical things I can monitor. I think becoming more aware of your responses helps you eventually make better choices for your responses.

I would have to wonder what kind of "triggers" do you mean?

Is it person, place or thing?

I would advise that you particularly define the trigger(s) into sub groups.

Like there are addiction triggers. There are relationship triggers. Self esteem triggers. Triggers for our anger, trigger shame or guit or passion, etc.

If certain person(s) make so you can not breathe or react then you need to seek out exactly why that is?

Is the person threatening you? do you feel shame? have they hurt you before? do you feel inferior? do you dislike or hate or love the person? or the thing?

As you know - not being able to breathe or to react are symptoms and not the source.

i used to react quickly when someone pushed my buttons one of the things I do now is walk out of the room for a few minutes or if i'm really ready to blow taking a walk usually helps.

write everything down you wanna say, wait about 10min, then read over it, and see if that's the best thing to actually say out loud to someone, and how effective it will be in the long run. this has helped me a lot.. "check yourself, before you reck yourself." my favorite new saying. =-)