Therapy requires that we question ourselves whether the trigger is a "real" or "perceived" threat and while I find that a positive first response, I've also found that it is not effective unless I embrace the positive about my PTSD. Personality traits and behaviors are not handed out randomly...They are CHOSEN and with that is the measure stick by which they will limit their anti-social behavior. To my brother, my mother was a saint and to me she was my worst nightmare. As she groomed him and they became like minds, it was only then that she displayed to him the behavior she used with me, previously only in private. We cannot be expected to not respond anymore than we could be expected to not respond appropriately when you feel the ground shaking under you if you have ever experienced an earthquake. In an awake state, it may last from a day to a week as it subsides, but in a sleep state (nightmares) it is a life of its own, which is what really bothers me. Her disease demanded her to play the victim and especially when others were celebrating and she often created scenarios and cornered others into responses that she could use to her advantage as a victim. Jeckel and Hyde.

Oh muji I'm so sorry for this trigger...!!! It is never fun to be in trigger territory or prolonged period of time... I think the length of the trigger relates to the intensity of the emotions experienced... For me I have even triggered for months and for minutes... Depending on how bad the trigger is there is a huge range of possibility...

The best way out of trigger territory is to allow yourself the trigger and feel your feelings deeply, know that anyone else in your position would be reacting this way... And then proceed by giving yourself all the love and self care and self parenting you can... Treat yourself the way you would treat any of us in this situation...!!!

It is okay to not sleep now and then... Do some excersize and stay productive throughout the day and make sure to do some deep relaxation techniques before you go to bed tonight...!!!

You have my support muji so sorry for this stress right now...!!! I hope you feel better soon...!!!

I'm sorry you are going through this. I didn't know your mother was also violently abusive.

Please hold and comfort your inner child as often as possible. See him crawling up into the giant lap of a safe protector who will never let anyone hurt him again.

Sending you safe hugs.

Muji, gentlest hugs, that's a terrible thing to expereince.

I'm learning that triggers vary in legnth depending on the incident it "takes me to".... Anything relevant to my sis or a dad rage-out? Lasts days at least., up to a week at times. In smaller things, it depends if th trigger recurs (as with my mom living with me can cause.)

You know me, always gotta find that chart/graph/classifciation system. It helps me get through. "OK, this is about my sis, I'll be twitchy for a week, but it'll be less twitchy every day. THis combines sis and dad, so it'll be about ten days before it really fades off if nothing else re-triggers it." That sort of thing.

And it also kicks my butt if I don't give myself some time to retreat to Calypso or my blanket tent or have a good cry.

Wish I had more help. But it's what I've got.

As IClaim noted, we can't not respond---we just gotta recognize the response, and that for me is half the battle. Other half is channeling the emotions of the trigger into other outlets--- creative or oterhwise.

Did that make sense?

If not, just know I'm surrounding you with PRRRRRRR.

I'm sorry you are going through this. It looks like you weathered the worst of it away from home. I have had a trigger last a couple of weeks. It will diminish a bit every couple of days.

I still have the odd responses to things from when my husband died almost 7 years ago. I have trouble getting my mail out of the mailbox. I get anxious doing it and sometimes a week or more goes past before I get the mail. It used to be a month or more.

I had the exact same thing happen. It can last a little while or a long time its always different depending on the situation.

It can sometimes last quite a while for me as well....I can start to obsess and lengthen the duration..

I saw a terrible video on FB about 6 weeks ago of animal cruelty and I can't get it out of my head... I left FB... Issued abuse complaints on FB and also with PETA and it's still whirling in my head..

My GP is into mindfulness... She grew up in a Communist country and I believe probably suffers from some degree of PTSD as well... She swears by it...I've never really given it a good try but I think I might look into it more

I'm so sorry you're suffering Muji... I hope you'll start to feel some peace of mind soon... Big hug for you and a blessing...xo

my longest was 18 months.

sorry. probably not the best news you can hear, but that's the truth. came with lots of lovely psychosis and hallucinations.

i'm sorry your struggling friend. i wish i had the answer to get that trigger out of your psyche, but i just don't know. i HOPE you get past it soon.

Muji, It will go on as long as it has to, or you let it. I mean get so tired of it, it loses some power for right now.

I had almost the same happen in my design class. The teacher, who is very nice by the way, made a statement just like my mothers words. I speak low in groups. So " Speak up. I can't hear you" was all it took. In addition to already being on the edge, out of place and the other classes. Those words, were the straw, well I have had 2 weeks of interrupted sleep.
Mine are finally waning..just a bit...ten days to go.

Hug Muji,
I hope your let up soon.
J.

I think about 3 days is my max.
When I was with my ex though, and my PTSD flared? she couldn't go more than 2 days without triggering me, so I was constantly just AAAAGHHHH....

If triggered hard I find it soothing to lower the stimulus. Blanket over a table? I have a feeling confined spaces represent a trigger, or I'd suggest a closet. One time I slept in the bathroom, it was nice and blank.

I think of triggers as the mechanism by which an episode begins. They are instantaneous, whether I am aware of their having gone off, or oblivious at the time of triggering so that the episode creeps up on me bit by bit through nightmares, nagging echoes in my thoughts, emotional knee jerks, etc., etc.

But I am splitting hairs. I know what you are asking.

My episodes are so variable that I am not sure I have a cohesive answer for you. In the 70s and 80s my denial was too deep for me to have enough awareness to know. Here in 2014 my episodes last until I carry them through to some sort of acceptance and\or resolution. It can happen as quick as a simple memory or be as long and lingering as repression.

My most recent series lasted several months. It was attached to a memory of my father singing conversations with me while I was still mostly mute and stuttering horribly. His theory, adopted from reading about Mel Tillis, was that song and speech come from different brain centers and that I could overcome my speech defect by learning to sing what needed to be said. It worked. A beautiful Irish tenor voice was among my father's greater gifts. Given all the horrible memories I have of my father, the pedophile, this wonderful memory had to work its way through allot of pain and wreckage. Until the memory coalesced, anyone reminding me of my father in any way was highly disturbing to me. The triggering was reduced to coincidental reminders as soon as the memory coalesced.

Odd how it can be more painful to remember the good stuff sometimes...

When I have a long lasting trigger, I find that I have to have something to break me out of it.

For me, that means my horse and a long trail though the woods.

Can you go to a movie? Take a walk? Anything that is not your normal routine to reset your brain back to not being triggered?

yadlim

I am really sorry you are feeling this way. You must just want to run. How long my triggers last is until I pull myself or someone pulls me out of the weeds. Give yourself credit you have a good grip on what is causing the trigger and how it is effecting you. Reach back, you have the tools to help you deal with this. Positive self talk, deep breathing, positive visualization, rewrite the ending to the trauma so it is positive etc. trying something will not hurt. Unfortunately there is our own success in these situations depends on us. There is no magic formula. You can do it we are behind you. Hugs

Thanks, my friends. Look how much you showed your care for me. I am truly grateful. I went through your posts and pulled out a nugget from each. Then I posted it in my offline journal to meditate on for my healing.

IClaim wrote "To my brother, my mother was a saint and to me she was my worst nightmare. As she groomed him and they became like minds"

Wow. That showed me again that we here at DS PTSD know some things about powerful family dynamics others are ignorant of. I can come here and speak what happened in my family and be UNDERSTOOD. Because "grooming" and playing her children off each other, and off her husband, is what my mother did, too, iClaim! So sorry that happened to you too, but so great to be validated. So great.

Lovesmama wrote "The best way out of trigger territory is to allow yourself the trigger and feel your feelings deeply, know that anyone else in your position would be reacting this way..."

I feel so much better being reassured I'm not overly sensitive. Thanks!

donnawanda wrote "Please hold and comfort your inner child as often as possible. See him crawling up into the giant lap of a safe protector who will never let anyone hurt him again."

Yeah, time to say "you go, little Muji!" to that inner child once more, like I wrote about on the self talk thread last week.

LeoX3 "I'm learning that triggers vary in legnth depending on the incident it "takes me to".... Anything relevant to my sis or a dad rage-out? Lasts days at least., up to a week at times....Trick is channeling the emotions of the trigger into other outlets--- creative or oterhwise. "

Creative outlets--yeah, Leo. I can do that. I was letting myself be kind of paralyzed. I can be creative with this.

Cecil "I have had a trigger last a couple of weeks. It will diminish a bit every couple of days."

So simple a promise, and I wouldn't believe it from anyone other than a friend here at DS PTSD who knows, so I believe it WILL diminish. It's true.

mamoth "I had the exact same thing happen. It can last a little while or a long time its always different depending on the situation."

The exact thing. It helps to much to know I'm not alone on this.

SunCloud: "I saw a terrible video on FB about 6 weeks ago of animal cruelty and I can't get it out of my head... I left FB"

I know--I got off of Facebook, too. I don't mean to start an anti-Facebook rant at all. My best friend's kid works for them, after all, and good for him. But it's not for me. And animal cruelty--I can imagine how that hurt you, SunCloud, remembering how lovingly you hold your pup in your avatar photo.

Lilly "Do you have the movie called UP? and time to watch it? something that will have you giggling?"

Ha, Lilly! Thanks for making me smile. I LOVE that movie UP. I need a good laugh.

Mojo: "my longest was 18 months.

sorry. probably not the best news you can hear, but that's the truth. came with lots of lovely psychosis and hallucinations.

i'm sorry your struggling friend."

Thanks, Mojo, I know you really are sorry, as I know you really know this suffering well. Your mention of 18 months didn't bring me down. It just reminded me how much shorter 2 weeks now is compared to when I was fresh out of the combat zone. I started college and had to drop out after a semester for a whole year of one big long trigger. I don't miss those days.

Jewells "Muji, It will go on as long as it has to, or you let it. I mean get so tired of it, it loses some power for right now"

Yeah, that affirms what Cecil said, it will diminish, and hearing it from you makes me believe it.

hylierandom "If triggered hard I find it soothing to lower the stimulus."

h, you're right. I'm overstimulated when I get triggered, and then I stimulate myself to try to change the channel, so to speak. Rookie mistake. Instead, it's a time to amp things down. Soothing is the right word.

arfie, "Here in 2014 my episodes last until I carry them through to some sort of acceptance and\or resolution"

I did that, too, back in the 1970s, so now that's what I'm looking for, that acceptance. You nailed it.

yadlim, "Can you go to a movie? Take a walk? Anything that is not your normal routine to reset your brain back to not being triggered?"

I bought tickets to see Matthew Sweet in concert Tues night. Yeah! He wrote "Not When I Need It"

"Trying to grab your little peace of mind
And you want to hold it near but you know you can't keep it"

ttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nYBXg_KDX8w

CrazyCanuck, "Give yourself credit you have a good grip on what is causing the trigger and how it is effecting you. Reach back, you have the tools to help you deal with this. Positive self talk, deep breathing, positive visualization, rewrite the ending to the trauma so it is positive etc."

Wow, did you ever learn a ton in that program. Yeah, I think I'll "rewrite then ending" of this thing....

You really are good friends, all of you, to show me so much care. It will be repaid. Thank you all, every one. I'm so happy to have you.

Wow, you really did pull something from everyone and I think you now have the tools you need and support to help you deal with this trigger so it does not own you. I know you can do this and as you know we are here to support you anyway we can! hugs