I hope you are all well and keeping cool - we are in a little bit of a hot spell at the moment in Melbourne, and right now I'm recording in my little back yard studio which definitely does not have air con, so I am sweltering a little bit. But it is not provoking anxiety which is great, and I am not being 'triggered', which may sounds a little bit weird, but it is the topic of my podcast today. I am going to be talking about triggers, so first I will explain a little bit about my opening statement about the weather, which may well sound a little odd......around year ago I moved back to Melbourne, to live in the city again after being in a semi rural area for around ten years. I lived on a mountain next to a gully filled with vegetation - huge trees, beautiful undergrowth, lovely bushland- anyone who has lived in a similar area will know what I am referring to right now. So this area, whilst very beautiful, was definitely a fire prone area, and huge fires had swept through the area during Ash Wednesday in 1983. The whole community was devastated, lives were lost, homes destroyed, the CFA was devastated and a few of my friends who had grown up in the area had incredible and horrific stories to tell about themselves and about their neighbours and community members. Most people in the area would get a bit edgy and anxious around January, and in February when we got spells of hot weather, the tension would be palpable. On Facebook there would be terse conversations about cutting grass and people would berate the council for not slashing weeds and grass areas, everyone was on edge. There was a lot of hyper vigilance, probably many people in the area would be diagnosed with PTSD if we looked carefully at their mental health. You could definitely say that many people were triggered just by the month of February. Definitely the sight of an overgrown garden would be a trigger, a weather report for catastrophic fire danger would be a trigger. And half the community would be in a state of high alert, hyper vigilance, and fear or even terror. Many people moved away from the area just to avoid these triggers - the land they had loved just became too fearful. The triggers of the sights and sounds around them would take them back to a memory and a state that was intolerable.
What exactly is a trigger - some thing that may be quite small, that instantly takes you back to a particular memory and the emotional state that accompanies that memory - so in the firefighters case - the sight of a barbecue flame may trigger the memory of a wall of flames and the accompanying state which was overwhelming fear. A trigger can be a sight, a sound, a smell, even a sensation. For example, a body sensation of mild indigestion can trigger someone to a past memory of a heart attack, and bring on panic and overwhelm. Songs can be powerful triggers, both for negative memories and positive memories and states. Cetain words can be triggers, and even weather, as I was alluding to before.
What is not a trigger? And this is the reason that I am talking about this today. So last week I overheard a couple of people talking a little bit flippantly about triggers, and the comment that I heard was around "OMG, listening to her talk about her teacher was so triggering for me - I thought that teacher was really good! She's so wrong". The response was "Yeah Im so triggered to! I just don't agree with that!"
So right here, we have a great example of what a trigger is not - it is not a disagreement. It is not a difference of opinion. It is not something unpleasant. It is not something that makes you cross or even angry. A trigger is a stimulus that takes you instantly back to a traumatic memory and the associated emotional state that went with that memory.
And why am I getting so specific about this? Because mental health is not to be trivialised - talking about being triggered when you aren't, is kind of glamorising your emotions by alluding that you have PTSD or a serious mental health condition, when really, the situation is just upsetting, or making you angry.
And why does this bother me so much? Because if we all say we have PTSD from trivial things, then we are trivialising serious and lifethreatening mental health diagnoses. And we don't do that in terms of physical health (although I do know a people who complain they have the flu when they just have a sniffle!) but we certainly don't say look at this lump 'Ive got cancer' when its just a mossy bite. That would seem kind of disrespectful to people with cancer, as it minimises the effect that cancer has upon us and how serious that diagnosis is.
So i do believe that we need to be a bit respectful and careful with our language in order not to trivialise really serious mental health conditions.
And what to do if you are triggered? Get some EMDR therapy, as a no 1 priority, to reduce or remove the intense feelings associated with the memory. Sometimes with EMDR we do focus on triggers, and we can desensitise certain details, like the sound of a helicopter for example. So EMDR is really helpful for that. But in the short term, you can deal with a trigger in a couple of different ways.
Emotional first aid is a concept that we are promoting a bit more - which may look like - just reassuring yourself firmly and calmly and consistently like this:
"I am safe, today is 14th March 2025, I am safe in my house in the city, there is no fire here, all my family are safe' Just reassuring yourself about the facts of where you are right now. You can pair those calming statements with a butterfly hug, which is crossing your arms across your chest and tapping alternately on your shoulders left and right, left and right whilst repeating the statements. This enhances the calming effect.
Using powerful happy or calming prompts, or grounding exercises, like hugging your dog, or smelling a nice scent, or holding something interesting like a spiky ball.
Breathing exercises sometimes are a good way to calm your nervous system, and there are plenty of those available on the internet. Some people don't like breathing exercises, and I happen to be one of them. I don't like having to control my breath. That makes me feel more out of control.
So for some people breathing exercises like square breathing, that sort of thing are really, really helpful - for other people, if It's not your thing -don't worry about it. One thing I do like in terms of breathing exercises is just a prolonged out breath, so that's just taking a big breath in and then just letting it go slowly and deliberately, like breathing in and breathing out slowly, all the way out. That really prolonged outbreath can be really stabilizing for your nervous system and can bring levels of anxiety down quite quickly.
So other ways to ground yourself or bring yourself back to the present, away from the memory, back to the present can be temperature. So cold things like Ice to hold either in your hand or ice in your mouth, or cold water on the face can transport you out of that triggered memory state and bring your attention to the present moment and helps to change your state. So these are just a few of the most effective techniques that my clients have used and that I have sometimes used and had good results with.
There are many, many others. And working with your therapist, your counselor, to help you find the best ones for you and your situation is always a good idea. So I do have a list of 10 ways to feel better now on my website. If you go to emdrdoctor.com.au, the very top banner on that homepage is a resource for you.
It's called, 10 Ways to Feel Better now, so that can be helpful as well. So feel free to download that. So in the meantime, I hope this has been helpful to you. I will talk to you again next week. In the meantime, take good care. Bye for now.
