I’m glad we live in a time when mental health is taken seriously. Mental health is just as important as physical health. However, it doesn’t stop with acknowledging that mental health exists.
You need to educate yourself more on mental health. That is why I decided to write about mental health triggers. These can be anxiety triggers, depression triggers, eating disorder triggers, you get the point.
I would also like to remind you that I’m not a mental health professional. And I know that a lot of us don’t have the money to support their therapy. All I wish to do is some good, based on my own experiences.
If I help just one person, that is good enough for me. If you find what I have to say as offensive, that’s alright. I’ll look into what you have to say if you comment on my posts, and see if you make sense to me.
Remember that I don’t claim to be a mental health professional. I’m just a person who has gone through some tough times and hopes to help.
What are triggers?
Triggers are anything that cause your mental health to be turned upside down. Triggers can cause depression and anxiety attacks. Triggers are in the form of painful words, pictures, videos, movies, books, anything really, that disrupts your normal day and turns it into a nightmare.
Triggers happen when you watch a movie that has themes that cause you to get upset.
Triggers cause mental breakdowns.
Can you remember a time when you got depressed from watching a movie or TV show? That movie or the scene was a trigger.
How to Discover Mental Health Triggers
It’s not the discovering part that is difficult, it’s the part where you actually be aware and conscious of the fact that a certain thing is a trigger and that you will do your best to not run into it again and try to do some damage control.
Here is how to discover your mental health triggers:
Be aware of what ruins your mental health
Every time you feel depressed or anxious, bring awareness to yourself and how you feel. Don’t brush it away. Try to understand why you are acting the way you are.
Keep track of the times you get triggered
Do you get triggered at night? Nighttime is a breeding ground for mental health triggers. Try to get into a nighttime routine to calm yourself ahead of any triggers.
Ask yourself how you feel
Ask yourself how you feel. Mental health is literally all about how you feel. A lot of us are aware of our mental health, but you need to get real clear about the why’s and the how’s. how do you feel? Why do you feel that way? How are you going to cope?
That leads us to the next section: What to do when triggered
How to Cope with Getting Triggered
Stop whatever you are doing
The moment you get triggered, stop the movie, close the book, get away from the conversation. This is the only way to stop getting more triggered.
Avoid triggers
Now that you know what triggers you, make sure that you NEVER, and I repeat NEVER expose yourself to those triggers again. I know that Cognitive Behavioral Therapy has exercises that are called exposure therapy that help you to stop being afraid of your worst fears and stuff, but I’m not a therapist.
All I can give you is what works for me. I make sure to stay away from things that trigger me into depression and anxiety. And it works. I make sure to avoid my triggers at all costs.
As time goes on and you prove to yourself that you are strong enough to stay away from triggers, their potency kind of diminishes.
Coping Mechanisms
So many people live their entire lives getting emotionally hurt but never doing damage control. I really wish people would find out the best coping mechanisms for their unique circumstances.
Last night I had a rough night and I just knew I would have to do emotional damage control the next morning. So I did an hour of yoga and some intense cardio to get those emotions a space to leave my system.
I also called up my best friend and made sure to have a chat because I just knew I needed to do emotional damage control.
Create a list of coping mechanisms (emotional damage control) and make sure to do them with the intention of healing yourself after a rough mental health day.
That is all I have for you guys on mental health triggers. Remember that this is not therapy. I only want to help. Therefore, if you would like to share something about triggers, please comment down below. A lot of people would benefit from your input.
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