Why Am I So Easily Triggered? Maybe It’s Your Trauma Talking

As we’ve all learned over the past few years, traumatic events and experiences mark us in both small and profound ways. At Stori, we work every day with folks who are working through the aftermath of all kinds of trauma. 

Whether from childhood abuse or neglect, a traumatic accident, living in poverty, being the target of hate, witnessing or being the victim of violence, the death of a loved one, losing a job or home, or the countless other ways we can experience harm, no one escapes the reality that trauma is a part of life. 

If you find yourself feeling triggered over something that seems insignificant, emotionally overwhelmed, anxious, depressed, foggy, highly reactive, hypervigilant, disassociated, or fearful, there’s a good chance you’re experiencing the residual effects of trauma – either your own or inherited. 

And really the science is just only starting to catch up with what our bodies have known all along – that traumatic events, abuse and harm stay with us, informing how we experience the world around us and the sensations, reactions, feelings, and thoughts within us. 

When it comes to how we experience the effects of trauma, our bodies care little for the actual form it came in. What the research tells us is that there is no Big Trauma versus little trauma comparison – it’s truly an equal opportunity offender. While there are degrees of severity, types, and duration, our subjective experience with the many ways it can influence our nervous systems, moods, and emotions is largely universal.

We wrestle with what we cannot see or name. We struggle against that dark mass that threatens our sense of self, wellness, and connection. And sometimes, trauma is even harder to name when it’s been handed off to us from those who came before. 

We often recommend Stephanie Foo’s very personal story on living with Complex PTSD, What My Bones Know, to our clients. Taking us on a journey through her diagnosis and what it has meant for her healing, her book beautifully peels back the curtain on how difficult it can be to even recognize trauma in the first place. 

Despite the difficult material, her story is incredibly hopeful because even in the face of grave abuse, she reaches for an understanding of what’s happened to her. She explores and finds the modalities that work for her, learning how to tame her parasympathetic nervous system and tend to herself. And she begins to craft a new story about what her life going forward will be. 

Now that we can recognize the longtail of trauma for what it is, we know that it never really leaves us. But we do believe at Stori that it is possible to find freedom from being at the mercy of our triggers and reactions during those times when our dysregulated nervous systems have taken the wheel and start to wreak havoc on ourselves and those within striking range. 

As Stephanie so bravely models for us, if we can identify when it’s coming up and figure out what we need to do to regain our center, we can cultivate more inner stability and experience more personal sovereignty over the things that have happened to us. 

If you choose to pick up her book, maybe you’ll find yourself or someone you know in Stephanie’s words. We hope that it helps normalize the idea that we carry trauma but don’t have to let it define our sense of self. Maybe it will even help you name what you’ve been holding all this time. 

And when you’re ready to find a compassionate therapist near you that is trauma-informed and can lead you through some helpful modalities like EMDR, mindfulness practices, or Cognitive Behavioral Therapy – we got you.