Managing Triggers—Understanding What Emotional Triggers Are and How to Cope With Them

Emotions are more than just positive and negative feelings. They reveal important information about ourselves and the world around us, allowing us to assess dangers, make quick decisions, and take necessary actions.

Sometimes, it’s easy to tell where our emotions are coming from. Stressful situations can trigger negative emotions, leaving us feeling distraught, anxious, or panicked. Other times, seemingly harmless situations can trigger negative emotions, making it difficult to pinpoint where these feelings are coming from. 

Managing emotional triggers can be challenging, especially if you don’t know why they’re happening or where they come from. Let’s take a look at what emotional triggers are and how you can overcome them.

Trigger Emotions—Understanding Triggers and Their Impact on Individuals

Many people use the term “triggers” to describe situations that make them feel uncomfortable, or they may say that they’re “triggered” when they feel upset. In reality, emotional triggers are situations that activate someone’s biological fight or flight response and evoke intense negative emotions.

Read our related article to discover the meaning of weaponized self-care talk, and why the misuse of words like “triggered” can be harmful.

Some common situations that can trigger intense emotions include:

• Rejection
• Betrayal
• Feeling helpless
• Feeling insecure
• Being ridiculed
• Being left out of the group 

Emotional triggers are deeply connected to past traumatic experiences. They’re very common in individuals suffering from posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), but they can happen to anyone with a history of trauma.   

The counselors at Inner Balance are experts in treating trauma. Learn more about the different trauma therapies that help our clients, or reach out today to talk about how we can help you treat your trauma.

What Happens When Someone Is Triggered?

When an individual encounters an emotional trigger, they often experience a sudden rush of negative emotions. They may feel anxious, panicked, or distraught, and these feelings can eventually lead to a panic attack. After being flooded with negative emotions, individuals will often experience dissociation and feel disconnected from their surroundings. 

Emotional triggers can also manifest as physical and behavioral symptoms. Triggers activate the fight or flight response, leading to physical symptoms like shortness of breath, racing heart, and dizziness. Individuals experiencing a triggering event may also behave defensively, and this can cause them to withdraw from others or act out in anger.

It’s common for feelings of panic, irritability, or sadness to persist long after the triggering event took place. Triggering events take a toll on someone’s mental health, and it can be hard to return to normal after experiencing one.

Read our related article to discover if PTSD ever goes away.

How to Manage Triggers—Overcoming Emotional Triggers

Living life with emotional triggers can be challenging, as they can occur at any time and cause serious disruptions to daily life. The unpredictability of triggering events can cause someone to feel like they don’t have control over their life, and this can lead to social isolation, low self-esteem, and other mental health struggles. 

It’s common for individuals to use unhealthy coping methods to manage their emotional triggers. Negative coping methods like substance abuse, binge eating, or anger outbursts can provide someone with temporary emotional relief, but they ultimately prevent someone from addressing the root of their triggers.

Learn more about substance use and addiction and how it connects to trauma and mental health. 

To effectively manage emotional triggers, you should engage in positive coping methods that promote emotional regulation and long-term mental wellness. 

Avoiding Triggers

Avoiding emotional triggers may seem like the best solution in the moment, but it often makes triggers worse and prevents someone from properly healing. When people avoid their triggers, it reinforces the belief that triggers hold power over them. This often leads to stronger feelings of anxiety, panic, and distress when encountering a trigger in the future. 

Emotional triggers often occur unexpectedly, and it’s nearly impossible to avoid them altogether. Instead, individuals can gradually expose themselves to triggers and practice mindfulness techniques to overcome their emotional distress. 

Learning how to cope with triggers in a constructive way will lead to long-term emotional resilience and mental wellness.

Managing Triggers in the Moment

It’s completely normal to feel overwhelmed and anxious when you experience an emotional trigger. Instead of avoiding these feelings, take a breath and acknowledge them. Taking a deep breath will slow your racing thoughts and allow you to process your emotions in a healthy way. 

After taking a breath, it’s important to identify the emotions that you’re feeling and understand why you’re feeling them. Identifying your emotions, whether it’s sad, angry, or anxious, will help you manage their intensity. It will also help you connect them with the triggering event, which can help you separate the current triggering situation from past traumatic experiences.

Mindfulness and grounding techniques can help you redirect your focus away from intense emotions and towards the present moment. To stay in the present moment, you can identify physical sensations that you feel, count objects in the room, or focus on your breathing.

Read our related guide to learn how to overcome stressful situations with micro meditation.

Overcoming Triggers With Professional Help

Mental health professionals can help individuals overcome their emotional triggers and heal their underlying trauma. They can provide a variety of therapy techniques that are proven to help reprocess traumatic experiences and establish healthier methods of coping with triggers. 

Eye movement desensitization and reprocessing (EMDR) is a powerful therapy technique that reduces the emotional intensity tied to traumatic events. EMDR uses bilateral stimulation to mimic the brain’s method of processing information while the therapist helps the client resolve their traumatic experience. This helps the brain reprocess distressing memories in a positive, constructive way.

Learn more about EMDR at Inner Balance Counseling

In addition to therapy techniques like EMDR, mental health professionals can teach you how to manage emotional triggers in the moment. They can provide effective strategies for achieving mindfulness, emotional awareness, and self-compassion.

Read our related article to discover how long therapy lasts.

Inner Balance Counseling—Helping You Manage Emotional Triggers

At Inner Balance, our team of mental health experts can help you heal from your trauma and manage your emotional triggers in a positive, constructive way. Our trauma-informed approach ensures that each and every client gets personalized, compassionate, and effective treatment. We’re here to help you heal from your trauma and achieve long-term mental wellness. 

If you or a loved one is suffering from trauma and emotional triggers, reach out to one of our mental health professionals today.