Triggers

I just feel at the moment I am so sensitive to things triggering anxiety and anxiety attacks. Simple throwaway lines people say in conversations, things I see on TV, random headlines on news websites, and just normal things that happen or that I see during the day that trigger anxiety about something else. (Dont know if any of this makes sense)

Not sure how to ignore all my triggers, seem to be able to even less than usual

Parents
  • I'm currently going through an awful lot of crap, and I can feel that my baseline level of stress or anxiety is elevated. I can clearly see that things I might be able to ordinarily allow to wash over me without incident are now triggering adverse reactions.

    What I'm currently attempting to do is take more "Me Time" to reduce the baseline, such that when I experience these triggers I've got more room to breathe before I red-line.

    Something I've depended upon for the greatest time is compartmentalisation, I take each triggering event or emotion and put the feelings into a mental box and close the lid, and move forward. As the next event occurs I do the same, it goes in a box. The difficulty comes when you start opening the mental boxes and checking whats inside, sometimes the lids on lots of boxes open simultaneously and it becomes a runaway stream of emotions. I've become so competent boxing up these events that I become un-phased by even the most dreadful of news.

    There are lots of ways to deal with heightened sensitivity to stimuli, you need to figure out which works best for you.

  • I'm currently going through an awful lot of crap, and I can feel that my baseline level of stress or anxiety is elevated. I can clearly see that things I might be able to ordinarily allow to wash over me without incident are now triggering adverse reactions.

    This is exactly how Im feeling 

Reply Children
  • "Me Time" is simply that, time devoted to me. Whatever I like doing that lowers stress levels. For me its music, plug in my iPod, stick my favourite song or album on and just have it repeat. I've also lost myself in PC Gaming before, I pick a game I can get involved with, but one that progresses at the pace I set, not the developers

    If you need to be out and about during your "Me Time" and music is your thing Noise Cancelling earphones are amazing, they can tune out the background noise so your brain doesn't have to.