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Trauma and Managing Triggers: Prevention or Reaction

Dan Thorne • Oct 14, 2021

Youths and adults who are victims of trauma experience significant impacts due to their past experiences. According to the study conducted by Kaiser and the Centers for Disease Control in the 1990s, adverse childhood experiences or ACEs due to trauma can affect a child well into their adult years. The following areas are covered by the study: injuries, mental health, maternal health, infectious diseases, chronic disease, risky behaviors, and lost opportunities. The importance of helping the client reduce the consequences of their trauma makes a tremendous difference in their long-term health.


One way for the client to improve their functioning is to focus on the triggers to trauma. These trauma triggers, like any other stimuli, occur before the person acts in reaction to the stimuli. The person could have internal feelings or thoughts that relate to the traumatic event (flashback, physical pain, or memory). They also could be affected by external stimuli such as sensory information. Exposure to this precursor leads to maladaptive behaviors (cutting, rage, withdrawal, drug use, sexual acting out).


Many treatment or psychological organizations offer coping strategies to help the client calm down during these situations. The Boketto Center for example has a list on its website of these strategies to help feel grounded. These are examples of reactive approaches. That is, the client first feels the trigger and then finds a way to cope with it. While there are benefits to this method, it does not relieve the client of the trauma’s stress in the first place.


Another intervention would be to deal with the prevention of the trauma trigger or identify its cause. When a client relives or experiences that trauma and a trigger is created, they have to react. But if they could learn what stimuli, internal or external, helps them, they can reduce its impact. These are preventive measures, which are designed to prevent the trauma behavior from occurring. For example, suppose a client cuts themselves when they experience a trauma trigger. The cutting is a way for the client to deal or cope with the trauma; maybe to feel a sense of control or a means of stress management. But if the client pinpoints what happens that leads to cutting, the behavior can be avoided. Suppose that the trigger is thinking of their abuser or the event. What they can do is then look at the situations in which they think of the event (e.g., before bed, at breakfast, or other times). Then they can engage in other activities that can calm them down (talking to a peer or adult, deep breathing, exercising) to counteract the fears they feel. This helps the client to proactively develop skills to reduce the trauma.


Other treatment approaches such as Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) or neurofeedback help the client to change their brain’s way of thinking and feeling about the trauma. These approaches offer more long-term success along with behavioral interventions.


Praxes offers training on Trauma-Informed Care and Interventions. For more information, please contact us. 

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