Triggers

Triggers

     When a person has been through a traumatic experience(s) and had the resources to com out on the other side, there are still sensory and verbal triggers that can bring it all rushing back. Sometimes it can be a certain smell, like cologne or perfume, or even a food. Other times, certain words or phrases could be a trigger.

     In my case, the first is seeing any type of military aircraft. My dad was an Air Force pilot and his plane went down in Vietnam when I was seven years old. So when we go to football games, and there's a fly-over, I get teary. Every time, even though it was more than fifty years ago.

     Another one is “You owe it to me.” This will almost always force me to curl up inside myself and rock and cry. This is why I take anti-anxiety medication. The phrase may not have anything at all to do with what happened when I lived in California. Just hearing those five words blocks everything else out and I'm back in the moment. Scary stuff!

     The last one has to do with when I taught in Leavenworth and had a parent threaten me. He was referred to DCF (not by me, but another school employee) and this father thought I had made the referral. “I have guns and I'm not afraid to use them.” Holy crap! In addition, he went into the local DCF offices and trashed them, overturning tables, desks, and chairs. The school was put on lock down. However, I was in the original four-room school,” that was not attached to the main school building. This building housed music, art, gym/cafeteria, and my classroom. Because of the classes going back and forth, it was never locked. NEVER.

     My principal came up with a “code word” I was to use on the intercom if this parent ever came out of the gym, toward my classroom. It was “I need a dozen new pencils.” So, you can pretty much guess what happened when this parent came toward my room, which he had a restraining order against doing, but since he didn't need to go past the office, no one knew he was in the building. I locked the door and called the office. I said, “I need a dozen new pencils.” They sent a sixth grader over with twelve new pencils.... It's comical if you aren't living it. It was one of two times I ever dropped the f-bomb on a principal. His code word and he couldn't even get that right. I told him I was done. That if I saw this parent, who had a restraining order, I wouldn't be calling the office. I would be calling the police. Do you know how quickly police respond to a school? I do!

     I say this because we need to be aware of how we talk to people and what we could inadvertently say that could be a trigger. We also need to be aware and think about what we could do to help diffuse the situation if it happens. Helping people who have be through something traumatic needs to be something we think about in the same way we think about, and practice, crisis drills. You can't plan for every scenario, but you can be aware of calming strategies.