You're Not Triggered, You're Dysregulated: Managing The Nervous System & Regulating Emotions

By Maria Colomy

Dysregulation is often referred to as being triggered or upset. Quite often people who are unaware of their dysregulation are angry, explosive, or they might shut down or be overly emotional. Dysregulation can be exaggerated by difficult past experiences - especially in childhood. It is also useful to und

• Language: English
• Publisher: Maria Colomy
• Release date: Feb 28, 2023
• ISBN: 9798987279007

Book preview

You’re not Triggered, You’re Dysregulated

Managing the Nervous System After Trauma

DEDICATION

This book is dedicated to the survivors.

CONTENTS

You’re not Triggered, You’re Dysregulated

Managing the Nervous System After Trauma

Toxic Stress, Long-Term Stress and Trauma

What does dysregulation look and feel like?

Dysregulation as a PROPER response to stressors.

A Very Brief Explanation of the Nervous System

The Nervous System’s Functions and Reactions

What is Self-Regulation and Why is it Important?

What are the Best Self-Regulation Techniques for You?

Self-Regulation Techniques

Emotions - are they feelings or are they words?

The Somatic Experiencing of Emotions

Anxiety After The Event: Why Does It Feel So Unsafe To Feel Safe After Toxic Abuse?

8 Tips for Better Self-Regulation

Toxic Stress, Long-Term Stress and Trauma

Nobody wants to say they’ve been traumatized. It sounds dramatic, needy, and whiny - but the reality is the body doesn’t care about your opinion. 

The body recognizes trauma. We often forget that things like long-term verbal abuse, health issues, schoolyard bullying, even poverty can result in high levels of stress in the body. Even simple constant worry can do it if it’s frequent and intense.

Trauma is not a contest or a comparison. Just because one person was physically abused, and another experienced a car accident truly doesn’t matter. The body just knows it was terrified and possibly injured.

The brain’s job is to keep you safe, and sometimes that means being overprotective. Each time a trauma occurs your body records what is happening in the environment. Sight, smell, sound, touch registers, and whenever your body experiences a similar set of sensations, it begins to react even if you know logically that you’re safe. 

Active self-regulation might look like noticing these subtle changes, pausing, putting the hands over the heart, taking a long deep breath and saying, I am safe. Feeling your shoulders drop and your breathing slow is a good sign that you’ve dropped out of fight or flight.

Have you ever considered the subtle things in an environment that might remind a person of their