When past pain finds present moments…
When triggered by something related to a traumatic experience, we might experience a sudden surge of intense emotions – fear, panic, anger, danger – often accompanied by physical sensations like a racing heart, rapid breathing, and stomach pain.
Our body remembers what our mind tries to forget.
I’m not talking about the casual use of ‘trigger’ in today’s society. I’m referring to those deep, involuntary responses to stimuli that awaken sleeping memories of past trauma.
Some of my most vivid and disturbing fear spirals happen when my brain and body start to recognise echoes of past trauma.
The sensation in my body is unstoppable and completely uncontrollable. All reasoning dissolves. Logic can’t reach me here. I’m left in a state of pure reaction, my nervous system hijacked by memories it’s trying to protect me from.
But I’m learning that these moments, as overwhelming as they are, don’t define me. They’re just echoes of past pain, not predictions of future harm.
And while I can’t always control when they surface, I can hold space for myself until the wave passes.
