Skip to main content

Triggers

For a psychiatric recovery exercise, I had to write things that trigger paranoid or delusional thoughts or psychotic episodes for me. Listing them publicly might help my friends better understand why I decline to do certain things. So, here they are:
  1. Going outside at night, although I still enjoy and try to do this for the stars and the solitude.
  2. Being alone at night- I try to overcome this one to be "more adult." My service dog helps.
  3. Watching shows with certain content- I don't really know what content will be triggering until it starts to be triggering, and then I hit "skip." This is part of why I rarely watch shows with other people; I know I can't just skip triggering content as easily with others. 
  4. Talking about religion lends itself to delusions and hallucinations for me.
  5. Talking about the supernatural or non-science-based extra-terrestrial phenomenon does the same.
  6. Lack of sleep is also a common trigger for spiraling thought patterns and negative coping mechanisms.
So, those are the triggers I filled out on the worksheet. The other two questions it asked were "how can I deal with this" and "did this help" for each trigger.

If you deal with psychotic thoughts, identifying and avoiding triggers might help decrease it. It's helped me over the past 2 years to decrease it a lot in my daily life, although I still have episodes.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Increasing my Testosterone Dosage

TW: Body changes, sexual changes, suicide mention   I started low-dose testosterone on February 1, 2016 . My step-dad had just taken his own life, and I felt the need to take control of mine. I was on testosterone for a long time before I was sure that I really wanted to be on it- that it was the decision that would reduce dysphoria the most for my nonbinary self. Part of this indecisiveness came from my autism; I've always had trouble making decisions due to being overwhelmed by the options and fearing regret. I talked a lot with my therapist about my uncertainty around testosterone, and the ongoing theme was that I was happy about the current changes; I was just afraid that I would regret future changes. So, I stayed on testosterone, reasoning that I could always go off of it if the changes started causing dysphoria from being too masculine. Since then, I've started trying my hand at online dating. Through answering the many, many questions on the sites, building my profil...
Post a Comment
Read more

Autism and Teaching English

In many ways, autism makes me a good teacher. I explain things clearly and systematically. I keep detailed notes on each student because I have to do so to remember. I have formulas for everything and provide data-based feedback on student progress after every lesson. It also makes me a good English as a Second Language teacher. I pinpoint specific, recurring issues in students' speaking (accent, pronunciation, and oral fluency) and take a structured approach to addressing these issues. I do the same with academic writing (structure, grammar, vocabulary, spelling, coherence and cohesion). However, it makes me a lousy literature teacher. I'm good at poetry, but stories are not my thing. I take them at face value. It's hard for me to see symbolism behind the words. A story about talking rabbits ( Watership Down ) is, to me, just about the talking rabbits, and I'm totally into the narrative of those rabbits. I also cannot empathize with character emotions unless I...
Post a Comment
Read more

Distress Tolerance Skills Part 3: When the Crisis is Addiction

All posts in this series reference working through  DBT® Skills Training Handouts and Worksheets, Second Edition , and all quotes come from that book unless otherwise specified. To learn more about distress tolerance skills as a whole, why they are important, and the goals the book sets forth for studying them, click  here .  The Distress Tolerance Skills section of the book is divided into two main types of handouts: Crisis Survival and Reality Acceptance. There will also be some material for "When the Crisis is Addiction". This blog will cover "When the Crisis is Addiction". Everyone Has Addictions: In this section, the book first makes the point that everyone has addictions. It lists everything from alcohol and drugs to spiritual practices as potential things to which someone could be addicted. For me, I will be working through this section with regards to self harm.  Dialectical Abstinence: The second subsection of addiction distress tolerance ski...
Post a Comment
Read more