Trigger Events

I have been going on a RT support forum (see link on my home page) recently, which has been really useful in expanding my understanding of RT. One of the members was talking about 'trigger events'. Trigger events are the event that caused your bodymind to feel under threat, physically, emotionally, mentally and caused the hypothalamus to go into overdrive.

I decided to have a bath and do some body focusing a couple of nights ago. I wasn't getting anything in particular, but then I started reading over some of the notes that I had written before I started RT. They were answers to the questions on page 92 of John Eatons book.

I have been mulling over the reason why I suddenly started getting really bad PMS and ME flare ups at my time of the month only since May of this year. When I read my notes, something suddenly jumped into my head connecting my initial trigger event, something that happened at the time I got the 'flu' that 'caused' my ME and something that happened at the end of April. It was like a line that shot through from the past to now. Each of these 'triggers' involved a betrayal of my trust. The first was enormous, the second was significant and the third was minor. Each time though, I have gone into an emotional turmoil the first time for several months and more recently just for a few weeks.

After the second event I caught flu, after the more recent event I caught a cold a had a mild relapse that lasted about 8 weeks. This might sound insignificant, but I have only had 2 colds in 3 years. Also the emotions were the same each time. I felt incredibly emotionally vulnerable, upset, I felt betrayed, insecure and a bit of a wreck. Apparently when looking for trigger events, you look for similarities in emotions.

My theory is that the initial trigger and the event that happened at the end of April might have become tangled up in my time of the month. It is possible that each time it's that time of the month, I revisit the trigger event emotionally, causing the PMS and the ME flare up that follows. The fact is that every time I'm due on, I do get insecure and feel the need for reassurance and this is not a personality characteristic that I am used to - this is new, since May of this year!

Obviously this is a theory at this stage. I now have some ideas about how to tackle the symptoms that I get when I'm on and how to try and pre-empt them. I'm going to have a chat with my BF later to put some ideas to him. If this works, I will be over the moon.