I’ve begun to understand better how often I am “triggered” by a variety of things and how that relates back to traumas I’ve undergone in my life, especially living with Stage IV Metastatic Breast Cancer (MBC) since my de novo diagnosis in 2017. Identifying and defining a trigger is often helpful for me to understand why I have an extreme or long lasting response to something that doesn’t appear to affect me directly in any discernible way. These moments of “freaking out” or feeling out of control are often scary for me inside even as I’m attempting to calm myself or compartmentalize since my normal coping mechanisms are not successful.

But first, as I often do, let’s look at a generally accepted definition of the concept of a trigger:

something thatcausessomeone tofeel upsetandfrightenedbecause they are made toremembersomethingbadthat hashappenedin…