EP 0001 – Pause For The Trauma Response

EP 0001 – Pause For The Trauma Response

It’s Not You – It’s Your Trigger Response

When trauma responses hit like a gun to the head, the instinctive urge is to fight, flee, or blame. Yet true freedom comes from pausing in that terror, sitting with the cut-off emotions that feel like death, and reclaiming responsibility for what was abandoned in childhood. The path out of victimhood begins not in changing others, but in trusting yourself to feel what was once too dangerous.

The Trigger Response Protects Cut-Off Parts
Trauma responses arise when situations touch the emotions cut off in childhood—anger, sadness, vulnerability—that were punished or shamed. The body reacts with panic because those parts were deemed life-threatening; without a full emotional range, life feels unprotected and constantly on guard.

Pausing Is the Key to Breaking the Cycle
Instead of fighting, running, blaming, or attaching to the trigger, sit with it like facing a gun to your head. Feel the terror fully without reaction. Each time the body learns it survives, the intensity fades, reducing fear and control over behavior.

Responsibility Reclaims Power from Victimhood
Blaming others for triggers keeps you helpless, handing power away. Caregivers can’t undo past pain; you must parent yourself, self-soothe, and process feelings. Sitting with abandonment fear builds self-trust, making relationships safer without walls or panic.

Three Important Takeaways

• Trigger responses protect cut-off childhood emotions; pausing to feel them without reaction teaches the body that survival is possible.
• Blaming others perpetuates victimhood; taking responsibility for your feelings reclaims power and ends the cycle.
• Self-parenting through discomfort builds trust in your emotions, reduces fear of loss, and enables authentic connections.

Conclusion
Trauma responses feel like mortal threats because they guard emotions cut off for survival, leaving life on constant alert. Freedom emerges from pausing in the panic—not fighting, fleeing, or blaming—but sitting with the terror until the body learns it can endure. This self-parenting dissolves victimhood, rebuilds trust in suppressed feelings, and opens space for genuine relationships without walls. The work is grueling, but each feeling met without escape weakens the old fear. Over time, triggers lose power, serenity replaces guard, and a whole, protected self emerges—one no longer dictated by childhood abandonment.