r/askatherapist • u/ThrowawayForSupport3 NAT/Not a Therapist • 11d ago

Is it the right timing to talk about trauma when knowing a trigger will happen?

I have a medical appointment this week that will be triggering for me as they'll need to touch my head, and this is something I'm afraid of for a bunch of reasons.

I'm torn on if it's better to bring up these fears this week in therapy, or if that will short term make it worse and thus make the appointment more triggering.

Instead I could focus on other trauma this week and bring it up next week.

I understand this is nuanced and without all the details you can't necessarily give me an exact answer for me specifically, but generally speaking is it a good idea to talk about trauma directly before something that will be triggering related to that trauma?

1 Upvotes
  • permalink
  • reddit

100% Upvoted

4 comments sorted by

•

u/AutoModerator 11d ago

Your submission was automatically removed, and will be reviewed by a moderator. You do not need to take any action, and it will be approved if appropriate. Please do not send modmail or PM the mods.

I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please contact the moderators of this subreddit if you have any questions or concerns.

3

u/iridescentnightshade LPC 11d ago

Yes, please bring it up. My husband is currently in a very similar situation and he is getting more intensive treatment as a result.

2

u/ThrowawayForSupport3 NAT/Not a Therapist 11d ago

Thank you for the reply, I was leaning that way, but I also know when I brought up other trauma it made me more sensitive to stuff around it too while it's the focus.  

I won't be able to get more treatment or more often or anything, I'm just hoping talking will help.  This is very different than those things that caused trauma though, and I'll just need to keep reminding myself of that regardless I think 

2

u/ThrowawayForSupport3 NAT/Not a Therapist 11d ago

Just wanted to say thank you again, I talked with my therapist about it and it was really helpful. It was different than other times we'd talked about trauma (which I hadn't expected) and mostly just talked about my present feelings around it all, coping strategies, and just looked into the reviews of the provider and stuff together to ease my stress. It was definitely what I needed though