Triggers and Action Plans

We had a great group discussion around triggers

We welcomed long-time self-management trainer Dorrie M. who picked a few examples of triggers and how to have an action plan ready to deal with them when they come up:

Reviews or Assessments of Welfare Benefits

• Support from organisations including Advocard, Citizen Advice, Advice Shop, CHAI (Community Help & Advice Initiative) Turn2US.

• Talking to someone you Trust, help with form filling and attending reviews with you. There can be a lot of repetition with the information needed although questions are phrased differently. It’s helpful to do the form with someone to keep on track.

• Forms are often long and involved so it’s good to do in smaller chunks to help with focus & energy.

• Acknowledge how difficult the process is and fear of the potential outcome/impact on our circumstances. Do something nice afterwards like a treat as a reward or use some self-care or wellness tool to help diminish the negative effects.

Spending time with a particular person who is challenging

• Arrange an appointment so you can limit the time with them.

• Say you can’t stay long as you need to walk the dog.

• Count to 10 and do a breathing exercise if things get difficult.

• Set an alarm.

• Take someone with you.

• Take time out.

• Use wellness tools afterwards, e.g. sketching, doing a jigsaw or use some self-care.

Doing far too much

• Learning to say “No” especially social occasions.

• Setting boundaries. Protect “Me” time.

• Prioritise the importance of tasks. Take some self-care.

• Reset times. Prioritise sleep. Delegate. Valuing yourself.

• Be loose with plans – weekly To Do list not daily.

• Don’t beat yourself up if things aren’t going to plan.

• Practice Self Kindness!

• Ask someone to help you – it can be fun.

 Extra Learning from my experience regarding Trigger Actions

• The same actions might not always work but you will discover new ones.

• While the Triggers we’ve just looked at are common, our individual responses to them and our Actions may be very different as we are all different.

• Some of our actions (e.g. a glass of wine, retail therapy) may work short term to help us manage a Trigger and stay well. These can become problematic themselves however in that they stop helping and can become Triggers. For me it’s the B word (Balance) again and knowing what’s right for you based on your experience.

• For insurance I usually add in a bit of self-care or just do something nice for myself/more of what makes me happy.

• Some people will also make sure they’re doing everything on their Daily Maintenance List, especially if they’re still feeling the effects of the Trigger after some time.

• For me it’s important to write things down as if I get really affected by the Trigger a lot of my usual good sense goes out the window and I can forget which actions have helped before.  Doing this will capture learning – for the future too.

• You may find that some things crop up in various action plans giving a generic template for dealing with many different triggers.

Mine are:

• Talking to people I value & trust.

• Being mindful of what I need.

• Out walking in the fresh air.

• Being kind to myself etc

These have proven to be reliable & versatile, and they work for me.

They’re my first line of defence and due to their effectiveness, they’ve become “the hack to get me back on track”.