Dr. John A. King explains why people with PTSD need a backup plan for triggering events. When your primary plan falls apart, he says, assume it will and prepare a second one. His fallback: recognize you might shift to rage or say hurtful things, then consciously walk away to limit damage.
One of the things I think we all find challenging about things like our tomorrows, events, occasions coming up, is that we, we do plan, we do think it through, we, we have a scenario, and we try and manage everything we can going into it. But like any good plan, once we implement it, we, we have to rely on the fact that we know that it can quite easily go to hell in a handbasket. So what's your fallback option? What's going to be your number 2? Because we just need to assume number 1 may not go the way we think it's going to go. My fallback is to control the fallout. I know I can go from 0 to 100 in a flash. I know I can say hurtful words. I know I can find myself triggered by the environment and get rageful. But I often feel that building. I often find myself getting uncomfortable. My fallback plan is to minimize my damage, to walk away.
