TD Jakes - Identifying Trauma and Triggers
When a psychologist uses the word «trauma,» it is to describe an event or incident and the extent to which it has damaged the soul. Now, if you can imagine a hammer hitting a skull as trauma and recognize that we use the same word for an incident affecting the soul, you can begin to identify the severity of what we experience when we go through certain things. You must understand that trauma triggers are psychological stimuli that prompt the recall of a previous traumatic experience; they are things that stay with us for a long time.
There are different kinds of trauma, and I want to discuss them because we do not all go through the same types. There is chronic trauma, which results from repeated and prolonged exposure to highly stressful situations, such as cases of child abuse. It is prolonged, it has gone on for a long time, and it is repeated—that’s chronic trauma. Acute trauma, on the other hand, results from a single stressful or dangerous event; it’s a one-time experience. Chronic trauma perpetuates itself and continues indefinitely. Complex trauma arises from exposure to multiple traumatic events. Trauma triggers and triumph—trauma encompasses the things that happen to us, often without our expressing anything about them. Many of us carry trauma in our lives that unexpectedly arises, but there are certain experiences that some people handle better than others.
Some individuals struggle to cope with specific kinds of trauma. Some of us are so busy trying to manage the expression of trauma, wanting to appear tough and unaffected, that we never resolve the underlying issues. Then a trigger arises, and it can be anything; for example, if you were in a fire and suddenly someone lights a cigarette, the smell of smoke can trigger memories, causing you to shake—that’s the trigger. If you grew up in an abusive home and hear someone yelling at a ball game, it may make you anxious—that’s another trigger. Certain things can lead to particular behavioral responses. Triggers can be subtle and difficult to anticipate. You need to understand that you don’t know when a trigger will occur until it does, and you don’t realize how you will react until you do—and then you do.
A trauma trigger may also be referred to as a trauma stimulus, trauma stressor, or trauma reminder because the moment it triggers, it takes you right back in time. This can happen even if the traumatic event occurred 20 years ago. You must understand that when God speaks to us and teaches us about life, He is clear that life will be filled with trauma. Those who live godly lives will experience trauma and persecution. You are going to face certain challenges; things are going to happen. I know you may be looking for a type of faith or message that suggests nothing will ever go wrong, but certain events will happen in our lives, and our faith is demonstrated in how we recover. You can’t have triumph without conflict. To achieve triumph, you must fight; you can’t be a winner without a battle.
I’m curious—let me take a quick poll: how many winners do we have in the building? Winners only, only if you’ve experienced something! Some of you haven’t faced challenges, so you cannot claim victory because you haven’t been in a fight. But if you have fought just to be where you are—to sit where you’re sitting, to be who you are, to have what you have—you need to take a moment to celebrate the feeling of victory. I am triumphant! We don’t do that enough; we don’t celebrate our victories. We nurture our wounds, acknowledge our trauma, and identify our triggers, but we don’t take the time to celebrate our triumphs.
As soon as we survive or overcome something, we rush on to the next challenge without developing the ability to appreciate what we have achieved. However, God teaches us in the very first book of the Bible, the Book of Genesis, that when He created the heavens and the earth, each day, even though the tasks were unfinished, He paused to celebrate and declared, «It was good.» The evening and the morning marked the second day, and God affirmed, «It was good.» He took the time to celebrate Himself. Let’s do that again; let’s celebrate ourselves right now. Just take a moment to acknowledge something that God has done. From the creation story, we learn that there is a process leading to the promise.
We know that we must go through a process to reach the promise, and during this process, we need to learn how to take baby steps, celebrating our progress and appreciating each small accomplishment. I may not have finished creating the world, but I created light today. I haven’t completed the universe, but I created grass today. You need to learn to celebrate your own achievements. No, we often don’t do that. Instead, we look for someone else to celebrate us. We spend so much time seeking outside validation that we neglect to celebrate ourselves. What I want you to understand this morning is that you attract into your life a reflection of who you are.
If you are abusive to yourself and speak negatively about yourself, you will attract people who reinforce that negativity. However, if you celebrate yourself, you will draw people who join in your celebration. Are you following what I’m saying? You must recognize that while we all go through trauma and have triggers, we also have trials. The problem is that sometimes we remain in a constant state of trauma and triggers, failing to take advantage of our triumphs. We clap for a moment and then move on; we say «thank you,» and we are done.
We acknowledge that a trauma lasted for six months while the triumph lasts only six minutes. We should at least celebrate the same length of time as we spent in frustration. That should take up the rest of the service right there! I could spend the entire service dancing, jumping, and shouting in praise to God because we have overcome enough. I said we have gone through enough that when we emerge victorious, we should praise God! I’m not just talking about triumph in winning a race, completing a marathon, or winning an election.
Sometimes triumph simply means being here. Triumph doesn’t require a new car or new house; it just says, «I’m still here.» Triumph declares, «I made it.» Triumph reminds us that despite the attempts to take us out, look at us—we’re still standing. Triumph is every birthday we celebrate when the enemy wanted to kill us before we arrived. Look at you—triumph! That’s why I wear my gray hair; I earned it! I went through something to have this gray hair. I’m not going to hide it; this is my triumph. The devil didn’t want me to live long enough to have gray hair. Some of the people I went to school with died before they ever saw gray hair. I’m going to wear my gray hair proudly because it represents the crown of triumph—I’ve made it through. Can someone give a hand clap in this place if you hear me?