Controlling Triggers: A Guide to Healing After Being Cheated On

Triggers arrive unasked for, invade our lives, and have us looking like out-of-control crazy-makers after infidelity. They are an invasive consequence of having our lives and futures threatened by being cheated on. Yet we want to be free from the stress that triggers create so we can heal from the betrayal pain and live our lives in peace. Learning to control triggers after being cheated on can often seem impossible. When they hit us, we question whether we really can control them or if they will ever stop.

Betrayal triggers can land so intensely that they often feel outside our control. Now that your partner cheated, are you wondering whether you will have out-of-control triggers for the rest of your life?

Disclaimer: I still get triggered at times. I spend time doing self-care and mindful healing because I am not perfect, but I want to live a fulfilling life free from the stress triggers cause. As a betrayed wife, I have chosen to live with more awareness of my triggers and create the sense of safety I need to be stress-free. In this post, I want to share what I have learned about controlling and processing triggers, or rather, accepting them and learning from them to feel safe and heal my betrayal trauma.

Out-of-control Triggers

So why do we have reoccurring or out-of-control triggers that override our brains and steal our peace? And when we lose our calm, why do we become a crazy-maker with our partners, friends, or family? We hate doing it, right? Afterward, we feel bad and beat ourselves up for what we said and did. Out-of-control triggers leave us exhausted, emotionally unsafe, and at risk of hurting others and ourselves.

Once they arrive, it seems we can't shake specific triggers or worries out of our heads. Suddenly, we become fixated on a thing that overrides everything else. Our brains decide that this thing is a threat and the crazy-making feelings start within us. We perceive triggers as threats to our survival, and they hijack our brains and even our bodies!

Yet we can sometimes act as if we will die if we don't neutralize or fix what our minds perceive as threatening. We become over-anxious, stress-filled, and frankly tunnel-visioned in our mission to end our sense of danger. But are we actually in danger? Or are our fears from our past being projected into our future that has triggered us? Questioning whether or not the trigger is showing us danger in the now is an essential step toward controlling it. 

When triggered, our beautiful minds are no longer our best friends. They become master detectives, security guards, police officers, judges, and juries in an instant. And we can't think clearly because we are pounding the gavel so hard on the podium inside our heads. The issue takes precedence over everything in our lives, front and center, while our brains go crazy trying to resolve our perceived threat. So how do we control invading triggers once they start? The reality is that we feel the pain and stress of a trigger in our minds even though what we fear may not even be happening in real life.

Being Cheated on Triggers the Fear of Rejection

Triggers are a consequence of having our lives and futures threatened. The social rejection of being cheated on is so profoundly and resoundingly painful that our brains consider it life-threatening. Therefore, our minds become hypervigilant at reading danger signs; even a hint, memory, or suggestion of infidelity sends us into a tailspin. Our thoughts get stuck on overdrive, looking out for any sign of rejection, abandonment, or cheating occurring again. It's exhausting and feels out of control! Sadly, we can often get stuck on this exhausting trigger treadmill after being cheated on and left feeling we have no control over our life or the pain we are in.  As betrayed wifes, betrayal and all the baggage it causes really sucks for us.

The facts are that intimate betrayal is traumatic and we are left with many emotional responses! And for those of us who didn't form healthy attachments as children, being cheated on may trigger an even stronger compulsion to watch and look for threats. Threats take us back to our vulnerable past times when we weren't safe. Yet the trauma of being cheated on is enough to push even the most securely attached individuals into panic or stress states. Being cheated on is so traumatic that it leaves us with deep wounds that take a long time to heal.

Being Cheated on Feels Life Threatening

Are You Waiting for the Next Shoe to Drop? A danger after being cheated on is that the trauma can lock us into watching and judging our partners even unconsciously. We can get stuck on high alert, and any slight in love or affection sends us off the edge into triggered states. Behaviors that remind us of cheating have us pushing the red alert button in our heads. Inconsistencies in our partner's behaviors send our brains into overdrive, evaluating and questioning.

Our emotional volatility is fear motivated and we are afraid of being rejected or hurt again. So our minds remain vigilant and on the outlook for threats to our safety.  After being cheated on, it seems that any hint that looks like a betrayal, no matter how subtle, is perceived as dangerous or life-threatening to us. Our brains get wired, watching and waiting for cheating signals which send us into massive states of stress or hyperarousal even unconsciously.

We Change Who We Are When We Get Triggered

Whether the threat that has caught our attention is real or not gets lost on our over-anxious brains. In an instant, we change who we are and how we behave if we get triggered. Triggers cause us to lose our heads in the broadest sense as the thinking part of our brain disconnects, and what feels like a crazy-maker takes over. So we act out of character because we cannot think clearly, yet we are acting out! Us, not someone else. It's like a hostile takeover occurred within us! Everyone sees and hears us, but we don't even know who we are at that moment. When we are triggered, we feel out of control, and unable to respond the way we want.

While triggered, we can get fixated on strategies that we know would never work if we could think about them at the moment. But we aren't thinking; we are in a state of life-threatening stress! Sometimes we withdraw and shut down; other times, we overcompensate or get controlling. Our state changes while triggered, and we become angry, rage, cry, demand, or shut down—anything to control our partner's attention and divert it onto making us feel safe. We want to stop our perceived threat of re-abandonment, rejection, or whatever we have triggered over. The behavior we are displaying comes from a place of deep agony and fear, not because we are a horrible people.

Getting Triggered is Not Wrong

Sadly, our triggered behavior rarely has the desired effect on our partners'. We want support and safety from them, but they are mostly so overwhelmed by our conduct that they withdraw or fight back to protect themselves. Some courageous few stand firm and take it. But we push and push and push our partners in our attempts to alleviate our deep primal fear. The way we can behave when triggered doesn't support us or our relationships because we are not acting safely. Yet all we want is to feel safe. So how do we control our triggers so we can feel and act safe?

What if we were to accept that getting triggered is normal behavior after being cheated on? How would we feel about ourselves if we believed that the way we are experiencing these circumstances is the same as nearly every other betrayed woman? Who has the right to tell us that getting triggered is wrong? Is it us telling ourselves we are wrong? Are we carrying a burden of added fear or shame because our pain button gets pushed, and we react by getting triggered? Or do we turn it on our cheating husbands, punishing or blaming them because we get triggered?

When Triggered, it's Easy to Blame Our Cheating Partners' 

Unfortunately, blame stops us from accepting and processing our triggers. It is a way of rejecting our triggers and making them someone else's problem. Blaming our partner for our triggers inhibits our healing and leads to resentment. Resentment leaves us feeling like a victim, and victims can make others responsible for the way they feel.

Accepting that triggers are a normal reaction after infidelity can begin to put us in control of our betrayal recovery instead of feeling like a victim. Acceptance helps us recognise our triggers as normal and healthy threat responses after being cheated on.  When we own our emotional responses, rather that seeing them as terrible, we can use them to help us understand and recover from the pain they are protecting us from.

Expect to Feel Triggered After Being Cheated On?

What would it feel like to accept that your triggers are helpful and typical experiences after being cheated on?  If you saw each trigger as your brain doing its job to keep you safe instead of blaming your partner (or their affair partner) for it, what might this mean for you? After all, keeping you alive and secure is the role of your brain. Your triggers are your brain doing it's job to help you stay safe!

So after betrayal, the unwanted nagging inside your head is your brain looking for problems to solve to keep you safe and that's important. Accepting our triggers supports us in healing our betrayal trauma by telling us exactly what needs to be healed at this time and helps us process our triggers in more controlled ways. 

Triggers are Normal After Being Cheated On!

But will the trigger noise ever stop? Will we ever be free from the fear of being cheated on again? Maybe, somewhat, eventually. As humans, do we ever overcome mind-chatter? Isn't this what differentiates us from animals?

Let me give you an example that helped me understand how to accept triggers and integrate them into my life. Those with children know that we constantly scan the environment subconsciously to ensure our baby's safety. We do it naturally without even thinking. It's an awareness that comes through both experiences and owning the responsibility for that child's life. We learned what to look out for, and we do it without barely a thought or a pause in our conversation...or so we think! In reality, our brain is always watching, processing, and evaluating.

As our children grow and mature, so too does our need to keep such a close eye on them start to relax. There was a natural growth away from us towards their independence as they grew up. The need to be vigilant becomes obsolete as we see them taking responsibility for themselves. But we will always be their mothers, and our hearts will remain turned towards their safety no matter how old they are—our actions and ways of handling the role of mother change over time, but not our emotional commitment to them.

So too, does our need to know everything about what our partner is doing lessen as we either see them taking responsibility for their actions or as we develop our own safe life environment to live in.

We Can Learn to Trust Again After Being Cheated On

As time passes, if our partners repeatedly prove themselves trustworthy or we build a safe life separate from them, our hypervigilance around them or future partners does calm down somewhat. Our brains start to see and evaluate behavior patterns we can acknowledge and eventually rely on as safe both in ourselves and our partners. We learn to trust again, slowly, as we consistently feel safe. Not as fast as we or our partners wish, but in our own time. It's a different type of trust, not a naive trust, but a trust that comes through our brains witnessing and acknowledging repeated safe experiences.

We also learn to trust ourselves and our ability to eventually heal from the traumatic thoughts that previously sent us over the edge at the drop of a hat. We can learn how to control our triggers after being cheated on, as we consistently recognize that we feel safe and are safe.

If our partner fails to show themselves as someone we can rely on or trust, our developing self-trust guides us to protect ourselves. We can do this by getting outside support or professional guidance and by setting healthy boundaries. Experience teaches us to trust ourselves and do whatever is necessary for our emotional and physical safety. Triggers can therefore lead us to take responsibility for ourselves, our safety, and our future.

It takes time and effort to heal from the betrayal's trauma and our partner's actions while they were unenlightened. We heal faster when we build a sense of felt safety by surrounding ourselves with people who accept our pain and understand our initial need to fix our perceived or real relational threats. 

Being Cheated On Feels Life-Threatening at the Time

While initially, our brains perceive the social rejection of being cheated on as life-threatening, we can heal and move on from that place of primal panic. It's harmful to remain in a state of ongoing stress, and it takes time and practice to move on from a trigger. As humans, we feel safer when we feel connected to other humans.

Triggers are natural and normal reactions after experiencing infidelity.  Do you and your partner accept that your triggers are normal responses and happen after being cheated on, and that you are not wrong to get triggered? We need compassion and understanding when we are triggered, not rejection or punishment.

Accepting and owning a trigger helps us begin to put words to how we feel while triggered. By identifying and naming what is triggering us and bringing acceptance and ownership to our emotions, we support ourselves in learning to handle and control our triggers. Learning to control our triggers by joining with our feelings and not rejecting them is a part of our self-care healing journey.

We Can Learn to Control Our Triggers 

How do we learn to control our triggers? To me, learning to control a trigger is like juggling. At first balls go everywhere all at once, and everything feels out of control. As we drop balls, we can often feel defeated, and that the art of juggling is beyond our scope. Sometimes we get hurt by the balls as they hit us in the face or fly astray and hit other people. Things can also get broken by out-of-control balls, but when we catch a ball it's a small victory. As achievements grow, so too does our confidence that we will eventually juggle one day.

Just like juggling, it takes a lot of time and practice join with our feelings and learn to control our triggers. As time goes on, we build confidence in our ability to move on from a trigger. Some people may appear to learn faster than others, but perhaps they aren't juggling as many balls. Comparisons are irrelevant in life because we all have our unique histories and journey.

When Triggered, Become Your Own Best Friend

We learn to become our own best friends in this healing process after being cheated on. Learning to sit with ourselves when triggered by joining with our feelings and walk ourselves through triggers is the best way we can learn to control them. But first we need to calm our minds so that we can think clearly. What can you do to calm yourself so you can engage with your wise mind after being triggered?

Whatever the Trigger, You Need Space to Heal

Sometimes, when we give ourselves the space to regain ourselves, we discover that the trigger was a broken record playing from our past, the trap of all-or-nothing thinking, or a story we made up and were ruminating over. And sometimes, we find out that our intuition is talking to us, but we are not listening because we don't like what it is saying or are too frightened to act on it. Maybe we are not ready to accept the changes infidelity has brought into our lives and need more support or healing to process these changes.

Ultimately, triggers are challenges that show us what needs healing, and they grow our resilience to help us heal. Even if we don't feel like facing a trigger while experiencing it, there is a reason that a particular trigger is there. We learn to understand ourselves better by bringing self-care and curiosity to our triggers rather than fear, avoidance, or shame.

Whatever the reason for the trigger, giving yourself space to heal is your path toward controlling the emotional responses it brings. Suffering ongoing or suppressing your emotions and triggers is not a safe future for your mind or body. Remember, identifying threats is healthy human behavior, and our amazing brains want to keep us safe. Most importantly, we create safety when we calm ourselves enough to think about and process our triggers healthily. We need to feel it to heal it. The bigger our reaction when our fear gets poked, the more critical it is to own that we need healing and compassionately give ourselves the self-care we need to heal.

Become Curious About Your Triggers

So how do we control and heal our triggers? We can learn to become curious about them and tackle each one as it arises. Firstly, we give ourselves the time we need to calm our activated minds down (see above), and secondly, we ask ourselves brave and meaningful questions that re-engage our brain's thinking parts. Whatever trigger you are facing, try asking yourself the following questions.

• What does this particular trigger mean to me?
• Why am I feeling this trigger now?
• What happened before I got triggered, which might have fed into becoming triggered?
• How might I solve it, or is this trigger even mine to solve?
• What healing is this trigger leading me towards?

Above all, taking the time or creating the space to think about our triggers productively calms us and helps us control the emotional response to our infidelity stress more efficiently, without hurting ourselves and those around us. In short, it takes time and practice to learn how to control our triggers. We need compassion from others and to be compassionate with ourselves while learning to process them, not judgement.

Please reach out if you are struggling with overwhelming triggers. Being triggered is not wrong; it's a sign that you need more healing and are still recovering from whatever caused the trigger. Perhaps you are in the process of learning to accept that betrayal is a part of your history and not a part of your now.

Sometimes we need extra support to help us control or process our triggers and other times we need a safe person to talk about our triggers with. Please accept my gift of a free call if you need help or want to talk...

You are not alone in this healing journey.

Much love