Trauma, Triggers and Emotional Dysregulation: 10 Ways to Regulate Your Nervous System w/ Anna Runkle

Trauma, Triggers and Emotional Dysregulation: 10 Ways to Regulate Your Nervous System w/ Anna Runkle

Childhood trauma physically changes your brain. 
It makes your alarm system set off super easily. And people often call this getting triggered. 
But what’s really happening is that when the brain perceives a threat, the emotional part 
of the brain gets launched into high alert, and it basically shuts down rational thinking 
to a degree. Now, you might feel super emotional or scared. You might feel angry, upset, or numb. 
You might feel detached or feel a desperate urge to flee a situation or placate everyone around 
you. Now, this is all part of the protective fight/flight/freeze response. And for people with 
childhood trauma it might last for days or hours or be chronic. Right? Now, emotional dysregulation 
can make it seem impossible to function at work, at home. It makes it feel impossible to maintain 
relationships. But the good news is that you can learn to self-regulate. You can learn to snap out 
of the triggered response and back into the calm, thinking part of your brain. Now, by the time 
you’re watching this video I’ve got a new baby, but Anna Runkle, also known as Crappy 
Childhood Fairy, was kind enough to help me out. She has an incredible story 
of overcoming childhood trauma and PTSD, and she has decades of experience helping other 
people find their path through it in their own lives as well. Now, Anna isn’t a mental health 
professional, but I really value her personal experience, both in her own life and helping 
others. And because she’s been there she can understand things and explain things in 
a way that relates to others with CPTSD. So I’m grateful that she took the time to help 
me out. So here’s Anna. She’s going to teach you 10 ways to self-regulate, to calm down when 
you’re triggered and get back to yourself. When you have complex PTSD there is nothing 
worse than being in some crucial conversation or some big moment and some little thing 
triggers you. I’m Anna Runkle, also known as the Crappy Childhood Fairy, and I help people 
heal symptoms from trauma during childhood. I’ve got 10 tips for you that will help you be 
more aware and able to take quick action so that when your CPTSD symptoms do get triggered you’re 
able to handle it gracefully and to come back from that brink without having to lash out or flee 
or to be hard on yourself. Because that’s what compounds the damage of trauma, right? Being hard 
on yourself for having symptoms that are in fact totally normal and not your fault. Now, I used to 
feel so much confusion and so much shame about my CPTSD symptoms. I didn’t have control over them 
yet. I didn’t even know there was a word for what happens to me when I’m stressed. I thought it 
was just me. Something would trigger me, and even though I knew it wasn’t worth getting upset about, 
it happened anyway. And it’s like I could feel it spreading through my body. Do you ever get that? 
The feeling of adrenaline and discombobulation, feeling numb – maybe in your hands or your face 
– or having trouble expressing your thoughts? Or you’re feeling flooded with emotions like panic or 
rage. Have you ever had that? I used to get this all the time. I didn’t even know what it was. But 
now there’s a word for this sudden kind of stress inside, and it’s called dysregulation. It’s really 
common for people who had trauma in childhood and it literally involves your brain waves and 
some of your body systems getting irregular and out of sync when certain triggers happen. Now, 
some triggers you couldn’t control if you really had to, but others are harder to control – or not 
until you’ve practiced it a lot. So if you get dysregulated you’ve probably figured out how to 
survive, you know, okay while you’re dysregulated, but as I’m sure you’ve noticed it can make it 
really hard to think and focus and set boundaries and navigate your life, because when you’re 
dysregulated, only part of your brain is working. And doesn’t this explains so much about why 
it can be hard to make a change that sticks, and why we sometimes make the same mistakes 
over and over? It is not our fault we’re like this. It’s an injury that comes from traumatic 
experiences. And the good news is there are things we can do to heal and calm those triggers. So what 
are your triggers? For a lot of people it could be a loud noise or a sudden shock or an experience 
of being vulnerable or nervous or, most commonly, emotional hurt, like being criticized or 
overlooked or rejected. And even when you know intellectually that the thing triggering you 
is no big deal, when you have PTSD from childhood it doesn’t matter. Once it starts it’s like it’s 
too late. You can feel this altered state almost creeping through you. Do you get this? Or you’re 
thinking, “Oh no,” you know, “Here it comes again, that feeling where I just say things that ruin 
everything or where I blank out at crucial moments or where I lose my ability to focus for three 
days or where I make a total idiot of myself.” And the feeling, once it starts, can feel 
impossible to stop. So the good news is you can learn to make it stop. And I can teach you that 
everybody gets dysregulated sometimes. Babies get dysregulated. Athletes get dysregulated. Brilliant 
scientists get dysregulated. I get dysregulated. And most of us will eventually re-regulate again. 
But for those of us with CPTSD, it can happen more often, with more intensity, and it can be 
harder to return to a regulated state. It can make it hard to focus, hard to get things done, hard 
to speak and listen and connect. And sometimes it makes it hard to control emotions. It’s a 
big reason why we struggle in relationships, and it also plays a role in why people who went 
through abuse and neglect in childhood have higher rates of chronic illness. Dysregulation has 
long-term effects on your central nervous system, including your hormones and your immune system 
and your heart and lungs and circulation. So learning to calm your triggers could have 
a very important ripple effect not just on your mood in your mind but on your overall 
health. And I’m just going to remind you again: It’s not your fault you have this. You didn’t do 
this to yourself; it’s an injury, and it comes from trauma. And now that you’re an adult, it’s 
possible to make it worse and it’s possible to make it better. And we want to get better, right? 
So in this video I want to teach you the 10 tricks to get calm right away. I had to learn these 
because I used to have really bad dysregulation from childhood trauma. If you want to get a feel 
for your own capacity to calm your triggers, just kind of open up to what I’m going to 
teach you right now. So the first thing is one: Notice that you’re triggered. This is sometimes 
easier said than done, but as you start to study what sets off your dysregulation, you’ll 
start to notice sooner than you used to that it’s happening again. And when you know you’re 
triggered and dysregulated, it’s time to pause. Try not to jump in. Don’t confront anyone or 
try to solve big problems or make decisions until you have your whole brain back online. 
Second, say to yourself, “I’m having an emotional reaction.” Or you can say, “I’m feeling 
triggered.” You say it to yourself. You don’t have to tell other people, necessarily. Just 
saying this to yourself helps you separate out the part of you that’s getting overwhelmed from 
the part of you that knows what to do about it. Three: Make sure you’re safe. If you’re driving, 
pull over. If you’re in the middle of an argument, put that discussion on hold in the nicest, most 
gentle, and caring way that you can because you’re buying yourself a little time to get 
re-regulated. So you can say something like, “I want to continue this conversation, but 
I need to take a breather to calm down.” Or if you don’t want to tell the other person 
that you’re triggered, tell them you need to go to the bathroom. If you’re on the phone you can 
say you have a call on the other line. Don’t get into a big discussion about it; just find a way to 
put the conversation on pause, and then actually take some time. And if it feels urgent that you 
do something or say something or solve this thing, it’s probably the CPTSD talking. And if that’s the 
case, take even longer before you try to come back and resolve anything. All right. Four is stamp 
your feet on the floor. It really works. You’re just trying to help your body remember where you 
are, to locate itself in space, and to remember the left side of you and the right side of you. 
And your dysregulated brain loves to feel the ground and feel where you are in space. That is a 
big way that it comes back into regulation. Okay. Five: You probably thought I’d say this first, 
but breathing. Take ten slow, deep breaths. Deep breaths are genuinely powerful at activating 
your relaxation response. And I know you know that, but sometimes we need our friends to remind 
us. And while you’re breathing, just to get more sensation of your body and where to locate 
your consciousness, you can push your tongue right there on the back of your teeth. 
Your mouth is part of that central part of the body where we 
locate our sense of self, kind of from head to chest. So mouth sensations 
can kind of bring you back into the center, back into your body. Six is another way to get 
back in your body: Sit down. Feel the weight of your butt in the chair. Feel the surfaces 
of the chair and where it’s touching you. All right. Seven: Eat something. Food helps you 
feel your body too. When you’re stressed you’ll probably crave carbs and sugar, but it’s protein 
foods that will help you get grounded again. Eight is – this is something my brother taught me – you 
can wash your hands. And while you’re washing, pay attention and feel the water and the soap on 
your hands. If the water can be warm that’s even nicer. I love washing my hands with warm water. 
Nine – and this is where your dysregulation is really going wild – you can get a reset for your 
nervous system by taking a cold shower. It doesn’t have to be ice cold, but it needs to give you 
a little bit of a shock, you know, just like that kind of cold. And I love this one. It’s good 
for increasing your energy as well. It’s cheap, it’s easy, it’s powerful, there’s no hangover, 
and it helps you re-regulate. Finally, number 10 is get a good squeezing hug. And if no one is 
around, you can press your back into the corner, you know, where the walls meet. Press your back 
in. Wrap your arms around yourself so that you feel a squeezing pressure around your torso. 
We’re all wired to calm down when we’re hugged, and that’s pretty intuitive. Now, you can use 
these techniques whether it’s a big emotional trigger that set you off or just a little thing 
– you got a parking ticket or someone was rude to you or you have to get on zoom and teach people 
something and you’re nervous. It doesn’t take much to set off that dysregulation response. But 
the sooner you can notice it and turn it around, the sooner you can forget the thing that set 
it off, and then you can get back to being you. You can use your mind and your focus the way 
you want to use them and feel more alert and open to the day. And when you’re good at that 
you can be a little freer and a little bolder in your life, because even if you get triggered 
you know how to come back from that quickly. So I have a question for you. If you were good at 
re-regulating and calming your triggers, would it make a difference in your life? Hands down yes. So 
try these quick techniques I just shared. If you want to learn an additional technique, and this 
one takes a little practice to learn, I call it my daily practice. And it’s the number one tool 
that I’ve used to heal my own CPTSD symptoms. It’s a free course. You can learn and try it in 
less than an hour, and Emma has kindly put a link to that down in the description section below. 
Thank you, Emma, for having me on your channel. You’re awesome. Don’t forget, everyone, 
healing is possible. You can do this. Okay. Thanks again to Anna for helping me out, 
and please do check out her YouTube channel and her daily practice, her free course 
where she teaches her process of working through emotional dysregulation. 
Thank you for watching, and take care.

Learn 10 powerful ways to regulate your nervous system, manage trauma triggers, and reduce emotional dysregulation with expert tips from Anna Runkle.
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Check out Anna’s Daily Practice to self-regulate when triggered here: https://crappychildhoodfairy.com/lp/daily-practice

Trauma has a massive impact on your nervous system and when you’re triggered, it’s hard to think clearly, it’s stressful and it impacts your ability to function and your relationships.
Anna Runkle, aka Crappy Childhood Fairy, has a history of Childhood Trauma, abuse and CPTSD, but she has over 20 years of healing and teaching others the techniques that work for her to calm down when triggered by trauma.
Emotional dysregulation is the term therapists use to describe what happens when your brain essentially flips into fight, flight, or freeze mode, some kind of trigger sets your brain into high-alert mode and can make it hard to think. Being dysregulated or triggered can really mess up relationships and a history of trauma leaves some people triggered or dysregulated in a chronic way, but you really can learn to regulate your nervous system using simple skills that Anna teaches in this video.

00:00 Intro
02:36 What Is Dysregulation?
07:02 Notice That You’re Triggered
07:35 Say “I’m Feeling Triggered”
07:51 Make Sure You’re Safe
08:39 Stamp Your Feet
09:06 Take Deep Breaths
09:47 Sit Down
09:59 Eat Protein
10:11 Wash Your Hands
10:29 Take a Cold Shower
10:53 Get a Hug
11:09 Conclusion

Check out the transcript below:

Trauma, Triggers, and Emotional Dysregulation: 10 Ways to Regulate Your Nervous System w/ Anna Runkle

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In therapy I use a combination of Acceptance and Commitment Therapy, Systems Theory, positive psychology, and a bio-psycho-social approach to treating mental illness and other challenges we all face in life. The ideas from my videos are frequently adapted from multiple sources. Many of them come from Acceptance and Commitment Therapy, especially the work of Steven Hayes, Jason Luoma, and Russ Harris. The sections on stress and the mind-body connection derive from the work of Stephen Porges (the Polyvagal theory), Peter Levine (Somatic Experiencing) Francine Shapiro (EMDR), and Bessel Van Der Kolk. I also rely heavily on the work of the Arbinger institute for my overall understanding of our ability to choose our life’s direction.
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