People are always surprised that I don’t like cheesecake, because generally I love all things sweet! But Cheesecake is the one sweet thing, that I won’t even entertain.

When I was about 5 years old, I was forced (I don’t mean physically – I mean pressured by an adult) to eat cheesecake, as part of my school dinner, and school dinners in the 80s, weren’t good! So, I strongly suspect it wasn’t a great representation of cheesecake. (Having never eaten it since, I’m actually not 100% sure). Following the eating of the cheesecake, there was vomiting, by me.

And so, developing a trauma response, to cheesecake, to the point that I recently tried it, and felt like I was going to heave, so gave up after one spoonful.

And this is just a silly (but true) story about cheesecake, imagine the big stuff, the triggers we have from memories of really difficult life events. Imagine how difficult it can be to have a smell, taste, sound, touch or visual that reminds us of something really difficult, painful, or traumatic.

A trigger is a stimuli or situation that evokes strong emotional reactions, often linked to past experiences or emotional sensitivities. I’ll talk more about tips for handling triggers later in the week.