如何永远不再被“触发”情绪雷区：英语精读讲义

The concept of being triggered,

被触发（情绪崩溃）的概念，

though it may at times be overused, 語法

虽然有时可能被滥用，

sits on top of a hugely important concept in psychological life,

但它建立在心理生活中一个极其重要的概念之上，

which demands our respect, compassion, and attention.

这需要我们的尊重、同情和关注。

To be triggered is, 語法

被触发，

in its most basic form,

在其最基本的形式上，

to respond with intense fear and anger

是以强烈的恐惧和愤怒去回应

to a situation in the here and now, 習語

此时此地发生的情况，

which to other people may seem blameless and unconcerning.

而这些情况在别人看来可能毫无问题、毫不相干。

One moment we are calm, 表達脈絡

前一刻我们还很平静，

the next we're catapulted into despair and terror. 習語

下一刻就被抛入绝望和恐惧之中。

Only minutes ago,

仅仅几分钟前，

the future looked hopeful.

未来看起来还充满希望。

Now, only ruin and disaster seem to lie ahead. 短語動詞

现在，似乎只有毁灭和灾难在前方等待。

Most of us who suffer from these episodes

我们大多数经历过这些发作的人

would very much like to better hold on to calm and hope. 短語動詞

都非常希望能更好地保持平静和希望。

It may be important to know how to be scared or angry

知道如何感到害怕或愤怒可能是重要的，

when situations actually demand it.

当情况确实需要我们如此时。

But, the triggered person typically feels after an episode,

但是，被触发的人在发作后通常会觉得，

it's also deeply counterproductive and just plain exhausting 用詞

这也是极其适得其反且纯粹让人筋疲力尽的：

to be visited by powerful emotions 習語

被强烈的情绪所侵袭，

that aren't warranted by what lies before us 用詞

而眼前的情况并不足以引发这些情绪，

and that fail to advance our interests in any way. 短語搭配

并且这些情绪无法以任何方式促进我们的利益。

The way out of being uncontrollably triggered

摆脱失控触发的方法

is to understand how the mechanism operates.

是理解这种机制是如何运作的。

The mind is triggered

大脑被触发，

when it believes that it recognizes in the world around it

是当它认为自己在周围世界中识别出了

a situation that it feels, from memory,

一个根据记忆让它觉得

is going to be highly damaging and dangerous.

将会具有高度破坏性和危险性的情况。

Our triggers are a secret guide to our own private histories. 習語

我们的触发点是我们自身私人历史的秘密指南。

They tell us about things

它们告诉我们

that we were once very afraid of.

那些我们曾经非常害怕的事情。

The triggering element 表達脈絡

触发因素

is like a piece of a jigsaw

就像一块拼图，

that will precisely fit into an analogous puzzle in the past.

它能精确地嵌入过去的一个类似拼图中。

We are triggered now 表達脈絡

我们现在被触发，

by what we were devastated by then.

是因为我们曾经被它击溃过。

Even if we don't remember too much about our past, 語法

即使我们对自己的过去记忆模糊，

we can guess everything we need to know

也可以猜出我们需要知道的一切，

from reverse engineering our triggers. 習語

通过对我们的触发点进行逆向工程。

If we're constantly afraid we're going to be excommunicated and mocked,

如果我们总是害怕会被排斥和嘲笑，

this will in some form be exactly what happened to us at some stage long ago.

那么在某种程度上，这正是很久以前某个阶段发生在我们身上的事。

If we're terrified that someone is going to overpower us

如果我们害怕有人会制服我们

and not listen to our no's, 語氣意圖

并且不听我们的拒绝，

this is an almost sure echo of what we once experienced.

这几乎肯定是我们曾经经历过的回音。

The precise relationship between trigger and catalytic event

触发点和催化事件之间的精确关系

may not always be literally equivalent.

可能并不总是字面上的对等。

There can be some displacement along the way. 用詞

在此过程中可能会有一些位移。

But,

但是，

the link will be strong all the same. 短語搭配

这种联系依然会很强烈。

The trigger contains and maps onto a traumatic event. 短語動詞

触发点包含并映射了一个创伤性事件。

Let's imagine a person who is triggered,

让我们想象一个被触发的人，

that is, thrown into powerful despair and self-loathing by images on social media

也就是说，被社交媒体上的图像陷入了强烈的绝望和自我厌恶之中，

of blatantly attractive and popular people.

那些图像上是公认的有魅力且受欢迎的人。

No sooner have they seen these 語法

他们一看到这些，

than they start to doubt and despise themselves,

就开始怀疑和鄙视自己，

reflect on their inadequacies,

反思自己的不足，

and remember all the reasons why they are fated to be a failure and unloved.

并想起所有他们注定要成为失败者和不被爱的理由。

The trigger is not entirely nothing. 語法

触发点并不完全是空穴来风。

There is something a little bit dispiriting

确实有一些让人气馁的东西，

about the beauty parade on certain sorts of social media. 習語

在某些社交媒体上的选美狂欢中。

But,

但是，

the point at issue 短語搭配

问题的关键在于

is the scale of the reaction that is generated.

产生的反应的规模。

In seeking to account for it, 短語動詞

在试图解释这种反应时，

we've got to look backwards.

我们必须向后看。

The person has been triggered

这个人之所以被触发，

because the contemporary event contains, in a garbled, disguised, and unconscious form,

是因为当前的事件以一种混乱、伪装和无意识的形式，

the essence of a profoundly traumatic dynamic in earlier life,

包含了早年生活中极其深刻的创伤动态的本质，

which lies mostly unknown and unexplored,

而这些动态大多不为人知也未被探索，

and thereby commands immense and unending power over the victim. 短語搭配

从而对受害者掌握着巨大且无尽的力量。

Let's suppose that this person had a mother

假设这个人有一个母亲，

who favored their more ebullient younger sibling over them, 短語搭配

偏爱他们更开朗的弟弟妹妹而不是他们，

and that their looks were part of what damned them to horrible neglect and emotional coldness.

并且他们的长相部分导致了他们遭到可怕的忽视和情感上的冷漠。

It doesn't, 語法

并不需要，

in the circumstances,

在这种情况下，

take much to be returned back to this bleak place.

费太大力气就会被带回这个荒凉的地方。

We are animals who are primed to sniff out in the present 講解

我们是一种动物，时刻准备着在现在嗅出

the slightest sign of the dangers of the past.

过去危险的哪怕最微小的迹象。

The tragedy of triggering 表達脈絡

触发的悲剧在于，

is that it fails to notice the differences between then and now,

它没有注意到过去和现在的区别，

between the awfulness we suffered long ago

那些我们很久以前遭受的可怕经历

and the relative innocence of the modern moment.

与现在这一刻相对的无害之间的区别。

In so far as bad things do happen nowadays, 表達脈絡

尽管现在确实也会发生不好的事情，

triggering also fails to account for the way in which we're no longer children

但触发也忽略了我们不再是孩子的事实，

and are therefore able to respond to the threats that do come our way with a lot more creativity, 習語

因此，对于我们遇到的威胁，我们能够以更多的创造力、

strength, and calm

力量和平静来应对，

than we possessed as 4 or 10-year-olds.

远胜于我们四岁或十岁时所拥有的。

Were things ever to get as bad as they once were, 語法

即便事情变得和以前一样糟，

we have so many more options than we did,

我们也拥有比过去多得多的选择，

and therefore so many reasons to feel less agitated and vulnerable.

因此，我们有太多理由不那么焦躁和脆弱。

To be triggered is to lose our powers of discrimination. 用詞

被触发就是失去了我们的辨别能力。

In the heat of the moment, 習語

在情绪激动的时刻，

we can no longer distinguish between A and B.

我们再也无法区分A和B。

So frightening is A that everything between it and Q is at heart another A. 語法

A是如此可怕，以至于A和Q之间的一切，本质上都是另一个A。

We can't tell that someone is not telling us that we're guilty,

我们无法分辨出别人并没有说我们有罪，

that the situation isn't evidence of doom,

这种情况并非末日的证据，

that we're not being mocked,

我们没有被嘲笑，

that our colleague isn't attacking us,

我们的同事并没有攻击我们，

that we aren't being reprimanded unbearably,

我们并没有受到难以忍受的斥责，

that we haven't been told we're an idiot or a monster.

也没有人说我们是白痴或怪物。

We can't distinguish between looking a bit tired 短語搭配

我们无法区分看起来有点累

and looking fundamentally unacceptable,

和看起来根本让人无法接受，

between something they've done that got them sent to prison 語法

无法区分他们做了一些被送进监狱的事

and something that we've done that won't ever be noticed.

和我们做了一些永远不会被注意到的事。

So primed has our history made us to appalling scenarios,

我们的历史让我们对可怕的场景如此敏感，

we have no ability not to refind them at every turn,

以至于我们在每个转角都无法不重新发现它们，

especially when we're a bit low or a bit tired. 用詞

尤其是当我们情绪低落或有点疲惫时。

Though we might assume that we'd want to escape our triggers,

虽然我们可能认为自己想要逃离触发点，

we are also often drawn to them 短語搭配

但我们经常被它们吸引，

through a compulsive sense of familiarity.

出于一种强迫性的熟悉感。

Calm and confidence aren't our resting places. 習語

平静和自信并不是我们栖息的地方。

They don't feel normal

它们让人感觉不正常，

and are therefore worrying in their own way.

因此以它们自己的方式让人担忧。

We want our awful hunches confirmed.

我们希望自己可怕的预感得到证实。

It can feel right to put ourselves in environments

把自己置身于以下环境中会感觉很对味：

where people might be mocking,

在那里人们可能会嘲笑别人，

to look out for stories of disgrace or ruin, 短語動詞

去寻找耻辱或毁灭的故事，

or to befriend people who are constantly on the edge of harming us.

或结交那些经常处于伤害我们边缘的人。

The cure for triggering

治疗触发的良药

is love.

是爱。

Love understood as a process of patiently holding someone 表達脈絡

将爱理解为一种耐心地拥抱某人的过程，

and,

并且，

like a kindly and soothing parent,

就像一位慈爱且安抚人心的父母一样，

helping them to discriminate between black and white,

帮助他们区分黑与白、

terror and calm,

恐惧与平静、

evil and goodness.

邪恶与善良。

The cure lies, too, in learning how to work backwards from our current triggers 短語搭配

治疗还在于学习如何从当前的触发点倒推，

to understanding the dynamics that once created them.

去理解曾经造成它们的动态机制。

Rather than worrying yet again about the future, 語法

我们不应再次担忧未来，

we should ask ourselves a simple question:

而是应该问自己一个简单的问题：

What does my fear of what will happen 表達脈絡

我对将会发生的事情的恐惧

tell me about what did happen?

告诉了我关于曾经发生过什么事情？

What scenario from my past

我过去的什么场景

is contained in my alarm at the future?

包含在我对未来的警觉中？

To overcome our triggers

克服我们的触发点，

is to come to navigate the present

就是学会在当下导航，

with all the confidence and excited curiosity

带着所有的自信和兴奋的好奇心，

that should have been ours from the start. 語法

那本来从一开始就应该属于我们。

And maturity could be defined as knowing what triggers us and why,

而成熟可以定义为知道是什么触发了我们以及为什么，

and a commitment to dampening our first responses 短語搭配

并致力于抑制我们的第一反应，

in the name of a patient exploration 習語

以耐心探索的名义，

and understanding of our own histories.

去理解我们自己的历史。