Over on her blog, Julie gave some good advice about Keeping A Behavior Log if you are parenting a traumatized adopted child. She wisely pointed out that the traumatized child often does not even know why he is acting the way he does when he is triggered. Because I have spent most of my life experiencing triggers without knowing the cause, I thought I would write about this phenomenon from the traumatized child's perspective.

A trigger is anything that elicits an emotional reaction from the traumatized child. While it appears that the child is overreacting to a stimulus, he really isn't. Instead, he is reacting appropriately to something traumatic that he experienced but has not yet dealt with. Because you, as the adoptive parent, do not know what that trigger or experience is, it appears that your child is overreacting and just being difficult.

For example, I absolutely cannot stand to get dirt in my fingernails.