Triggers

[Jimmy1]

combatgoldfish started an interesting thread in the members only section, thanks mate, and it brought about a good response so I thought I would start the thread here and amplify a few points.

trig·ger
/ˈtrigər/

Noun
A small device that releases a spring or catch and so sets off a mechanism, esp. in order to fire a gun.

Verb
Cause (an event or situation) to happen or exist.

Synonyms
touch off

Now when it comes to PTSD, and psych's talk triggers, they are usually talking about what sets off a disassociative episode, or what sets off an intrusive thought.

We talk about triggers being something that makes our blood boil, or get's us on edge, but you know what, most of those things like large crowds, lousy drivers etc, on a good day may not affect us.

Now getting back to what the psych's talk about, I am sure with each one of you on here, there is something attached to the senses, like smell, sight, sound etc, that will take us right back to one of our nightmares (trauma), something like the smell of burnt flesh, blood, a series of gunshots.
The burnt flesh might be on an afternoon, the sun shining, all the elements right, the gunshots might be in a certain order.
You have heard stories of veterans returning to normal, living with the beast, things are going fine until one day they go right off the rails and lose it. Later on down the track when they are questions, it could be something small, meaning nothing to you or I, but in the right circumstances this triggers the person to go into a flat spin.

Anyway, that is my mindless waffle for the day. Hope I made sense.

Cheers

 

[Ned]

Makes a lot of sense, pattern recognition especially. It's a bit like crypto, the event is safely locked away and encoded until a very specific sequence releases it.
Two examples:
a) I shoot, and the sound of a rifle or shotgun doesn't bother me in the slightest. But the nasty little 'Tap Tap' of a pistol, that'll do it every time.
b) Thunder, artillery, firepower demo's, no problem. But anything that sounds like an IED, trouble. Last year a house about 500m had a gas explosion. Sounded exactly like a kilo or so of PE in that environment. Sad thing is I guessed the range and power exactly right.
Too much time in Northern Ireland I suppose.

 

[Sludge]

combatgoldfish started an interesting thread in the members only section, thanks mate, and it brought about a good response so I thought I would start the thread here and amplify a few points.

trig·ger
/ˈtrigər/

Noun
A small device that releases a spring or catch and so sets off a mechanism, esp. in order to fire a gun.

Verb
Cause (an event or situation) to happen or exist.

Synonyms
touch off

Now when it comes to PTSD, and psych's talk triggers, they are usually talking about what sets off a disassociative episode, or what sets off an intrusive thought.

We talk about triggers being something that makes our blood boil, or get's us on edge, but you know what, most of those things like large crowds, lousy drivers etc, on a good day may not affect us.

Now getting back to what the psych's talk about, I am sure with each one of you on here, there is something attached to the senses, like smell, sight, sound etc, that will take us right back to one of our nightmares (trauma), something like the smell of burnt flesh, blood, a series of gunshots.
The burnt flesh might be on an afternoon, the sun shining, all the elements right, the gunshots might be in a certain order.
You have heard stories of veterans returning to normal, living with the beast, things are going fine until one day they go right off the rails and lose it. Later on down the track when they are questions, it could be something small, meaning nothing to you or I, but in the right circumstances this triggers the person to go into a flat spin.

Anyway, that is my mindless waffle for the day. Hope I made sense.

Cheers

For me, Fireworks and gunfire from the base range set me off, yet when I am at the range or shooting the fireworks myself I have no problem.

My triggers are thunder and lightning, though I have gotten much better at this. Low Flying Helos, and being in water deeper than I can stand up in. Note I stated "in" and not "on". I can do boats and bridges now, but only in the last few years.

The really dangerous triggers for me are complete silence and folks entering my personal space from behind with no warning or me noticing. Either of those happens and it can take me days to get back down to acceptable social interaction levels.

 

[Jimmy1]

So I will ask you both this question. What does those particular instances trigger?

To give you an example and Spock can back me up here. There is a certain type of sewerage smell, not all sewerage, but if I get a particular smell, I am basically taken straight back to the dingy backstreets of Baghdad, every time.

And not so long back I was in the emergency department of the hospital when they brought in a burns victim, the smell alone I thought I was going to flip out, I thought I was on the checkpoint at 86 CSH when the Humvee came in with the US soldier in the back burnt to a crisp.

Need to go chill out now and ground myself. Talk more later.

 

[Spock]

Oh yeah that is gonna run me off for awhile too...bleeechhk.

 

[BaMuoiBa]

The really dangerous triggers for me are complete silence and folks entering my personal space from behind with no warning or me noticing. Either of those happens and it can take me days to get back down to acceptable social interaction levels

Yup Sludge, although it takes less time to return to normal (whatever that is), crowds are an issue for me forever.

I did something really stupid the beginning of this month - family talked me into a trip to Disney. I can usually handle large events at DEF-CON 2 but this took me off the charts. Between the heat and humidly and the throngs of people it was not long before I was at DEF-CON 4. My head went right back of the land of beatlenut beauties. It got so bad I ended up finding a men's room and holding up in a stall for about 30 minutes. I went on complete overload - strange languages, too many faces to catalog, behind me, in front of me, had to find cover in a hurry. Frankly, I never thought that the familiar sound of running water and hand blow driers could ever be so soothing. :(

I got through that episode without with a little "adapt, improvise and overcome". Once I got back to DEF-CON 2 I learned that the edge of the crowd was more comfortable at least my back was either a wall or open space. That was the good news - the bad news was I still had two more days in the mouse house. :mad: My wife knew something was up with me but was afraid to ask but recognized my change in tactics and let it go at that. I managed to get through it and we both agreed that Mr. Disney would be hard pressed to see us again in his park.

Semper Fi, Walt Disney, I got your number! NEVER AGAIN! :D

 

[Fargo1]

Ba,

A bit of trivia that you may or may not know...

The Project Manager and General Manager of Disney World was retired Admiral Joe Fowler... A veteran of WWI and WWII. I can only wonder how much of his experiences are ingrained into the design of that place....

 

[Ned]

So I will ask you both this question. What does those particular instances trigger?

Well I wasn't sure you were after such detail but if that's the format you want:

Pistol 'tap tap' - I've seen pistol work and held on to one poor lad while he breathed his last from it. Grim. The sound always kick-starts the feelings of anger, vengeance and revulsion. I suppose that's why Woolwich got to me so much, some bastard with 'politics' thinks he can do stuff like that.

Explosion where it shouldn't be - Like I said, five years in N.I. I got very afraid of IEDs and I don't mind admitting it. In a built-up area they make a very distinct 'Ba-bam' with the building echoes and the rattle of windows. Gas explosion put me right back in 'f*ck where's the next one' mode. Silly but I was quite proud of myself that I got the range and power correct. November 5th can be a problem.

Urban warfare has given me a particular set of problems. What many would consider a 'normal' environment is my battleground.

 

[Fargo1]

Edgewater Smells — The particular smell of riparian areas (river edges, ocean tidal zones). Not every time, but occasionally it has a smell of vegetable rot, dead animals, etc. mixed with human sewage. That sends me back, sometimes to South America, sometimes to the sandbox. It fills me with fear, adrenaline, and anger. My heart rate goes straight to 130 bpm, my hands start shaking, and I've been told that my face turns as cold and hard as granite.

Loud sounds, explosions, and gun shots — Loud sounds just put me on edge, heightened alert. Gunshots don't bother me unless they are pretty close by.

Early this summer I was driving with a friend down a city street at about 6 am, suddenly a power pole transformer exploded. She screamed and started slowing down. I yelled, "Get down! Don't stop!" At that moment I was completely back up shit creek, without a paddle (a weapon). I immediately check the surroundings and I can still remember the scene. At 3 o'clock there was a guy waiting to cross the street staring up in the air. At 10 o'clock there were two guys at an old Monte Carlo, they were crouched and looking around. At 11 o'clock on a power pole was the wreckage of the transformer, smoking and sparking... Jesus, I am surprised that my skeleton was still in my skin. Other than my cross country bus ride, I still haven't been in a car since. My heart is racing just thinking about it.

A couple of years ago, I was sitting at home on a Friday night with my then girlfriend when I heard three 9mm shots in quick succession coming from my next door neighbor's house. I jumped up, grabbed a knife from the kitchen and a 3-D cell maglite that I have in every room (Ideal for home defense), told my GF to call 911 and ran out the door. I then proceeded to stalk through the yards and found cover behind a tree. I heard some low talking around the side of the house, so I yelled out, "Stand forward and identify yourself!"

Silence for a couple of seconds. Then a voice yelled out, "Police officer." To which I replied, "I am armed. Step out so I can see you." Two officers stepped out with their weapons holstered and told me that their was a deer caught up in the fence and they had to put it down... Are you f*cking kidding me? I am standing there in my boxers, T-shirt, with a maglite in one hand, a large knife in the other, adrenal fluid squirting out of my tear ducts like a lawn sprinkler and ready to bring the pain. When I came out from behind the tree, they just looked at me. I was pouring with sweat. I told them that they scared the shit out of me. We discussed the fact that I "should" have called the police. I told them that if they had been Bad Guys, it would have taken them at least 10-15 minutes to get here... They asked me (not told me) to go back home. Didn't even check my ID... weird. I think it took me a month to come down from that one.

I need to get out of a marginal neighborhood of a Big City.

 

[Sarg]

Lightening. Been (thankfully) a good wet monsoon this year but with the storms some real boomers. Arizona humidity is very low and it makes for a lightening bolt, blue-white, jagged and a crack louder than a cannon shot. There were two tourists killed just recently from lightening. You can feel the static in the air and if you hear a loud buzz...cover, it's close.

Wife and I were sitting on a couch in front of a picture window, lightening hit something outside on the window, went in between us and hit a tv across the room. Scary stuff. Jump out of my skin like someone else said.

Sarg

 

[Sludge]

So I will ask you both this question. What does those particular instances trigger?

To give you an example and Spock can back me up here. There is a certain type of sewerage smell, not all sewerage, but if I get a particular smell, I am basically taken straight back to the dingy backstreets of Baghdad, every time.

And not so long back I was in the emergency department of the hospital when they brought in a burns victim, the smell alone I thought I was going to flip out, I thought I was on the checkpoint at 86 CSH when the Humvee came in with the US soldier in the back burnt to a crisp.

Need to go chill out now and ground myself. Talk more later.

For me, the triggers put me in hardcore panic type anxiety attacks...to which I react to with fear induced anger and uncontrollable,illogical ranting rages. Or worse, I have absence seizure type moments where I lose time and either appear to pass out or get stuck in behavior loop. Thankfully the latter, more severe reactions are rare for me these days, but I have to make exhausting, conscious efforts to keep the former in check.

Where do I (as in where is my head at) go? I dunno. I rarely have memory of my episodes I get so worked up. I used to come too on the floor or the curb, or in the woods, or some other odd place with no clue how I got there other than the knowledge I must have had a veteran moment. My family and friends have observed me doing everything from trying to hide in cupboards and closets to "prowling about" with a mildly deranged look in my eyes.

The good news is, even at my most angry, panicked modes I am not physically violent or abusive to anyone, however I have found a few broken doors and holed drywall that seems to me to just appear out of nowhere.

I spent the last few years doing anger management, which didn't work for me- it just pissed me off more, and numerous other methods. (See my other posts around these forums for details)


Hang in there. It takes time, but one can learn to bring the beast into submission if one is willing to work at it. It ain't easy, and it sucks ass most of the time, but it can be done.

 

[Afghanmadman52nd]

- Hearing the words "Allahu Akbar.....
- Hearing people speak Pashto/Dari/Arabic
- Hearing Muslim calls to prayer
- Seeing Hadji's with prayer caps on
- Hearing helicopters close overhead
- Hearing fireworks/ anything that resembles gunfire or an explosion...
- The smell of copper reminds me of large amounts of blood
- Being in direct heat for more than about fifteen minutes
- The smell of burning skin/hair/clothing
- Loud car or other doors slamming
- Bright flashes of light (strobes etc..)
- Flares
- When someone yells or gets aggressive with me
- People cutting me off in traffic/blowing horns
- Crowds of greater than ten or so
- Being grabbed or touched on my back when unexpected
- The smell of gunpowder, etc.. when Im not at the range
- The smell of burning tires, vomit, diesel fuel.

Spc. Dave