Stressor vs. Trigger - What Is A Trigger?

[Deleted member 12723]

I know I have alot of stressors. I used to call them triggers out of ignorance. It is stress by association. I see something and it reminds me of something unpleasant going on in my life. I am going through a transitional season in my life where I am dealing with heavy duty things. It is very hard. But it is nice to know that they are just stressors and not triggers.

I consider myself in a better position now to deal with the stressors because I can tell myself this is only a stressor. I can deal with it. I just need to deal better with the things at hand. This has been so informative.

 

[Deleted member 1860]

Can I get clarification?

I see these as triggers:

Being around drunk people. (My mom was an emotionally abusive alcoholic when I was a young child)

Sexual contact, notably when I feel rushed or pressured. (I was molested as a child.)

The smell/taste of certain foods that my molester fed me. (I throw up.)

Is this correct?

 

[EvenStrongerNow]

From how I understand it SOL, those are correctly labelled triggers. By the way, I have that too being around drunk people. It kind of sucks, doesn't it? urrrrgh

 

[HorseChick]

HISTORY: My husband has C-PTSD and we both have suffered since he started treatment about 8 yrs ago. I have sexual abuse and rape in my history. I have been diagnosed with PTSD also and it's worse since I have to deal with him. We hardly go a day without some kind of anger between us. He also misinterprets so many things that I say or do...like I'm try to hurt him, and he'll argue for hours that he's right and I have to change everything about myself to make him happy enough to want to touch me.

OK, so once in a blue moon, while we're sitting on the sofa, my husband touches the bare skin on my leg (like when I have shorts on) and I unconsciously jump and and get a horrible creepy crawly feeling at the spot he's touched me and I can't stand it. This only happens on my bare skin. Now he almost always pushes me away when I go to touch him. So I avoid being in a position where he might touch me because I'm so hurt and angry, and I don't want to get my hopes up.

I also have been raped but I only remember a flash of that.

Is his touch on my bare skin a trigger or a stressor?

 

[Shellbell]

I've identified my Church as both trigger and stressor;

Stresser - example - too many people, too much noise, fear of anxiety/panic attack (this has happened), fear of people talking to me :eek:

Trigger - example - when a certain song is played (often) that was also played at my Father's funeral - overwhelming upsetting emotions about my family and abuse :cry:

So, I do not go to Church at the moment :(

 

[HëllaBubz]

I getcha Shell, I really do.

I avoid all my previous ones like the plague.

 

[Abstract]

Hi Shellbell,

that there is no 'emotional' flashback (which is what I thought some of mine were) - it is a flashback if it recalls memory of the trauma event in any form, really helps.

I could be wrong but I believe what Anthony was saying was that the term "emotional flashback" is not valid as a flashback is a flashback in whatever form it may come. It is a re experiencing where one is inside the event from the past in one way or another.

I could be wrong but do not think he was saying the actual concept is not legitimate. Always happy to learn though!:)

I too find it very helpful to have more knowledge and am glad you are making such progress!

 

[Mercy]

I was trafficked for about 10 yrs. in many different circumstances, vacation parties, brothels, special week-ends, tortured several times. Hunting senarios where children are the prey to be shot at and were meant to die. This is hard because it happened more than once. When I hear shooting from the police practicing range for two towns and the secret service for the Clinton's, I feel fear, not terror but I disassociate. The one of us that is 'up' feels confused and spacey. But the one who left is going through a sequences of full flashbacks and even switches internally as the next cascade falls. DID makes is own internal sense. The witness/participant of similar events(child bride) will be the one who gets the flashbacks of those events.

How can I begin to sort out all this. My worst symptoms come at dusk. I start suicidal thinking and planning. Survivor guilt= I should be dead. I failed at dying. I need to join those who died when I survived, not just shooting but many others deadly events. Damaged kids can't ever go home because it would expose the organization.

 

[rainy_daze]

@Mercy: You're beginning to sort it all out just by learning how to cope better (hopefully) through the forum.

So, once you understand the terminology, then you can list your stressors and list ways of coping or fixing the situation, and you can list your triggers and list ways of coping or ways to ground yourself in reality, in the here and now?

"Trigger

A trigger is a symptomatic reaction from one of the five senses (sight, sound, touch, taste and smell) based only upon a direct connection to an actual traumatic event experienced."

There is a song that reminds me of finding out my friend was murdered. I listened to this song after she died. I literally listened to it on repeat for hours and hours. This song now, if I hear it on the radio, I feel those feelings of loss and shock. I feel like I'm back there. I think this is a trigger because I got into my boyfriend's car one day, and that was playing, and I just burst into tears and turned it off. I cried for a while. It felt like reliving the horror to an extent.

The word "murder". I'm getting a lot better at this one I think, because it's said so often in life that I just push the thoughts of my friend away. This is necessary otherwise I would never function in a conversation. Before, I would tune out of a conversation for a long time and be thinking about her and what happened. I'm learning that it's just a word.


"Stressor

A stressor is something that creates an increase in adrenaline that then triggers your internal stress response mechanism. ... A buildup of negative emotion which peaks to a response, usually anger."

My house being messy is a stressor. It doesn't overwhelm me into paralysis or transport me back to childhood or the loss of my friend. It can, however, make me angry.

A loud noise or my partner coming home and I haven't heard him and then I see him - makes me scared, and a lot of the time I scream out loud (much to his laughter and amusement!). These frights are just because I'm stressed a lot of the time, and then the cup overflows and I have a wee scream and panic until my body calms down.


I've been in therapy for a while now, but I haven't learnt about stressors or triggers - just a lot of questionnaires and a timeline is all I've been doing so far. Are they going to add these two words into the diagnostic criteria, does anyone know? Are they words used by experts in PTSD research? Are they words used by people who treat PTSD? I'm genuinely interested. I liked what Gizmo said about being able to look at things and see they are a stressor, which means you can cope/deal with them. I like that knowing the difference gives me a better sense of not letting the PTSD control me, and not letting the stressors overwhelm as well. I also like to have a plan or coping technique toolkit in my brain, and this thread has helped me begin to sort some stuff out.

 

[Katz2]

Whilst I do not engage most conversations here nowadays, I have been reading this word "trigger" get thrown about more and more over the past months, most of which I found to be completely incorrect for what a trigger actually is. It has gotten to a point where I feel members are getting way off track on what's really occurring within their own life to the point that trigger is being used so carelessly, as to what I can only construed as an excuse for their actions or an excuse to not do something that makes them anxious.

Thank you for this, cos I have been using the word trigger to something that I have been finding stressful.

 

[Marine/w/PTSD]

I didn't know what anyone meant by trigger, but it's pretty specific, thanks for educating me.

 

[rainy_daze]

In everday use, the word trigger does mean this though: Verb:Cause (an event or situation) to happen or exist. For example, My partner has lost his job and this has triggered a feeling of utter despair inside me. I just don't use the word trigger on this forum now, because it is being used as a "PTSD term" now, rather than just an everyday word - which is fine by me, don't want to confuse people with the wrong words when I type. I've still not heard my counsellor mention trigger or stressors, spending a long time doing the history of my life at the moment, maybe that stuff needs to be talked about first before the work on the identifying stressors and triggers begins. I think I could identify a lot of stressors, but not too sure about the triggers - I was thinking of a particular time when I didn't know where I was and I thought I was somewhere else and I woke from this horrible memory and it took a long time to realise I was ok and not in a bad place - but I am not sure what triggered that.

How do you identify triggers by yourself? How useful is it? Should I even try to or could that be too upsetting? Any tips from people who are doing this or have done this?