What Objects Cause Your Startle Response Triggers?

[EvenStrongerNow]

Baseballs, ambulances, signs, hats, aviator sunglasses, backpacks,

Lots more...

 

[Abstract]

Today it was my husband sneezing on the other side of the flat with doors closed inbetween. :rolleyes: And I yelled loud enough for him to come and find out what was wrong...

 

[Upside Down Eagle]

The topic is about objects, but in the other reactions I see also smell, sounds and others? :) Objects generally don't bother me. I completely hate it when they fall though, just like shoulderblades... and I do have a strange association with the shower. I tend to see it as the enemy, sometimes... which doesn't mean that I stay away from it (gotta keep clean), but I get mad at it sometimes and I tend to dislike it touching my skin. I would rather not touch it at all, maybe.

But sounds tend to do that for me more: especially car and motorbike engines... I hate them more than many other sounds and I have no clue why. But I've seen in other topics that this isn't uncommon. Other sounds I find triggering: bubbling sounds in pipelines when they are old (hate that), the radiator, this sound my mother and grandmother tend to make with their lips (I do it too sometimes...aarghh!) and the sound of people chewing or drinking something loudly...also, the sound of plastic bags and the sound of newspapers (books are fine, strangely...), the sound of high heels on hard floors and random whistling, too...

Sometimes seeing certain actions are also triggers (for anxiety), like for example when girls in the same college room are modeling their hair in a super-feminine way, and when people touch theirselves under their clothes (not neccesarily in a sexual way, but I associate it with that anyhow...). Being touched when I don't expect it is also one, or when people stand behind me, that's even worse. That happens all the time, like at the cashier in the supermarket.

_
I also have developed some things to keep me relaxed: I have been talking to photographs since I was twelve... still do it, I'm twenty-five now. First I felt incredibly ashamed about that... when I talk to a picture, I feel like they're real. Just like when I was a kid, I thought my teddybear was real. I tried to quit, too, because I thought I was running away from reality... didn't work very well. Then I figured I'm not running away from my reality but instead dealing with it. I've always thought this was a real weird treat, and I told some people in the therapy just once but it felt pretty uncomfortable to share...

 

[Marie10]

Anything resembling skeletons such as Halloween plastic ones but especially if I happen (but rarely) see a skeleton of an animal and objects dangling from the ceiling come to mind.

 

[StarChild]

Dolls with long (brown) scalp hair; When I was a little child, my mother forced me many, many times to go with her to the attic storey. There was no flat, but it had lots of compartments. In one of them she kept her belongings from her own childhood. One of these things was a handmade doll, with the long hair of her dead mother.

That means; they cut the hair off of the dead body and attached it on that doll's head. This "thing" was already about 45 years old and the once shiny hair was felted and smelled terrible. Nevertheless my mother forced me again and again with that sick "sweetish" smile of hers, to touch or even hug this monster thing! But I couldn't. My dread and abhorrence caused me to vomit.

And this was like blasphemy to her. Because she adored no, she literally worshiped the dead mother, although she never knew her personally, for her mother died when she was at the age of two. As I said, when I refused to touch or hug that doll, she got into a rage and, started beating me bad with her fist, into my face, on my head and on my back. So that terrible smell of that doll became mixed with the taste of my on blood and tears...

So I can't stand the sight of long haired dolls. They make me feeling sick and immediately I got that putrid smell in my nose! And... A few months ago, I cut off my own long hair, with hair clippers, down to 8mm... And I felt some kind of freedom and inner peace in doing so.

 

[Upside Down Eagle]

Pff :( That is some heavy stuff.
Big hug for you :hug:

 

[StarChild]

Thanks for the hug Radise. May I give you one in return? :)

 

[ninja]

Thanks for starting this thread, Springer! It's very nice to know that I'm not alone in this.

Things that startle me: the dogs barking! Door bells, knocking, being touched: anything that alerts me to the presence of another person. Toasters are bad...we recently just got a new one that makes a loud, high pitched beeping sound before it pops. :confused:

I'm not sure how to explain this one, but I'm very sensitive to the motions people make before throwing things at/slapping/hitting me? 90% of the time I'm wrong and they are simply reaching around me to grab their cup or something...and I'm just, y'know, on the floor hanging out in the fetal position. :ninja:

 

[Abstract]

very sensitive to the motions people make before throwing things at/slapping/hitting me? 90% of the time I'm wrong

I do this in therapy Ninja! T says something and there I am either frozen with hands and arms up in from defending me or something similar. :O_o:

 

[Springer80]

You know the more I hear about noise and movement the more I'm sure it's something to do with he way we experience 'poential energy' ie. pressure.

The poster who said about balloons....she knows what a balloon pop sounds like, she can see the person popping the balloon but she can't stop her reaction.

Most of the noises ha trigger us are sudden and of a certain pitch, they're shrill but they are also the quick sharp release of sound which has built up.

 

[Jlso111187]

When a person puts their hand by my neck even if it is just to pat me on my shoulder. I freak out every time no matter who it is.

 

[Cat Herder]

I don't have objects or sounds. It's people coming up to me too quickly, people talking too loudly at me, people being too aggressive, even if they are being friendly (hard to explain, but when people are being nice, have good intentions, but do it in an aggressive manner).