Triggers

[Joan]

Not sure if this is appropriate place to post this or not, so if not please move to "right" place.

I am not sure if I am just being sensitive...I am a victim of violence at gun point....so I am offended when someone's profile picture includes a gun. I know that is their freedom of speech, but I know that I am not the only person on here that is triggered by this. Not sure what I am hoping for, guess I just felt the need to express my feeling.

 

[Friday]

Yup. Triggers abound. A silly one; I can't stand the word vet. Veteran. Makes me snarl and want to bite someone. I've gotten better with the printed version of it. Still get a very visceral reaction verbally. I try to use it more. Try to read it more. It helps.

Have you read this thread?

https://www.myptsd.com/threads/reading-forum-increases-symptoms.13886/

 

[Deleted member 1860]

Sadly, the only thing you can do is block that person so you can't see their avatar. I had to do that before when someone had a Penn State logo as their avatar and I felt it was extremely insensitive given it was during the scandal. It really did trigger me. (And I'm a childhood sexual abuse survivor).

 

[darrenS]

i was going to respond earlier but had to change my avatar as it had a gun image from our fundraising campaign. As much as i had the pic of the gun, i can certainly relate to how you feel, ive had a few gun experiences and strangely i dont get triggered by seeing them , but do get triggered when i hear talk about gun rights and freedom and so forth, or from people who think carrying or having close access to a gun will save them from every evil on the planet.

 

[Deleted member 28812]

Yup. Triggers abound. A silly one; I can't stand the word vet. Veteran. Makes me snarl and want to bite someone.

I am sorry. I did not know that. Do you want us to use another word?

 

[Friday]

I am sorry. I did not know that. Do you want us to use another word?

<grin> Nope!

In fact, I prefer people continue to use it. Here & in real life. The whole point in my learning to manage my triggers & stressors is my exposing myself to them. That's part of what this site is. If I'm having difficulty, I don't read for a little while, or read something else. Or I keep reading. Learn to work around it. It's good for me. And it's also my responsibility; to learn to manage my own self.

It's a little different when you live with someone. Accidental triggers & stressors happen all the time, so avoiding the known ones that hit hard is generally a good thing. I've got a friend who knows this is a light stressor for me. It's not a hard one. Not anymore. Last year? Last year it was a hard one. I had to approach it very carefully. On my own terms, and be prepared for a lot of kickback emotionally. Months of reading/ writing/ talking/ listening... Have blunted it. Makes me blink fast, or snarl (or not react at all if I've been using it a lot). He teases me with it sometimes when we're talking and he sees me react. :) It's a good thing. Helps me, and he knows it. But we also have boundaries. If I tell him to knock it off? He stops. And we have words that live in the bin. That don't get used, period, because they hurt. But that's also part of the difference between here & in real life. Here, I can simply stop reading for a little bit. In real life I need to ask someone to stop, or to help, or I need to moderate myself more. There's more personal responsibility needed, and less control at hand, in real life. It's easier here. Good practice for real life.

 

[Deleted member 28812]

Okay. Vet, vet, vet, vet, vet, vet, vet, vet, vet, vet, vet, vet, vet, vet, vet, vet, vet, vet, vet,vet, vet, vet, vet, vet, vet, vet, vet, vet, vet, vet, vet, vet, vet, vet, vet, vet, vet, vet, vet, vet, vet, vet, vet,vet, vet, vet, vet, vet, vet, vet, vet, vet, vet, vet, vet, vet, vet, vet, vet, vet, vet, vet, vet, vet, vet, vet, vet, vet, vet, vet,vet, vet, vet, vet, vet, vet, vet, vet, vet, vet, vet, vet, vet, vet, vet, vet, vet, vet, vet, vet, vet, vet, vet, vet, vet, vet, vet, vet, vet, vet, vet, vet, vet, vet, vet, vet,vet, vet, vet, vet, vet, vet, vet, vet, vet, vet, vet, vet, vet, vet, vet, vet, vet, vet, vet, vet, vet, vet, vet, vet, vet, vet, vet,vet, vet, vet, vet, vet, vet, vet, vet, vet, vet, vet, vet, vet, vet, vet, vet, vet, vet, vet, vet, vet, vet, vet, vet, vet, vet, vet, vet, vet,vet, vet, vet, vet, vet, vet, vet, vet, vet, vet, vet, vet, vet, vet, vet, vet, vet, vet, vet, vet, vet, vet, vet, vet, vet, vet, vet,vet, vet, vet, vet, vet, vet, vet, vet, vet, vet, vet, vet, vet, vet, vet, vet, vet, vet, vet, vet, vet, vet, vet, vet, vet, vet, vet,vet, vet, vet, vet, vet, vet, vet, vet, vet, vet, vet, vet, vet, vet, vet, vet, vet, vet, vet, vet, vet, vet, vet, vet, vet, vet, vet,vet, vet, vet, vet, vet, vet, vet, vet, vet, vet, vet, vet, vet, vet, vet, vet, vet, vet, vet, vet, vet, vet, vet, vet, vet, vet, vet,vet, vet, vet, vet, vet, vet, vet, vet, vet, vet, vet, vet, vet, vet, vet, vet, vet, vet, vet, vet, vet, vet, vet, vet, vet, vet, vet,vet, vet, vet, vet, vet, vet, vet, vet, vet, vet, vet, vet, vet, vet, vet, vet, vet, vet, vet, vet, vet, vet, vet, vet, vet, vet, vet, vet, vet, vet, vet, vet, vet, vet, vet, vet, vet, vet, vet, vet, vet, vet, vet, vet, vet, vet,vet, vet, vet, vet, vet, vet, vet, vet, vet, vet, vet, vet, vet, vet, vet, vet, vet, vet, vet, vet, vet, vet, vet, vet, vet, vet, vet, vet, vet, vet,vet, vet, vet, vet, vet, vet, vet, vet, vet, vet, vet, vet, vet, vet, vet, vet, vet, vet, vet, vet, vet, vet.

I thought I'd help a bit with your exposure.

 

[Friday]

Okay. Vet, vet, vet, ....,.
I thought I'd help a bit with your exposure.

:roflmao: Cheers.

 

[Ronin]

@Lemontree, dang it. I went all 'is this a test is there some message, am I missing some brilliant code' on it and then hoped what's going on's a stereogram for some fun. Nope. Nothing. There should be at least a lollipop for the v-wallpaper, and all the poor, confused souls that'll stare into it for the same half a minute I did. Dang reading threads from the bottom up, that too. :cool::D

 

[Anarchy]

@Joan
a question for you to puzzle over

does the category; "weapon", exist anywhere outside of a human mind?

 

[Ed Norton]

My psychologist says that avoidance of triggers is what makes PTSD nonfunctional/dysfunctional.
Although I think that it's much easier said than done.

 

[Healing1129]

Aboslutely. Sometimes you just don't want to deal with the reactions that come with the trigger. I feel that especially when I am already emotionally drained and therefore, have little tolerance for facing these things.

Also, I can definitely relate to certain words being triggers for me. It's annoying.

It's interesting with the topic of "vet" as a trigger because there was a guest speaker in our lecture who was a Vietnam vet and PTSD sufferer. Even though my trauma was completely different, I was still triggered when he started talking about his experiences. What makes it worse is that my reaction to the trigger came the day after (today). I was irritable and depressed, which is a red flag for me and I try to go back to trace the trigger. It's annoying as hell. I'd rather go through the reactions right then and there than have it come unexpectedly the next day because I don't know if I will react or not.

Therapist says that it's progress if my reactions are delayed, but it's harder in some ways, as I described. Does that happen to anyone?