A Question From My Husband

[anthony]

So when something happens that triggers PTSD that unresolved issue surfaces as if it is happening again

You can't trigger PTSD... PTSD is a diagnosis that comprises a whole bunch of symptoms / outcomes.

Trigger

In psychology, an event activates one of your five senses which causes a response. That event is called the trigger to obtain x response.

Trigger ends there.

In short, we often cut out the sense and simply say, x triggered y response.

You can often break a trigger down into lots of variable triggers within itself, to be more specific about dealing with the overall reaction.

 

[Fadeaway]

I am supposed to be tearing down my computer so we can load it up and go, (moving today for those who didn't know) but i had to check this site one more time before I left.

@Recovery4Me That is so beautiful, I want that on my wall in my new place.

@anthony, that has to be so frustrating explaining that over and over again.

You can't trigger PTSD

Even though I know this, I am in such a bad habit of saying "my ptsd got triggered" when speaking to my husband.

The answers here have been so helpful. I feel like I finally have a plan and goal for a method to help ground me that would work for me.

 

[Recovery4Me]

@Fadeaway Good luck with your move!:hug:

 

[anthony]

Yup... some things do become tedious!

 

[NarcSis]

Best of luck with the move!

I'm not exactly weighing in because I think Anthony covered it all pretty well there - and yes, humans do need things spelled out for them repeatedly, now don't they, gotta love the brain and it's tendency to supplant other information in place of what we thought we already learned.

Anyway, I read a blog post where the author was upset about over use of the word "trigger" that's now occurring in general society and people claiming because they're "triggered" that they must have PTSD. I reiterate, PTSD is a disorder which runs a gamut of symptoms, which cannot all be "triggered" at one time.

On a weapon (sorry if this is triggering to some) you pull a "trigger" and the reaction is the release of a firing pin and subsequent release of a bullet - I'm sure it's way more complex than that but this can demonstrate use of the word trigger. Something when activated causes a reaction/response. Plain and simple. The term has been used in general society for some time but it's use was never really popular, until the advent of its association with PTSD.

Anyone anywhere can be triggered to something, it is not exclusive to PTSD, it's merely a tool that helps us understand the nature of the reaction we're experiencing. This is why my therapist made it a point to demonstrate that there are different types of triggers and they're not exclusive to PTSD. A trigger to anger is something that makes you feel instantaneously angry - its an "emotion trigger". A trigger to trauma is something that makes you feel afraid/panic/anxious and starts the physiological reaction to the stimuli, be it auditory, visual, scent or taste.

In this way, yes, you can "trigger" to positive feelings and memories. I like to purposely seek out these positive emotional triggers because they are actually good at helping me cope from day to day.

A trigger is not exclusive to PTSD but the concept is used widely in treatment as an easy way to help us understand what we're going through.

 

[Lucycat]

I think there is a difference in triggering PTSD and general triggers.

You can't trigger PTSD... PTSD is a diagnosis that comprises a whole bunch of symptoms / outcomes.

I do apologise. I got this totally wrong. What I really meant was about the difference in triggering an emotional reaction in a person who has PTSD, and triggering an emotional reaction in a person who does not have PTSD. I was lazy in my reply.

 

[user27357]

This idea, that a comparatively small positive occurrence can bring about a much larger positive reaction, is one of the tools I use to explain PTSD to the few people I try to explain it to. It helps if I can get them to wrap their heads around the positive triggers that most of us experience.

If a person can agree that a song on the radio can bring about a whole summers worth of memories, a faint smell can bring the memories of a place and time to your mind, the feel of a pair of warm socks or a cool glass in your hand or the way a sweater pulls over your head or the way a puppy nuzzles your neck, if it is accepted that having these small positive triggers and large positive responses is a part of the human experience, it is just a short jump to accepting that small negative reminders can bring on large negative responses.

If I went into a happy time every time I smelled cookies baking I might be addicted to having cookies baking. It doesn't always happen even when I want it to, and I can't always stop it when it does happen. Accepting that idea is beyond some peoples ability to understand PTSD (if that is even possible).

These triggers, positive and negative, seem to work best when I am open to them. When I have time to think about them, when the response can expand without any effect outside my control, when I choose to let them go the responses can become very large and seem very real. And there are times when I struggle to stop them and it only results in a more amazingly disproportionate response. Trying to stop a response requires thinking about the response and we all know what happens when we try to stop thinking about purple elephants, right?


I never want a negative response to happen and sometimes it does in a big way no matter what I do to try to stop it, and I would always enjoy spending some time in my grandmothers kitchen with her but I don't get to every time I smell fresh cookies baking.

 

[greenleaf]

Hi @Fadeaway -- I'll try to avoid any technical terms because I probably often use them a bit flexibly; I agree it's important in a forum like this with loads of diverse readers to be precise with those.

One thing that I've noticed in myself that might or might not be helpful... when something happens that part of my brain connects with a threat, the (negative) responses are extremely fast for me. I get into whatever numbness, hyper-alertness, or whatever happens depending on the situation, really quickly.

Calming down from there, on the other hand, is really pretty slow in comparison for me. The "grounding" exercises (once I finally notice I've numbed out...) take a while to work. Minutes at minimum, when I get it to work at all, vs. pretty instant for the other direction. I really only partly "come back" for quite a while (like, days? depends) if something really bad happened, I think; however I spent many years numbed out partially, so learning this stuff has been uphill.. though not a battle, because relaxing more actually feels good. (yay!!!)

 

[SkyonFire]

He just posed this question to me. "Since there are triggers for PTSD causing symptoms, can the opposite exist as well? In other words can there be triggers to cause flashbacks or symptoms of extreme and unusual positive experiences...?

isn't that somewhat normal? Like there's a laundry detergent and if I smell it, it reminds me of Montreal. The triggers that remind me of my trauma are just more dramatic and intense because the trauma was so intense and so damaging and there's a part of myself where it's always still happening and the trigger will connect me to that part of myself. I think we tend to have a natural aversion to traumatic experience (fear), which presents itsself stronger than an attraction to any positive experience would. Fear and damage happens in an instant, but positive experiences occur over time and don't require an immediate response. So when I smell that laundry detergent I think, "oh montreal was nice, i had lots of pleasant experiences there, I should go back sometime. maybe I'll talk to my friend about it tomorrow and see if I can visit her next month ", but when someone touches my neck it connects to the part of my mind where someone is still hurting me, and I need to get out of that situation now so I dissociate or attack the person who touched my neck. If I can't do anything it will just play over and over in my head until I can do something about it or something snaps me out of it.

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