How Do You Discover Your Triggers?

[C.J]

It has been a very long 8 months since the flashbacks from my sexual abuse started. It is so frustrating because they happen so often, even in class and I miss parts of the lecture.... Any tips/ tricks to figuring out my triggers?

 

[Deleted member 1860]

Start keeping a notebook. List things like day/date/time, place, symptoms, preceding event, severity, length, etc. I make columns of each category so I can see patterns that emerge. After awhile you'll notice patterns set up. You'll be able to determine what stresses or triggers you.

 

[Marf]

Flashbacks do not need a trigger. You will learn your triggers with experience because they can be different for everyone.

 

[anthony]

Flashbacks do not need a trigger.

Actually, yes they do. A flashback by definition is triggered by something your brain interprets from one of your five senses.

As @Solara outlined above, you keep a trigger log in a notebook, your phone, whatever your choice, that basically records your immediate environment upon enduring a symptom suddenly, for a reason that you cannot define or view for yourself. The log will show a pattern to you in which you will start to see recurring environmental aspects that result in symptoms occurring.

The main things you need to capture are what you're doing / what is going on around you, and what was the symptom outcome. Other additions like date or using a day planner layout, will tell you how much per day, if you have a lot of symptoms for unknown reasons daily. The other problem is that you may also confuse symptoms from trauma with triggers, and a trigger log as above helps you to separate the issues a little.

 

[Marf]

Okay, but when my flashbacks were coming really often, I have no idea what triggered them either. Eventually, they just stopped coming so frequently. I can tell what triggers periods of worst symptoms.

 

[Seasounds]

@Marf, excellent start, of knowing triggers that result in periods worse symptoms.

This gives you information so that you can be at choice, of making changes, so that you can either 1. avoid the triggers, or 2. respond differently to the triggers. You can also, 3. take that information into therapy. Sharing the information in therapy groups and with professionals, has helped me.

When I have discovered what triggers difficult periods, depending on the situation, I've applied one of those three options I've mentioned.

In addition to tracking and identifying the triggers, I make time to associate to and express related feelings, and get Craniosacral therapy-that helps me release, and integrate energy, and it also helps me come into an integrated, relaxed, peaceful attitude, with myself.

And, when another episode comes along, as I'm chiseling away at the mountain, I do it all over again, to come into my ever renewed center.

 

[Tinyflame]

Oh my, change really has a great and advanced system there! :tup: Mine is not so advanced, but similar: objectively look around you, 'feel' what you are feeling as @change said, and (just for me) I try not to rush the answer (I think that's very important). It usually comes to me in a few days, once it came to me in a few months. On rare occassion I can only guess. Mine are not so much 'patterns' as 'specifics'. Certain smells, details, lighting is a big one, black suits, the way someone looks down their glasses, a certain song, etc. Even Oreo cookies. :( Often I feel a certain fear/horror/ terror feeling like my heart will jump right at the initial moment, or conversely impending doom +/or sheer terror or even a massive wave of unwarranted (in the present) despair or sorrow. Emotional flashback triggers are more complex, but still identifiable.

Usually I find it's a bit of a combination. For example, once it was men in suits but I think it was also because they were elevated higher than me, we were all standing 'around', I could see grass and snow, or at least I remember there was grass but it was very cold and windy. About 2 weeks ago I realized a trigger that is a make of car (shape) was a car that had been on a tv show in the (original) background. Once I think it was body posture but I really don't know. Yikes. :rolleyes:

I approach them (once I know) with an attitude like, "Ok, now I'm prepared to face you. I will try my best to get rid of you, because now I know why I am feeling as I do (the 'triggered feeling' as it were in response to the trigger itself, the memories as well)" (with a few expletives inserted or assumed :) ). If that makes sense. They usually, or at least often, lose their power, sometimes for good. Then they are just a reminder.

I hope if you are really getting emotionally flooded you can treat yourself with self-care and very very gently. It is a horrible way to feel. :( It will pass. Peace to you @C.J .

Just an afterthought, I try to 'create' positive/happy/hopeful triggers. I try to 'record' in my mind things around me when I am happy or hopeful or at peace. And I try to seek out things that help me feel the same. Sort of a counter-association.

One great resource also is here on the forum, Pete Walker's 13 things (I believe) to remember during an emotional flashback (ie triggered, though all triggers certainly don't lead to flashbacks- the overwhelming majority of mine don't). I too need to write them down again to take with me! :rolleyes:

 

[Tinyflame]

One other thing came to me, just my experience not sure it would be of use. I recall being terribly flooded and not having a clue what the trigger(s) were. It was Halloween- no reason in my mind for it. Turned out to be the children. But I had never considered childhood happenings as qualifying as traumatic. Never thought of myself in a 'child' way, either. Even if in my heart I knew they were wrong or bad, I just thought well not the ideal. Later I figured it out. But I never let myself 'think' of them. So my analogy would be a person afraid of dogs who doesn't wilfully recall being bitten but has the scars. So perhaps it will make more sense in time, some things you can't identify until you start to even admit they were traumatic.

Best wishes to you.

 

[Seasounds]

I really like this is discussion and everyone's contribution. Dealing with triggers can be a trial and error process, many a times not a black and white process. At first I was too frozen to notice triggers, then I noticed I was triggered-didn't know why, then I took a guess at why I was triggered ... and then the investigation goes on.

I thought to share a somatisized-trigger symptom that I woke up with: mild asthma. It is aggravated when from pollens, smog, or friends who are irritated with me/who don't like my expressions (took me over 10 years to realize the later).

Well, it is 30 degrees where I live, so I know it isn't pollens. There are no smog alerts, since it has been windy- so I can rule out pollution. I'm left with examining who, of someone in my friend circle-doesnt like, gets irritated with my expressions/mannerisms. After thinking about it for a few minutes, bingo! I now have a choice to either speak up for myself, or just spend less time with this person.

Other times I can notice the trails of triggers by noticing what recent scenario I am replaying-an event in my mind. Often it is when someone insulted me, but I didn't catch it, at the time of the interaction. Once I catch it, I can decide how to handle it.

Then there are deep triggers, that really rattle me. Those are usually dealing with intimate relationships, when someone is emotionally demeaning to me, after I have trusted them to be kind, and trusted them to resolve conflicts in healthier ways than my parents. Due to being destabilized (i.e. remembrances of childhood abuse), I take some efforts to work it out.

If my partner doesn't get the message, since I can't count on them to change, I take distance. Hopefully, next time, with more self-care on my part, I can choose a healthier relationship. My hope!

 

[Tinyflame]

Really interesting and great post @change . In fact, I'm not diagnosed with asthma but sometimes will 'pop up' with the 'wheeze' sound, have often wondered 'why' (ie it's not necessarily during the moment I've smoked more, etc, kind of unexpected and inexplicable). I will look for other explanations (triggers).

I think you described it really really well. :tup:

 

[Ed Norton]

I have had flashbacks right before sleeping but I do not know what exactly triggered them, maybe the act of falling asleep itself as my trauma occured right before I fell asleep, although usually I had a bad day also preceding the flashback. Likewise, anything that triggers a panic attack also triggered a flashback, since I began to panic right before my trauma. I seem to have gone into remission from flashbacks though.

 

[joeylittle]

@C.J , I was baffled too at first - really, even if you aren't sure what to put on the list, write down what was going on right before it happened, every sound, smell, sight, touch, taste you can recall; I made little columns in my notebook so I could just fill them in. I'm still not always sure, but keeping track teaches me a great deal - and also teaches me about the ways I'm changing in therapy.