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An example of a trigger that happened to me was that one day my neighbors were shooting a gun in target practice. I became upset, not really knowing why, and I started closing all the windows and doors in the house and I was shaking.
Then I remembered that my stepfather would chase us with his shotgun even into the woods as if we were animals he was hunting. He would fire the gun but didn't actually hit any of us. But we were very afraid.
After about 6 years with no real problems my trigger on november 1st, 2010 was, after waking up in a bed after a minor operation, a hospital nurse asking me "What are you doing here?" as apparently I had been deposited in the wrong ward after the op.
this triggered a memory of me waking up in a mental hospital in 1972, when a mental health nurse asked me exactly the same question after I was rendered unconscious by psychiatrists giving me such a high level of electric shock when they were trying to change my sexuality.
I have not dealt with or really thought much about my abuse etc for years (I just turned 40 a few days ago), but on 4/16/13 I received a Facebook message from a childhood friend that knew my stepfather and he apparently was asking how I was doing and said to send his love!!! That is when all this started! He is still abusing me in a sense because my life is completely a mess and I have attempted to take it and think about that everyday. I am so lost...
The torture scene in hostel was my first major trigger, but at the time I wasn't aware it was a trigger, I just thought it was an overreaction to a scary movie. Learning of an ex's past trauma, and then subsequently being abused by that same ex is what triggered the memories, flashbacks, nightmares and night terrors to occur.
Though at this time I had PTSD from current abuses. I wound up reaching out for help in my church. They turned out to be an abusive cult like church. They actually attacked me for suffering. Going through all of this. I had a past trauma of being kidnapped & r*p* when I was 14. I believed I was healed from the trauma and put it behind me. So I thought. When I was targeted in this society. As they decided to test my faith by mental abuses. It was as though my healed wounds that were sealed were re-opened. I have had painful triggers about it since then.
I knew I was mistreated but I did not know that it was causing ongoing problems until it clicked when I read a book in college on childhood trauma. I realized that my experiences of panic attacks and severe anxiety were directly related to horrendous things I witnessed and experienced.[DOUBLEPOST=1400830460,1400830399][/DOUBLEPOST]I knew I was mistreated but I did not know that it was causing ongoing problems until it clicked when I read a book in college on childhood trauma. I realized that my experiences of panic attacks and severe anxiety were directly related to horrendous things I witnessed and experienced.
I think that Angel has said that she gets some invasive memories from just stress.
My thought line behind that is that stress indicates a situation that you don't feel in control enough of. So your mind looks for old stress successfully acquitted. In doing so, it touches on the old memory and retriggers it.
I think that bringing up the old memory can be healing but only if you can change it's designation from disasterous and failure, to overcome. That's what I've seen some counselors attempting.