Odd Triggers

[IndigoCharm]

Hi,

I was wondering whether anyone else has experiences this. It used to be that I would only get triggered out by things very obviously pertaining to the cause of my PTSD, but lately it's been small, insignificant things, like petting a cat. They trigger me out as much as, sometimes even more than the big things. I know that it's my mind connecting it to some one feeling left over from the abuse, but it still makes me feel as though I am getting worse and worse (or better and better, depending on your view on it, considering I'm probably getting closer to the problem). Have any of you been regularly triggered out by things that on the outside seem completely unrelated to your trauma?

-Masha

 

[Manic11]

Indigo,

I know exactly what you are talking about. I actually wrote a thread a while back which relates to this. Its talking more about flashbacks but its the same concept. Something that makes you really uncomfortable and triggers you but you have no clue why. Its something completely harmless and its terrifying.

Anyway, the thread is called A Challenging Question About Flashbacks

It is in this section of the forum, a few pages back. About the 5th page if I'm thinking correctly. Read through it, see if there is anything from there that can help you. But also know, that you aren't alone in this and I know exactly what you're talking about even though my thread may not be exactly the same as yours, here.

I wish you the best. Good luck!

Manic

 

[Blues in NYC]

Right with you Indie on this one.

Two examples that stand out that triggered some pretty intense flashback episodes and coming to with the shakes afterwards:

Picking up a potato that had the right smell and density to be similar enough to one I picked up during a really bad incident.

Touching a cold floor tile with my hand while sitting on the kitchen floor as I put on a pair of "outdoor shoes."

Both were tiny insignificant things I was doing and pretty unrelated from the BIG parts of my trauma, but the tactile and olfactory information was just right to trigger me big time. Sucks when it happens. But it's kinda fascinating at the same time...

 

[heather q]

It seems to me that once I discovered what was going I found that almost everything could trigger me, so for a while I felt like it was going on all the time, then the triggers were less frequent and life felt a little easier, now they are back up really high/frequent. I don't know if it's a cyclic thing or whether it's related to the stuff I'm going through at work that is causing it.

I think for me the triggers cause the flashbacks, I'm just glad to know what's going on, I thought I was going crazy.

How I work with the triggers now is to say something to the effect that I'm welcoming the triggers, such as, 'oh good that one again,' it takes the scaryness out of it and they tend to dissipate quickly, that doesn't work if I'm having a very difficult time, then I get stuck, because I forget what to do. I think maybe things have got scrambed up in my mind and I can get triggered just because I'm on edge, possibly a habitual thing.

Brick buildings have been one of my worst triggers, so now I take pictures of them, it wasn't easy, I couldn't walk near a brick building to start with. As long as I study brick buildings they cease to trigger me. The issue is still not dealt with, it's temporarily on hold, until I'm ready to delve into it.

Heather

 

[bitechadoggie]

Not a convenient trigger

Try getting triggered by doctors and nurses. I really can't stand being touched by strangers and lots of medical people are pretty strange. I guess PTSD started for me when I was three and Ma put me on a tricycle and pushed it down the attic stairs. Ma had issues. She felt she got points for every doctor she could do. I spent my childhood getting dragged to doctor's offices. Now in my sixties I'm still spending my life in waiting rooms. A nurse can make a wrong move and I'm in a frenzy. Last January I was severely beaten just because I wanted to sit in a chair rather than lay in a bed. It took four "compassionate" nurses to beat me down. I lost my right hand over that. Try making that trigger go away.

 

[Grama-Herc]

While I understand and agree with you on the trigger issue, I am wondering if you are having panic atacks.

Panic Attacks can pop up out of the blue for no reason, no trigger!

 

[IndigoCharm]

Yes, that thread has a lot of what I feel like! At one point I had something similar to what you described there -- I would feel like I was in the 70's (though I wasn't even alive then) and I kept having an image of a very beautiful, but at the same time dark-feeling place. It does help a lot to know someone else has felt this.
I think it would be best for me to study these triggers, but it's very frightening and I don't really have much in the way of emotional support in real life. :( Maybe I will just start with the one that affects me the least and go up...
Bitechadoggie, I'm so sorry, that sounds horrible. :( They sound about as compassionate as piranhas. *hugs* to you (if it's ok).

It's possible that they are panic attacks, maybe. But I had the cat trigger before, oddly. In detail ---
(possible triggers)


When I went to visit my grandparents back in Russia (my grandmother is bipolar and verbally abused me), at one point I started getting extremely dissociative and frightened every time I was around my grandfather, for the first time in my life. But even when he wasn't there, if I pet the cat I would get very frightened because of the feeling that I was a bigger person that had power over something that trusted me, and seeing the comparison of the size of my hands to the cat also made it worse. It got so bad that at one point I could no longer remember well how I got there, how old I was, or exactly who I was, and nothing would help. And lately, since I got a cat, it has started happening again, though to a lesser extent.
Sorry, if I went on a bit; I hope it didn't trigger anyone.