I've been thinking about my trauma daily, especially when I'm at college.
That seems like a pretty clear trigger or what could be a precipitating event for later anxiety.
Triggers do not always have to be external. A thought or thinking process we might have could trigger panic.
Thinking about trauma, especially when in one location, a place like college, would fit with having panic every time one walks into a classroom, a reminder of college, where you have been thinking a lot about trauma. It's like classical conditioning.
It is also common to have panic and symptoms without a clear specific trigger but because the stress cup is overflowing.
The Ptsd Cup Explanation
It is also possible you could be very anxious about school itself, and perhaps dealing with performance anxiety or other anxiety that without PTSD in the picture to fill up part of the stress cup, the other anxieties wouldn't lead to a full blown panic, but now with PTSD in the picture, it all bubbles over.
It is also possible there is a PTSD related external trigger that you are not ware of yet. I'd suggest keeping a log of what you are thinking, feeling, and doing through out a day, every hour, for a week and see if you notice any patterns. It took a few weeks of doing this for me to figure out most of my triggers.
There are also triggers that don't directly link to trauma but still bring in PTSD symptoms. I used to get panic when in grocery stores. I had never had any trauma in grocery stores but that was still a trigger to bring on PTSD panic, even when I'm not thinking about the abuse. I know of a number of other PTSD sufferers who struggle with the same.
One does not have to be actively thinking about trauma and abuse to have PTSD symptoms pop up. Sometimes that is the case and sometimes not.
There are also things that increase emotional vulnerability and can bring on symptoms with all the above possibilities. For example, if I get less sleep and drink coffee, I can pretty much expect PTSD panic or dissociation the next day. Without ever thinking about abuse or trauma. Keeping a log may help with those links. Be sure to keep in mind things you could be doing prior to walking into the classroom. Sometimes symptoms come on when someone finally feels settled and safe. Go figure.
Triggers can be easy to miss too. Sometimes I can pass by a location that has a specific smell or feel that without my knowing has a link to the trauma, and without awareness of any cognitive thinking about the abuse, bam, symptoms.
Psychiatrists are good at knowing what meds can help what symptoms. In the US, they are not usually trained in in medical school for trauma therapy or the ins and outs of how all trauma symptoms develop and how triggers work and don't work. (They should be, but they just are not.) Some doc have done a lot of continuing ed courses post med school and reading, and do understand all the ins and outs of PTSD, but many don't. Yours may be making the inaccurate assumption that PTSD symptoms only come only when one actively thinks of abuse due to an external or internal trigger, and that's just not the case for some with PTSD. If you get stuck trying to figure it out, a good trauma therapist can usually help sort out the links and come up with good trigger identification and management plans that may help.
