General Physical Signs Of Being Triggered

[Gamereign555]

I'm a sufferer. I'll experience a blank stare w/tunnel vision, change in breathing pattern to deeper and a feeling of hyper inflation in the lungs(difficulty breathing), fatigued and I'll also rub my nose with my hand real quick to see if its tingling yet. My hands might also tingle or my feet if I sit. I can sometimes be hyper aware of my surroundings, sounds and movements including my own heartbeat.

At first I couldn't watch TV or play video games without symptoms. I would not eat hardly. I did not want to go outside and walk around. It was more tolerable to drive than to be the passenger. I could not ride in a car without symptoms.
Medication manages the latter(thank god) but I still suffer from the other symptoms.

 

[elliebean09]

I shake a ton. My legs shake all the time out of habit, but it's much more noticeable when I'm about to have a panic attack. I also start hyperventilating and get a terrified look on my face.

 

[Anthropologicashewire]

In some situations my hands and then my arms go numb and I zone out and feel very numb and it feels as if I am frozen. Sometimes I panic, my face or hands will twitch and I cannot make any eye contact and I sweat as well as feel my heart racing. There are some where I start to black out and feel like I am going to die and nothing feels real. Other times I will cry for no apparent reason.

 

[13 and 65]

After reading all of these posts, I realize I do so many of these things...no eye contact, getting out of room, tunnelvision, depression, dissociate myself, picking, leg bouncing, isolate myself, self harm, short temper and I am very forgetful. This site is a blessing in understanding myself.

 

[Venator]

Personally, I find myself tensing a lot of muscles or grinding my teeth, chewing on the inside of my mouth. I zone out and cannot at all focus on the task at hand - my eyes kind of fixate elsewhere. I will hold my breath until I gasp for it.

 

[stuff]

Initially everything sounds louder. All the high pitch noises sound far more intense. My body either gets very hot or very cold and my heart starts to pound, sometimes it happens so quickly that I'm smack dab in an attack before I even notice. Sometimes my hands shake. I clench my jaw and sometimes grind my teeth. Definitely no eye contact. If I make eye contact with someone for more than a second or two, I will burst into tears. Generally there is a feeling of everything getting tighter and tighter, like steel cables wrapped around my body. It's not so much physical but I always know one is coming on by the amount I am spacing out. Other people seem to notice that more than I do sometimes. I will keep saying I'm tired, but it's not the right word. It's more like my head feels like it wants to hide from itself and I can't access my hard drive properly. Everything feels kind of electric and I will jump out of my skin if someone startles me or touches me.

It really varies between the big ones and the little ones. There are certain large triggers where I will feel every one of these things at once, but smaller ones where I only feel two or three.

 

[Powder]

As a PTSD sufferer, it has many faces depending on the stage of my life.

Some stages, I just twist my hair into knots. Sometimes until I do severe damage. Other times, my eyes twitch and spasm uncontrollably. I get hives. Tummy upset, like when you're so nervous, like Butterflies up to almost vomitting, or actual vomitting. Legs go numb. Dropping things, like the hands go numb.

Quiet and unable to listen or speak without breaking out of "it." Holding breath. Passing out. Angry outbursts at stupid things that seem so big to me at the moment but then later I feel stupid and mean for reacting like that.

Fatigue that makes me seem lazy or selfish, even to myself. Sometimes I get sick, my immune system runs down and I get infection, illness, infection, like a running list of what can go wrong with a person who is otherwise a picture of health, just from having too much stress that I can get rid of, such as work and trauma stuff.

Over-focusing on TV, books, or this forum, as a means of escape. I tell myself it's better than using alcohol or drugs, but I'm still not really "there for my family" 100% like I would like. But part of my issues is trying to be SuperMom/SuperWife/SuperWoman for everyone, all the time. This is just as hard on my body as the PTSD. So both areas need to balance in order for a realistic level of functioning.

There is guilt when I see how my PTSD negatively affects myself and my family. If I could cure it, then they'd have a happier, more fun, more energetic form of me, more of the time. They deserve that. So I'm willing to work at this, take pills if I have to, go to counseling, do my homework, and use my time here to the best of my ability. Also, I reign myself in as fast as I can and apologize when needed. I am not quite where I want to be, but I am in the grieving stages, so my T says to have some grace with myself, and that I'm really working very hard on all of it. But when I feel like I've failed because I just snapped at my kid for something stupid, I have to keep remembering not to give up on this, because I need this to stop for her sake and for mine, too.

Muse

 

[Srain]

oes anyone actually know what is happening when one starts shaking on being triggered?
Does it have a name?
Long sudders that last a long time.
Why and in what situations does it occur in?
Thanks

The fight or flight syndrome is your "Sympathetic Nervous System" reacting. Basically your system gets flooded with adrenaline. I'm a sufferer that reacts much like everyone hear. I have constant noise in my head when in social situations so if I'm struck by a triggering situation what someone might see is my hand flittering mostly around my face. I seriously cannot understand anyone and I'm completely confused and lost. I don't know where I am and all I can see is the triggering scene before my eyes. I am trying not to look at it but rather escape it, my eyes will be huge and shifting focus from one inanimate object to another, picking at my skin, and biting my nails. I will be speaking about things nobody will understand expect that I will say I need to leave quite clearly. I've learned that much.

I will often say out loud what is going on so I can hear it and identify myself what is happening. This is something I've learned will calm me down so I understand it is in the past and not happening right now. It is a picture of what was. Although it is quite frightening, some times I will try to stay with it to understand what is going on and other times I have to ground myself due to circumstances. Catching my breath is most likely the hardest for me as breathing is not something I do very well. In a triggered situation I just stop and end up gasping off and on.

It's a great post and something I found good for me to review about myself but also to remember that my husband goes through it with me at times in public. I always feel like I take care of him during those situations for some reason. I guess because afterwards it's shame I feel. Like I never want to go out in public again in case that should happen again.

 

[Tinyflame]

Dear Rain, do you mean a flashback, rather than a trigger?

 

[OKRADLAK]

When he used to go out, or tries now, he would go very quiet and into tunnel vision mode. By this I mean he would not see anything around him, would not be able to hear anything apart from traffic noise (louder than it actually was) and would just zone out completely. He would only see the way home, but if not watched would go through or over anything to get home.

Amethist

WOW! Totally 100% on. That is a great description of the need to get home no matter what.

As far as the question, I also do things with my hands and might even rock or leave over as if I am about to puke. I might rub my forehead or start to pace and tap feet or rub arms.....nervous movements like I am about to lose it. If I do lose it, cursing, talking without knowing what I am saying, breathing hard. etc............It's hell.

 

[Mohamed]

Muse--

I like your post it triggered me to write this...the reason why i got on this forum, deciding to get external help and admitting my condition...is my kids.

I have isolated myself and in a way been isolated by almost everyone I knew for the past 3 years...I live with my wife and two kids. I have almost managed to create a world where I feel safe and that is in kind of isolation and only around my wife and kids. I have no friends anymore, those that I knew I just say hello to and run off whenever I see them by coincidence in the few places I go to such as kids school, mall or club.

Almost everything triggers me, the degrees vary of course but every single day and very frequently sometimes it feels constant, even when I am sitting by myself on the couch if there are certain noises or lights I get mildly triggered...

extreme symptoms have become infrequent, because of the way I live and socialize..which is minimal...but I get them every now and then..I focus really hard on the person infront of me or the person speaking that I forget the previous word they said and that happens during the whole time he or she is speaking and that makes me forget exactly what they were saying except the last word although I was paying extreme attention. In the back of my head of course I am scanning the environment, conversations, movement, gestures anything that makes a noise or moves or..anything and everything...very exhausting! I freeze emotionally so if a bomb went off I would not budge at all (which I remember now happened when I was much younger and our apartment door was blown off and all the windows were shattered and I didnt wake up even with the police and all in the apartment..hmm or was I a heavy sleeper..who knows) then If I were required to move or talk I would be so timid and speak slowly as if i dont want to wake anyone up, my breathing gets all messed up, i forget to breath, dry throat, blurry vision but i think i induce that symptom, force one eye almost closed and eventually almost close both eyes - just enough so i can see, knees sometimes buckle, feet heavy, sometimes ears get really red and hot and I start sweating, extremely forgetful like i have amnesia and then I try to get home or freeze wherever I am until I get home.

I experience most of the above to a milder degree almost all the time even if i am alone.

My wife and kids give me much more power so in their presence the feelings if triggered happen in my head and I just put a serious face on and choose something to stare at usually the tv but the mild symptoms I am able to mask or at least i think so but I know that I feel them and I am bound to affect them thats why I need to get better...

Its not my character ever to ask for help..nobody who knew me or knows me would ever believe im writing this. I am the sort of person that when I am faced with a problem I do not talk about it until I have resolved it or it has been resolved. This is the first time ever in my life that I talk about a problem that I have which is unresolved. The reason I decided to speak is because I want to be better and go back to being normal, in my eyes of course, and not affect my kids and wife negatively because of these feelings I get.

I have said probably 1% of my issues but I dont want to ramble much more. I am very pleased I joined this forum and hope that eventually I can find the right professional to help me get better.

 

[Powder]

Yes there is great difficulty in listening to others as a biological process. Also a tunnel vision can occur. Sound seems to get way too loud as if my head will explode. Ears seem to be ringing when I get work stress and try to focus hard.