Questions about specific triggers, phobias, triggers unrelated to trauma

[hope4us]

im trying to identify what my personal triggers are. ive noticed that certain sounds can trigger me one day when i hear i i get all anxious and feel like im losing my mind, but than i could hear the same noise a few days later and not have a reaction. did i MIS-identify the trigger? or does it only trigger you if your stressed, or already anxious? if its a trigger one time... will it be a trigger every time it happens, or only sometimes?

 

[hope4us]

i hung up my bathrobe in the bathroom and later i came in and when i opened the door really fast the wind made the bathrobe swing back and forth, i saw the shadow of it and pretty much had a heart attack. i screamed at the top of my lungs, my heart was pounding, i got all dizzy, went and laid down on my bed. was having a panic attack. when i rolled over i screamed again because i thought someone was standing there. i blared the tv volumn and gradually came out of my panic mode.
than a few days later i parked in a parking lot to eat and the wind was blowing the trees which was making dark moving shadows. i felt all paranoid and had to keep turning my head to make sure it was just a shadow of a tree. what is going on? could this be one of my triggers? because i cant remember a moving shadow having anything to do with any of my trauma, however my abusive ex who gave me c-ptsd from all kinds of abuse... he would sneak up behind me and stand there an watch me like a creeper, and it would jump the living shit out of me. but i cant specifically remember a moving shadow at any point, but i have heard that people can have triggers that they do not even remember being a part of their trauma.

 

[Freida]

There's really no good answer to that....Which sucks. Some of my triggers are consistent but how I react to them varies day to day. Some of them always show up at certain times (over stressed,over tired, wrong time of year), and some are totally random. Then there are the times I expect to be triggered and I'm not. It's quite frustrating.

Working on why I have them seems to have helped the most because it helps me draw a line from the trigger to the trauma --- which then lessens the trigger....if that makes sense?

 

[grit]

For me if I processed and digested the foundations of it in therapy...it doesn't. But if I am not aware of it exactly or unwilling (like a person in my life or a behavior), then it will impact me the same even though I know.

 

[Eliza]

For me it depends what the trigger is. For example, fireworks sometimes trigger me if I'm already feeling anxious or low. But other times I'll go to whole firework displays and feel fine.

But there are also certain triggers - items in the news, police sirens, conversations etc that trigger me every single time.

 

[hope4us]

one of my triggers is being alone in a dark room, but i am absolutely fine if i'm alone in a dark car. i cant even walk across my bedroom to get to the light switch without turning my flashlight on to walk across the room to the light switch or ill start to panic. but i can sit in a dark car for an hour, and wont even think twice about it. One my my trauma's took place in a dark room when i was alone. anyone else have very specific triggers? what are yours?

 

[hope4us]

I've had many many traumatic events in my life, and i have certain triggers, they all relate to my trauma in some way, except for one of them. why would i have a trigger that doesn't relate to my trauma in some way? does anyone else have this problem? is it possible that it does relate to my trauma, but i just don't remember it? like a repressed memory.

 

[siniang]

*raises hand *

Being alone in dark rooms, too. I, however, have similar difficulties with being alone in dark cars. Not as severe, but pronounced enough. I have dark-room trauma, but not dark-car trauma, so I think the only connection really is the "being alone in the dark in an enclosed space".

I don't panic, but I do tend to freeze and tense up. Like you, crossing the room to find the light switch...major endeavor. Takes all I have to pull myself together enough.

Things that are extremely hard are automatic lights that turn off while I'm in the middle of doing something, like walking down in the basement or down a hallway...that's even harder than if I was say on the couch or in bed and at least in a somewhat defined space and not stuck in the middle of the room. Power outages at night, too, because they come without warning -- for other situations I can at least prepare myself mentally.

Weirdly enough I often have no problem getting up at night and walking into the bathroom or kitchen in the dark...but I do sometimes get the trigger-senstation halfway through, as if my brain lags behind my body (movement). It does help to have night lights throughout, though. The darker it is, the less likely will I be able to do it/the faster that catch-up happens.

 

[siniang]

Is it a trigger or a stressor?

Stressor vs. Trigger - What Is A Trigger?

 

[Tinyflame]

Yes, sure. I was triggered by a particular car, I very long after remembered seeing it in on a tv show in the background. Could be a smell, lighting, angle of one's own body, a shadow, words, shape of a face, what have you.

 

[Ronin]

If it's a trigger, it *by default* was a part of your trauma.

Repressed memories have nothing to do with it.

What you're asking is why are you more anxious about one trauma thing, and not the other (your dark rooms vs cars thread), or why you would be triggered by something you can't direct point relation to (here).... but that is something to pick apart with a therapist, the exact why and hows.

 

[hope4us]

If it's a trigger, it *by default* was a part of your trauma.

Repressed memories have nothing to do with it.

What you're asking is why are you more anxious about one trauma thing, and not the other (your dark rooms vs cars thread), or why you would be triggered by something you can't direct point relation to (here).... but that is something to pick apart with a therapist, the exact why and hows.

no i understand the whole dark room and dark car thing. that makes sense because my trauma happened in a dark room so thats why im paranoid in a dark room but not in a dark car.