Questions about specific triggers, phobias, triggers unrelated to trauma

[hope4us]

i've had a phobia ever since i was a kid, but now it is a lot more intense than it use to be. i encountered my phobia right before a traumatic event happened. but my phobia isn't the "trauma" thing that hurt me, its just that i saw my phobia, and than someone else came along and hurt me right after that. ever since than my phobia has gotten a lot worse. is it because it is also a trigger now? not just a phobia? does anyone else have a traumatic event in which a phobia they already had was part of the trauma? how did it effect you?

 

[Sideways]

Sounds like the trigger is more about dark spaces generally. Trauma happened somewhere dark, so now dark spaces (rooms, cars, etc) have become a trigger.

That will take some time and exposure work to get through. But it makes perfect sense. So for now, while you're just getting started in therapy, it may not be your first priority to deal with. Coping strategies, breathing and grounding techniques might be a more effective goal for now.

 

[Sideways]

is it because it is also a trigger now?

Sounds like it might be. If I saw a huge spider (which I've always been terrified of) then had a traumatic experience straight after that? My fear of spiders would probably go completely off the charts, yeah? Because now, not only am I just terrified of them, they're almost like an omen that something bad is about to happen!

The phobia is now directly related to your trauma though, so qualifies as a potential trigger. I used to see a red bike leaning against the wall right before episodes of abuse (the bike was outside the room where the abuse occured).

Red bikes are now a trigger for me. I wasn't abused by a red bike, but it was there, right beforehand. If forms part of the narrative of each episode of abuse, because it immediately preceded the bad stuff.

The way brains interpret triggers is complex. The hard part about triggers is the relationship to our abuse isn't always obvious. The smell of meat pies used to be a trigger for me till I worked through it, even though there were no meat pies in the room where I was abused. My brain would have smelled them at the time because of a nearby canteen, and for whatever reason, my brain has linked that smell with my abuse. The smell of the room itself? No idea, not a trigger.

So sometimes the trigger's relationship to your abuse might seem fairly loose. But something you were already afraid of hitting your amygdala right before your traumatic event? Yeah, I reckon the amygdala would file that away as a "danger alert" for the futre.

 

[Eliza]

I am fine in the dark. But being in a moving vehicle is a massive trigger for me, as are bridges, sirens, helicopters, loud bangs. Basically any noise associated with the terror attack/my car accident. And anybody who talks about attacks or death. Especially those who do it in an offhand way, eg "I could walk out and get hit by a car tomorrow..."

 

[Ronin]

I keep trying to think of this topic with something that mighta be useful to you / one of those where even the basics cut too deep, for me. :bag:

So, yes. @Sideways is totally on the money.

Both intensified phobia (as multifaceted or cascading outta control in intensity) after trauma, or the object of phobia becoming a new trigger, happen. So can entirely new phobia arising out of trauma.

IME measure and type matters.
If its more phobia, tackle it that way.
If its phobic trigger, first dial down the phobia, until it acts 'just' like an intense trigger.
If its a new trigger and more fear and panic than a phobia? Standard trauma therapies may do.
If it was a sucker induced in say, captivity, dont dive into it headfirst at all... address all the seemingly minor triggers around it / wind off those sails, not directing a ship, in a storm, taking away the storm.

 

[Friday]

Most triggers are super specific. That’s part of what makes them triggers instead of stressors. Stressor vs. Trigger - What Is A Trigger?

One of mine, that I’ve talked about on here, is industrial carpet + coffee + simplegreen (an industrial cleanser). Put ALL 3 of those things together? I lose my ever lovin mind. Any of the 3 separately? No worries. Add cigar smoke? Pfft. I’m not only fine, but warmly nostalgic. It’s that exact specific combo that sends me through the roof.

Another of mine happens to be running + in the dark + in the woods + after someone I love + whilst lights are flashing + a certain series of noises + and there’s cordite in the air. <<< Again, change out any of those pieces? No worries. I might get a bit edgy, but it’s nothing that drop kicks me into the past. I’ve been around various parts of ^^^that^^^ countless times without an issue. Add them together? <low whistle> Goodnight Irene.

***

Here’s something to bake your noodle, though... Several years ago, for no discernible reason ;), I grabbed the person I was talking to, and threw them out of the building we were in. We were both a bit banged up from the fall. But not too badly. The building collapsed a few moments later, killing almost everyone inside. Why did I grab them and throw them out? I felt a creak in the floor. Floors creak all the time, and I don’t go throwing people out windows. It all happened too fast for me to parse until later, but the facts are, I felt it. I felt something I’d felt before, and acted accordingly. It’s this kind of specific vibration that happens to unstable buildings when they’re about to fall. It “zings” through them, and right up my legs. I was search and rescue, I’ve scampered through IDFK how many different kinds of bombed out, stormed out, earthquake shaken, mudslid, unstable buildings. They don’t always let you know they’re about to fall. And when they do fall? There are a lot of different ways they do that. The sudden vacuum, as if all the air has been sucked out, when it hasn’t is one I still dream about. (It’s a barometric pressure kind of thing, like knowing there’s a storm coming on a clear day. The air just feels wrong, suddenly, somehow).

That’s BASICALLY what a trigger is. It’s your body learning what “X” feels like. And then acting accordingly. It’s a survival mechanism, the ability to learn. And in an emergency, it’s useful. It means that you’ve hit the deck, and don’t get shot/shredded by shrapnel/etc. when bullets start flying, or a car explodes. Or it means a car backfires and you’ve thrown yourself down whilst people look at you like you’re an idiot. Because it’s NOT a perfect system. The things our brains associate with life threatening danger? Are often harmless (a pretty dress, for example, does not equal rape), or mistaken for something else (a bomb or shots fired, instead of a car backfiring).

When it’s harmless? Like a pretty dress? We try and break that connection / unlearn it. When it no longer applies? Like a car backfiring? Or fireworks? Or whatever? Ditto.

Learning isn’t a bad thing, it’s simply that the connections our minds make aren’t always useful or accurate. If I went around throwing people out of buildings every time the floor creaked? I’d have a major problem. I don’t. (Although buildings make me edgy, in general, for many reasons).

A trigger or stressor is just a kind of learning. Completely natural process.

 

[Firefly]

Someone telling me that I didn’t act correctly/do a good job in regards to protecting myself/family.

 

[Eliza]

Most triggers are super specific. That’s part of what makes them triggers instead of stressors. Stressor vs. Trigger - What Is A Trigger?

It was weird to learn that there was a difference, and I'm still struggling with it a bit. The London Bridge attack last week for instance, was that a trigger or a stressor? It reminded me of Westminster, but it was also a stressor because I feel like everybody finds terror attacks upsetting and stressful.

One of the stranger triggers for me is the movie 'Shrek'. When I was on my walk to Westminster, I stopped and looked at the Shrek's Adventure attraction on the South Bank. I only stayed for about 30 seconds - enough time for me to think about how terrible it looked - and then continued on my way. But if I hadn't stopped, I would almost definitely have been hit by the car. So although Shrek kind of saved my life - seeing anything Shrek related takes me right back to the attack.