Stressor vs. Trigger - What Is A Trigger?

[piratelady]

Anthony, thank you. That clears it up a lot :)

In domestic violence cases, stress is the trigger. Any situation that TRIGGERS the stress "fight or flight" response TRIGGERS a fight or flight response. I think it depends on what your PTSD stems from as to how it is triggered.

want2cope: Assuming I understand what you are saying above, I disagree. I am a domestic abuse survivor. If I understand Anthony's clarification, stress is not the trigger. For example: Monday and Tuesday, my job will be very stressful and I will react to that stress. I'm sure my muscles will get tense, my appetite will change, I will become grumpy, etc. This has no relation to my abuse, I am reacting to the stress of my job.

Now, there have been other times when I have been talking to people and somehow the topic of the conversation will remind me of a way in which I was abused. I will be able to see the abuse happening again in my head, it brings that memory back very vividly, emotions and all. I react: my heart starts to race, I tremble, and become afraid, etc. This I would consider being triggered.

 

[Venusian]

Identifying triggers as a way to control the flashbacks does make sense. Even before I knew I had PTSD I had a few flashbacks that had a definate trigger. When I thought about it and remembered the role the object had in the trauma I realized that the object no longer triggered a flashback. It wasn't the object that I had the fear of, it was the man that used the object that I was scared of and once I realized that the object just became an object. I hope that makes sense. It is the triggers that I can't identify that are the ones that still cause flashbacks. Keeping journals about this process has helped me, months later when I go back and reread some of what I wrote, it begins to make sense even if it didn't at the time I wrote the entry.

 

[want2cope]

Piratelady and wife of..... It is just my opinion. You have your opinion. This site I thought was set up for support, not as therapy. I do understand Anthony. I also understand that he likes to clarify things. I am saying everyone's situation is different. Maybe I should have been "correct" as to say that stress IS my trigger because of domestic violence at times. I work in mental health everyday. I not only understand it, live with it, and deal with it at home with my son, I also work in it and see it on a daily basis at work and home. I work with most all patients that have PTSD. I see stress turn outward to physical out rage having nothing to do with the persons abuse. I know all the terms. I know what they mean. Still, people are different. Piratelady, you get what I mean. It's what you said about in your second paragraph. Since I work in mental health and get cussed, hit, threw things at me, spit on, called names, made fun of for a living is the reason I feel the way I do.... Everyone's situation is different. We are not professionals here. If there are professionals here, please stand up.... ;)

 

[wife of]

You asked if it mattered and were gived my opinion as to why it did matter.

I'm not too sure as to wether you have some objection to my post?
If so please feel free to contact me in a private conversation so that we may cleary understand each other better.

 

[Hashi]

In your case, you used the rational side to look at that person, realize it is not the same person. You can then begin trying to calm yourself down.

Thanks, piratelady. i'm seeing how we all have different routes and are getting to the same place of healing.

Kind of want to share what happened next. The person in the queue behind me ended up being very courteous and spontaneously helping me with something . So i was standing there half freaking out and half knowing this was a different person, and then as if to bring that point home he acted in a really nice way towards me. As if the universe was saying, yes I'm testing you but I'll help you with it as well.

 

[anthony]

A nurse who was heading a class we attended over the weekend, she used trigger in place of stressor and triggers. It confused some, others could understand it. Want2Cope is correct in the sense of an opinion and personal interpretation.

Here is the problem based on my experience helping people with PTSD for many years now. Many with PTSD already have a basic understanding of an issue, yet they don't understand exactly how things are working within themselves so they can break things down and isolate components of themselves to then work upon one small aspect of a bigger picture. They attempt to work on the bigger picture often (all lumped in together) and have failed. Thus, breaking things down into specific definition and terminology aids a highly traumatised / dissociative brain to narrow in on a smaller piece of the puzzle.

When you're at your worst, you often need that ability to focus on a component of an issue, correct it, then shift to the next. Some weeks later you suddenly find the bigger picture (overall problem) no longer exists, OR, when it starts to creep up on you, you near instantly recognise the smaller components uniquely and begin dealing with them quickly to stop the issue.

It is also smaller components that are often comprised in many other complete issues (bigger picture), thus when you break things down a person can quickly transfer prior learnt skills and understanding into other problems within their lives, then combine them with new skills / understanding required for a different issue.

How you do it is up to you... again, I break things down here based on how to apply them into a highly traumatised / dissociative brain. If you function well enough to just look at big pictures, if it is working, then it isn't wrong providing you have that deeper understanding and again, it is working.

From my weekend adventure, I could see others becoming confused when the therapist was talking about stressors in one session, then triggers in the next and then began calling stressors, triggers. People began looking confused, because getting out of bed is a stressor, though there was nothing triggering about the act of getting out of bed... it is purely a stressor. Now if you happened to be getting out of bed and that was when you got raped or beaten, etc, dragged back and traumatised, that event could now be a trigger that creates enormous overwhelming symptoms and emotions.

Application and specificity really is the key IMHO.

 

[Deleted member 12723]

This has been educational to me, and I have learned so much. Thank you for dealing with this and to all the people who responded. I really appreciate it alot. Alot of things to think about.

 

[rainy_daze]

@Anthony: I had saw the "triggers"/"triggered" word about, and if I am honest, I had not given it a second thought. I assumed people were using it to explain that someone they knew or something that happened triggered an emotional response in them. If I have ever used it, I would be using it in the following context:

My mother started to talk about my best friend's death and this triggered a huge amount of pain within me as I had decided that today I would try my best not to think about her murder. I began to try and push as many of the thoughts away as I could.

I had not considered that people were using words wrongly out of context. Although I can see where you are coming from, and it is good you are educating people, I think we are surely all aware that not everyone knows the "buzz" words or real terms used by psychologists. So, if I use the word trigger, it isn't necessarily in a conversation to do with stressors etc, it is just me saying I was emotionally triggered by something someone said.

trig·ger (tr

g

r)
n.
1.
a. The lever pressed by the finger to discharge a firearm.
b. A similar device used to release or activate a mechanism.
2. An event that precipitates other events.
3. Electronics A pulse or circuit that initiates the action of another component.

tr.v. trig·gered, trig·ger·ing, trig·gers
1. To set off; initiate: remarks that triggered bitter debates.
2. To fire or explode (a weapon or an explosive charge).

To try and use the above example again: My mother began to remark how our lives had all fallen apart since my best friend died and this triggered a deep sadness within me that I had been trying to ignore. She spoke a lot and eventually I was so overwhelmed I snapped that she had to stop as I could no longer cope with listening to it all because I knew she was right. (The conversation had sparked/ set off/ brought up/ triggered painful memories of what happened).

I do understand the differences between the words, and I will make sure I use the term as the dictionary lets me :) and not in the context you have discussed with the nurse example Anthony. I can see how confusing the two would not be beneficial to getting better. i.e. Trigger = the word murder or someone talking about murders or murderers (i.e.watching the news on TV) , Stressor = having to leave the house, where the chances of the word being said are increased, vulnerability is increased and my own safety is in question , Flashback = when I am not sure where I am and what is happening, like I am trapped in the nightmare and I cannot tell the differnce between the here and now and the suffocating past.

Questions: A trigger does not not always lead to a flashback, am I right in saying that? I have never dealt with any flashbacks I have had because I do not have a therapist, but I think I am lucky as I have only had several during the day time, and it was always just what someone was talking about that set them in motion. Could a stressor (such as being in a dark room) not trigger trauma-related thoughts, not just a flahsback? i.e. it could trigger the thought process, the fear, the feelings from a past trauma?

I am glad this thread was put up. Before I was learning about PTSD to start to get better I had said to my GP that certain words kept triggering these feelings / thoughts / memories in me and I could not control them. He looked blankly at me and said "Like what?" and I listed the ones I knew about and he said nothing in response, just "If you know it is happening then just try to stop yourself" :( . I ran away from whatever was said, either to my house or I would walk/run for miles until I was so exhausted. Maybe it is time to start looking at the words of other people and their impact upon me again whenever I get to start therapy.

 

[anthony]

Questions: A trigger does not not always lead to a flashback, am I right in saying that?

Well... something must always initiate a flashback, so it would be actually correct to state that a flashback is triggered by x.

As you pulled from a dictionary, a trigger is the initiator. That is where it ends. The action / result is a different thing altogether, ie. going into a crowd (trigger) I got really panicked (action / result).

Flashback: Something occurred (trigger) then I had a flashback (result being an symptomatic event).

Triggers are typically the easy part to fix. The event / action is the more challenging to reshape.

 

[Meadowsweet]

Triggers are typically the easy part to fix. The event / action is the more challenging to reshape.

I don't understand what you mean here. Since I have isolated myself from close or long term friendships, I have found that flashbacks and panics happen less often.

But obviously I want to move forward and not just avoid risk of being triggered. So I try to look back and distinguish what triggered me. Somethings are obvious. But more often it seems to be something very subtle that I can't quite pin-point - like a tone of voice, or a certain attitude that comes across. It's these things that keep me from getting closer to people, because I fear being triggered.

I did get hypervigilant in friendships. I think this added to the triggering, because I was looking for signs of danger. And perhaps therapy will help me be less paranoid. But when the triggers are subtle and not obvious, how can they be fixed? I think this is what I'm not understanding, sorry.

 

[Red Feather]

I find that there are very fine elements of thought and emotions that often trigger me. Like a thought that is connected to an emotion. So when my son's school teacher says to me "Don't leave your children." Then I get triggered because I think I am guilty and therefore feel completely powerless and the symptom is then a panic attack. Or I am watching a film where a mother has to leave her son on the front door of an orphanage. And later the teacher says to the boy that she probably did it for his own good and had no other choice in the matter. Then I am reminded and think of how I was in the same situation and therefore feel powerless again, so another panic attack is triggered.

But another time in the hospital during a group therapy, I anticipated that I might get triggered and therefore told everyone that I get triggered when I am accused of leaving my children. But it is kind of beside the point actually, because the fact that I am already anticipating it would rule out me getting triggered, because my emotions are already cautious and prepared. So a feeling of being powerless would already be ruled out.... I don't know if that makes sense. :O_o:

 

[Meadowsweet]

Nadia, I think the differentiation I make between stressor and trigger is this: a stressor might be triggered by an outside source, but I am aware quickly that something has touched my emotional buttons. So somebody playing on my feelings of guilt about something that has happened to me would be a stressor (I think)

But the way I interpret a trigger, is when afterwards I realise that the way I was seeing something is quite far removed than how other people see it. An example might be that a friend makes a light-hearted comment that I might want x from a good looking man - it's a normal social exchange, but I am likely to start to feel like I'm being pressured or forced into fulfilling that assumption. Then I get scared and will run a mile. But I feel that fear as real, and can't see through it until I've removed myself and can reflect on the situation.