Trigger Analysis

[Senecia]

I was thinking about triggers earlier. As with any word, there can be different meanings to different people. I wanted to take a "thought inventory", if you will.

For me, I suppose I'm still figuring out what these terms mean to me. I have things that get the ball rolling on upsetting thought processes, things that immediately make me cry when I see them, as well as moments where I'm just reminded of trauma and can't think about anything else...and start going down that spiral.

So, I wanted to know what happens with all of you guys. It helps to know what can trigger us so we don't go into situations unprepared.

Try to think without setting yourself off: what does the word "trigger" mean to you? What tends to trigger you, and how do you cope?

 

[anonymous]

I think that in the PTSD sense, a trigger is something that is directly related to our trauma. Anything not directly related to our trauma is considered a stressor.

For me, I have food triggers (ie foods that my abuser fed me), I have smell triggers (smells associated with my abusers----alcohol, drinks and cleaning products), I have sight triggers (things I saw during the abuse), and I have sound triggers (abusers voice).

I also have major stressors. Things like school, MONEY, etc.

I handle my triggers in a way that is different from my stressors. I know its not good to avoid, but yeah, I do avoid. I can live without the foods she fed me. Not a loss, and not hard to avoid. Simply do not buy. Smells can be a bit more problematic as I can't just avoid them. Fortunately they don't trigger me nearly as bad. Sight triggers, well, I just don't watch a particular 1970's sitcom. The sound trigger is the most recently discovered one and is the most problematic. I think it will lessen over time.

Stressors are mainly due to life and must be dealt with. ie getting support at school or having someone help me with my finances.

 

[Friday]

This is a really useful thread: Stressor vs. Trigger - What Is A Trigger?

Especially since getting triggered is different from "a trigger". Usually a stressor triggers us. Sometimes a trigger triggers us. So the terminology is one of those "It's very simple..." things that become complicated.

 

[garden]

I have smell triggers...eg. Whiskey. I did not grow up around alcohol at all, and was very isolated, but the man who sexually abused me used to have this smell on his breath. When I grew up I was able to identify it without a doubt as Whiskey.

There is an obscure shade of blue that triggers me, it was on the walls in the home that we lived in until I was 6. It's not really popular anymore, thank goodness, and I rarely see it around, but when I do, it takes me someplace far away.

Can anniversaries be considered triggers? I mean, I know that anniversaries throw me into ptsd symptom hell...yeah, I would consider anniversaries to be a trigger too.

Gosh, this has me thinking about a bunch of yucky stuff...

 

[Friday]

Most of the time what triggers me is incredibly obvious. The way the sun is slanting, a uniform, a smell, an action, a touch, a sound, the humidity level, whatever kind of stressor it is may as well have it's name in lights up on the marquis. Can't miss it. That goes times a million for actual triggers.

Sometimes I have to seriously step back and parse WTF just happened.

During my good years (10+) I would forget every year that I kick into insomnia in the fall. Each & every year. :p It would be anywhere from a few weeks to a month or more before I'd catch the taste of metal in the back of my mouth. Oh. That's adrenaline. (And then I'm wide awake for the next 10 hours, or the next few hours if it was a low-grade panic attack, until I'd calmed me'self down). Stupid anniversaries. Right. It must be Sept-Nov. Thwibbt.

Other examples of being confused & needing to parse include;

- stressors I'd already blunted or ditched via ExposureTherapy / were in my life all the time with no ill effect, suddenly finding where they left their dentures and biting me

- being too busy to notice everything my brain was noticing (especially parenting, my attention was often elsewhere)

- plain old forgetting that something like certain kinds of pain always kick me into flashbacks & anxiety attacks

- frog in boiling water... When something creeps In (isn't a problem at ABC level, is a big problem at XYZ level),

- stressCup is gradually filled & Im not venting stress appropriately, all of a sudden Bam! something that shouldn't/ doesn't usually trigger a reaction? Does.

 

[Senecia]

@FridayJones Thanks for the reference. I'm new and haven't looked through the archive stuff. Though reading through his explanation, I just can't identify with it. Like, I know I'm being taken back to something, but now I'm confused and don't want to use any terminology. I can't tell the difference between any of them! Bah.

@Lewa thanks for going into that detail. My T just says, like put a wall up. Identify what's there but try not go cross the wall and be overwhelmed. It's hard for me to do too. At least now you can avoid whiskey, right? Yucky yucky yucky.

 

[garden]

Thanks for that link @FridayJones, I see the difference more clearly now. So anniversaries are more of a stressor than a trigger. Right?

 

[The Albatross]

The only thing I know about triggers is to do exposures when they are uncovered and also that they will pop up at the seemingly darnedest times... there is no defense often, and they can come out of nowhere. Mine are smells, situations, visual, touch/body contact and auditory things... but are very specific now. Since doing exposures they have reduced considerably.

 

[shimmerz]

Helicopters, diesel trucks, the orange glow of a setting sun, windows, doors, 4 walls and a roof, horns honking, trucks tailgating, red trucks, 'Back Racks', grass, lawnmowers and weedeaters, emergency vehicles, kitchens, casseroles, tv shows, radio shows, streets, trees, children crying lol. Never mind.

I could tell when a helicopter was coming (rather than an airplane) a full 3 minutes before someone straining to hear it could hear it. It was crazy. I would watch it - couldn't take my eyes off of it - until it was out of hearing range (which, btw is a long time after it is out of sight). After it is a trigger, (once it is gone), it then becomes a stressor (when will another come, dropping from hyper arousal), until getting my physiological homeostasis back. God help me if a child cries while I am in this state. Skyrocket again and stressors look like triggers because I still haven't come fully out of trigger mode.

Long story short, a stressor can look like a trigger if already engaged in a trigger state. If they coincide often enough the stressor can then become tied to the original trigger and become a trigger in and of itself. Exhausting just writing about it. No idea how I did it for so long.

 

[Friday]

@Lewa... That's my understanding of it.

 

[Senecia]

I feel silly now, but I think I finally get it. A trigger is a thing, and the thing triggers (causes) a "flashback". Is that right?
Different from stressors. I think I'm understanding.
I suppose I felt confused in my own state because of my own misconception about what a flashback is. People often describe them as visual, but the description that I read somewhere is a sensory, whether physical or emotional, event overwhelms you and you're often having trouble distinguishing it from the trauma and the present moment.

Mine are mostly emotional, from abuse and whatnot. So if I hear a phrase, I immediately assume the whole situation is the same and I shut down.

@shimmerz it seems as if its a domino effect. Thank you for sharing your experiences.

No idea how I did it for so long.

I'm assuming you've mostly healed then, right? I hope so. How..stressful.

 

[The Albatross]

Triggers send you out of body or give you lost time, or give you flashback... the rest (to me) is a stresser.