Trigger Analysis

[garden]

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.

@shimmerz I call this bionic hearing. When I'm up and hypervigilant I have bionic hearing. I suspect this is something we've all experienced at one time or another.

I have heard the deer walking through the grass outside while I'm inside with all windows and doors closed. Brought to you by: Flight or Fight.

 

[Senecia]

Thank you :) also, I need to add. Albatrosses are amazing birds.

 

[Senecia]

@Lewa It's pretty incredible, despite its causes. My fiance is always commenting how he can't smell or hear something but I'm constantly reacting to things I'm picking up on. My classic reaction is the "deer in headlights" pose and expression..

 

[holdenmonty]

For me a trigger is anything that brings back the memories that I would rather not remember and emotions that I would rather not feel that are related to those memories. I saw one last week that I didn't even realize was a trigger until I saw one but it's a medical black hawk with the red cross on it and everything... also the smell of dust/dirt. I found a pair of boots that I wore while deployed and seeing them and smelling the dirt that is caked onto them. For me a stressor can be anything and everything. Something that they told us in the anger management class that I attended was that a situation/enviroment is the fuel and an event is the fire. If we are in a situation that is frustrating and something happens that is frustrating our anger explodes but if you are able to control one and not get frustrated at the situation/enviroment but something frustrating happens then you have the fire but no fuel so nothing explodes and if you are in a frustrating situation/enviroment but not frustrating event then you have the fuel but no fire to make it explode. But I have noticed that it seems like for me the vast majority of the time with ptsd it's like my ptsd is the fuel so anything frustrating is the fire and causes my anger to explode, but I'm learning to control the anger and use it in a positive way instead of destructive.

 

[Chava]

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.

That's a helpful distinction. The word "trigger" seems over-used. For healing, it's helpful to try to sort it all out. Lots of things tip me into a hyper or angry mode because I simply have dysregulation issues. I wouldn't call most of them "triggers"...but stressors that I handle sort of badly because my body simply mismanages all kinds of stress...even good stress sometimes.

As for "triggers", they are mostly related to body sensations and feeling like I don't have control (so like pain, being sick, anything unpredictable)...a therapist summed it up by telling me my body is my main trigger. The difference between regular stressors and these triggers is that I feel trapped, immobilized, and horribly stuck in all time (that's how it feels, though it doesn't make sense...I'm not in the present, but like scattered all over the place). I feel completely uncontained and yet I can't just curl up because I feel totally trapped. Trapped and yet blown to pieces.

I have very few visual flashbacks (if I do, it's like flashes of light, still highly sensory bits, or brief images from adult trauma...like stuck on my hand trying to reach for safety). Most of my re-experiencing involves body memories and physical sensations (major traumas were serious early medical and body-violating abuse). I'm usually alone but I can't handle people close to me...even light touch makes me sting all over, like I'm hitting a fire or being electrocuted...highly charged like that.

I can't avoid my body anymore so am working on tolerating a huge range of experiences. If I have to face bad triggers head on, I do my best to breathe and over-focus on something present. But certain pains or sensations make me go totally numb and I feel like I'm floating (this happened during a uterine biopsy). I assume my doc saw me checking out because I remember her saying my name a lot. Thankfully I don't need uterine biopsies daily. But to help with any medical or invasive-like procedure, I've gotten good at asking lots of questions. I also stick with doctors who aren't rush-rush, who explain what options are and give me choices, and then explain what will happen. I also allow myself a hide-out place and period of time afterwards.

Sucks because I can't get away from my body, so it would seem. But I did for a long time...numbness, existing outside my body, etc. To be healthy I have to pay attention to various sensations and cues and learn how to feel myself connected/within my body.

I don't get too hung up on terms. I call my ugly episodes "meltdowns" and they all involve time and self distortions. It helps to recognize what's going on before I get to too deep...then I have strategies for keeping present and feeling mobile and less trapped.

 

[Changing4Best]

I was reading a biography by a woman who is schizophrenic and it really triggered me, even though I am not suffering from that illness. She described some of the thoughts that her mind was throwing at her and these were really crazy sounding and I felt my mind doing some strange things in response to reading all that. The book is entitled "THE CENTER CANNOT HOLD my journey through madness" by Elyn R. Saks. My therapist loaned me the book. It is an autobiography and I love biographies. I would read it again, even though it made me feel crazy to read it. I really understood her madness! And also now I better understand a man I knew who was suffering from that illness too.

Other things that rigger me are things about sexual abuse, especially about this in relation to a child. I saw a TV show about this once and I cried and could not even speak, because my grandfather had told me never to tell anyone about what he had done to me. So I was able to write a note to my husband about it, because that was not one of the things that telling encompassed in my very young mind then. I had not learned to write yet when he told me not to tell. I was that young. My husband and I talked about it a bit then, as I was able to speak once I wrote the note to him. He had watched the show with me. This was years ago now, as he died in 2005 and we saw that show before 1997.

Thoughts about possibly becoming homeless again trigger me with panic attacks. I have to pray that away. God eases my panic and anxiety when I ask Him to.

 

[joeylittle]

The word "trigger" seems over-used. For healing, it's helpful to try to sort it all out. Lots of things tip me into a hyper or angry mode because I simply have dysregulation issues. I wouldn't call most of them "triggers"...but stressors that I handle sort of badly because my body simply mismanages all kinds of stress...even good stress sometimes.

Yes, a thousand times, yes.

Just because I have PTSD, I am not 'triggered' every time I get upset. I get upset over many things that have nothing at all to do with PTSD, or depression, or any mental health issue.

Unless I can 100% point to the relationship of the trigger to my trauma, it's not a trigger (for me). And I think it's useful to interrogate them when you think you may have been triggered but you are not sure why - sometimes there will be an incomplete memory, or sometimes it's something entirely different.

 

[Deleted member 28812]

Do you discuss your triggers with other people? Do you wish they stopped using them?

Somebody wrote he was triggered by the smell of Wrigleys chewing gum and smokes. It's so funny because it is one of the most pleasant smells for me. I think it is like a positive trigger. Do positive triggers exist? When someone chews gum I just like them for having that hubbylike smell.

My hubby smells like chewing gum and it calms him down, so he is not triggered by the smell. I loved this smell before I met hubby and now love it even more and if he one day decided to stop chewing gum I would be just so disappointed.

I like to chew gum andf just thought "Should I stop that now?". I don't want to trigger a lot of people.

 

[shimmerz]

Do positive triggers exist?

Yes. I used them whenever I could to 'overwrite' negative triggers. They are super helpful. The chewing gum smell you are speaking of I would call more of an association than a trigger.

 

[anonymous]

No, @Lemontree, don't stop doing.....anything..... with the thought you must stop in order to avoid triggering people. There is a difference between having respect and abiding by personal boundaries..... which could be more along the lines of if you are a touchy-feely person then NOT touching everyone you meet (sorry, peeve of mine) and not necessarily changing things like gum chewing..... which could be akin to changing your diet, and too much for anyone to ask of you.....unless it was a partner and the reaction was severe....in general it's better to work through triggers like this rather than avoid them.