Triggers, Are They Defense Mechanisms?

[scout86]

The way I understand this, a "trigger" triggers the whole fight/flight/freeze system. What ever follows, for better or worse, is your brain's attempt to deal with the perceived threat. I'm sure sometimes this can be very specific, like the snake analogy. Sometimes, at least for me, it's more general. Sometimes, for instance, a horse owner will do something incredibly stupid while I'm shoeing their horse. My instant reaction is to want to go after the person because "they're trying to get me killed!" They are NOT actually TRYING to get me killed, they are just incredibly stupid, which could get someone hurt. My reaction is over the top, or nothing at all because I realize killing them before they kill me isn't the way to go. The reason I react that way is the the fight/flight/freeze circuits in my brain are wired a little differently. The same reason I tend to react to people sneaking up behind me and touching my arm to get my attention by wanting to hit them. (Something I also try hard not to do!)

What @Sighs said in other words.

My T isn't an advocate of avoiding those situations. (Most of them are out of my control anyway.) He says I need to "think of better ways to react to them." He also suggests that I think about it in advance, run through scenarios in my head, and PRACTICE those better responses in advance, in my head. A lot. The idea being to have more and better options available when stuff happens. Not easy, but possible. It would be easier to try to avoid that kind of stuff, but not very productive, if the goal is to function in the same world as "most people".

 

[GWhizz]

I don't know that allowing the nightmare to play itself out would be a good idea; not without trained professionals there to monitor it. Our brains can produce false memories, and if the nightmares are allowed to continue you could end up with a lot of these false memories.

I understand this point. Though that's why I'm working with my T to determine what actually did or didn't happen. There are different schools of thought on whether or not to interrupt nightmares/flashbacks. At the end of the day, I know my subconscious mind will win as I will eventually experience a fully blown flashback or nightmare when I don't have anyone there to ground me - at least this has happened to me before. Anyway, sorry to take this thread off in a different direction!

 

[Loren]

Is it the brain's way of attempting a defense against futher injury? I am just trying to wrap my head around how all this works.

Yes, it is, in a way. It is the brains mall-adaptive attempt to keep you on the alert, for the dangers that a PTSD mind is patrolling for -- constantly in some cases. For some people, the flashbacks are not triggered by anything, except a mind that feels the need -- on occasion -- to send out a warning: it's kind-of-like the amigdala woke from a nap and realized it hadn't sent out a bolt of pain (a flashback) in the last few minutes. For many of us, we don't need a trigger, our minds are quite willing to keep firing postcards from hell throughout our waking moments, on what often appears to be a subconscious whim.

For the better part, the flashbacks happen more during the times that you allow yourself to get stressed, past your bodies ability to keep these mall-adaptive responses to past trauma at bay (somewhat). Stress and tiredness are the dire enemies of the PTSD sufferer. If you have PTSD, you must watch stress the same way a diabetic watches his/her blood sugar. Stress starts the ball rolling, and we all know what the ball is like when it is rolling.

It might help you to consider flashbacks to be nothing but a postcard from hell, and a product of a mind that is trying to protect you, but has lost its knowledge of how and when to do so. So many of these trigger impulses reside in the subconscious, and most of us can never fully put them to rest.

There are some very effective ways to deal with flashbacks, but for many of us, they will be a permanent part of our mental landscape until we die.

They can be lived with. It ain't always fun, but it can happen for you.

 

[Meadowsweet]

It leads me to the debate as to whether it's a good idea to try to avoid/minimise triggers, or to actually gently begin to allow the brain to process things.

This is pretty much what most trauma therapies attempt to do.

I wonder if there's also an element of brain/mind being so shocked that it simply refuses to process (whatever that means and entails) the horrific events?

That is pretty much what I've understood about PTSD memory. Sometimes it is that the mind is too young (as in childhood) and sometimes it is because the incident is too much for the mind to take in, so it doesn't get taken in.

@scout86 , Anthony wrote a thread about stressors and triggers, that is quite interesting in relation to what you've said.

The understanding I took from that in relation to my own experience, is that stressors trigger the fight.flight/freeze response, but triggers trigger the trauma memory to replay.

@RussH , re what I was just saying, this is also the differentiation I make between something that is a defence or coping mechanism, and something that brings back the reliving experience. An example of this would be, that there was a time I was in the bath and just messing with the tap with my toe, and quite suddenly, I went from feeling ok, to having quite a severe flashback. It related to quite a minor part of a trauma, and I don't believe for a second that my mind saw anything as a danger, it purely that the replay of the memory was triggered by that specific touch.

 

[RussH]

Anyway, sorry to take this thread off in a different direction!

Not a problem

 

[RussH]

Thank you for all your responses. I know when I am triggered, my biggest is rejection, my flashback is overwhelming grief. The last time was the worst time in my adult life, and I really did not know if I would recover from it, and I am not sure if I have completely.

I am not sure when I am being triggered if my brain is trying to protect me, or just drawing back to that nightmare, the day part of me died, and changed my life in a negative direction. I guess the purpose of this thread is to try and understand triggers better, and figure out a way to handle them, or at least disarm them.

 

[Alien Goodness]

I know that a trigger is anything that causes a reaction. What I don't know is what causes the triggers? Is it the brain's way of attempting a defense against futher injury? I am just trying to wrap my head around how all this works.

My personal take is that a trigger is linked to the brain's defense mechanism but it isn't the brain defending against further injury. It is a reaction to pain already inflicted, like a bump against a wound that hasn't healed yet.

 

[Laura 2]

It is a reaction to pain already inflicted, like a bump against a wound that hasn't healed yet.

I certainly agree with this.

Also to me it sort of feels like an extension of hypervigilence: like my brain is always, always scanning the horizon for sabre-tooth tigers and sometimes it gets a glimpse of something moving in the tall grass just like when me and it were attacked for real before.

Only this time it's just the wind and brain has already gone into hyper-overdrive and flashed up the feelings from the real memories in which it immerses me in its kind efforts to keep me safe this time...

 

[xena21]

What I don't know is what causes the triggers? Is it the brain's way of attempting a defense against futher injury?

As you know the definition of a trigger is "An event that precipitates other events"... One answer I found for the reason a trigger was initiated by the brain was in this study..."Such triggers are usefully identified in clinical psychology so that strategies can be worked on to alter the response, so that clinical problems are avoided or managed more appropriately".

That's a scientifically studied response to triggers. I suppose there's an easier answer. Obviously triggers initiate a response in us. They are there because we were traumatized in some way in the past. The trigger is what is initiated by the past events. Not everyone has the same triggers because everyone has different histories that produce different triggers. I suppose you'd have to be a gun enthusiast to understand the analogy of an actual trigger. A real trigger makes the gun fire a round or bullet out of the gun. Each gun is different. There are different pressures that are needed on the trigger to make them actually fire the round. Every gun is a little different just like every person is a little different. You need to get comfortable with yourself and your history to get used to your triggers.

Your brain is different from everyone elses brain there is no set answer.