Triggers?

[Pompadour]

I was wondering what happens to you when you hear, see, smell or otherwise come into contact with one of your triggers? How do you feel or react, what do you do, think or say?

I wonder whether I have it clear in my head what a trigger actually is and does, or whether what I suffer is something else. I've been looking for the answer ever since I started reacting so extremely to specific stimuli, but I don't feel like I can properly describe what it does to me. I wasn't clear when I told my Psychiatrist about it (at all), so I think she just thought I simply didn't like some sounds and moved the conversation on quickly. I didn't really tell her basically, it was like a timid footnote... I am seeing her again soon and definitely going to practice what I want to tell her this time so I actually do it, because it is very serious to me. I just always downplay everything, especially because my memory works strangely so I am highly distrustful of whether any percieved negative experience is even true.

I'm not going to use the word trigger, since I don't know what it is or if it applies really, but I am very interested to see what it means to you anyway.

 

[intothelight]

Hi Pompadour,

Your question is really good one. I am not a mental health professional and this information is just based upon my own experience and how I view triggers.

To me a trigger can be a place, object, sound, voice, smell, or some other stimuli that creates an emotional response that is disproportionate or unrelated to present events. For example, a red and white truck makes me feel panicked and I have an intense desire to put as much distance between myself and that vehicle as possible. Even though I know that my ex no longer drives a red and white truck, and in reality is in jail at the present, the intense feeling of fear is still there.

But since I recognize this as a trigger, I use a lot of self talk to remind myself that I am safe. My ex is not in the vehicle and it is someone who is just driving to work, the store, or where ever they need to get to. I work on deep breathing and relaxing, and basically just keep telling myself that my reaction is out of place based on present circumstances. The more I practice this the better it gets.

I hope this helps a bit. I would also suggest searching this site for information on triggers and ways to cope with them.

Take care.
Debbie

 

[Deimos]

I'm my view a trigger is something that creates an abnormal response to a normal event. It could be sight, smells, a phrase, and most often for me its a feeling that triggers me. Something in the present causes me to give a response from the past. Depending on the trigger my response could be an emotion or at times a physical reaction. Most times I'm aware of being triggered but occasionally I don't realize it until I have done something out of character. Sometimes the response can just be a mental image.

For instance, last night I was giving my 3yo a bath and my wife threw a wash cloth in the tub. I was sitting on the edge of the tub and the cloth flew by inches from my face. I froze and had an image of a similar event during my trauma. I could see a boy who was hit in the eye with something thrown at him. It hit so hard he didn't have any white in his eye, it was all red. The wash cloth wasn't the trigger but rather having an object thrown close to my face was. The original event was a piece of candy, a sucker I think that hit his eye. When it happened it missed my face by about an inch before hitting the other person.

 

[Ted Moen]

I would describe a trigger as anything (sight, touch, smell, sound, taste, thought, behavior) that stimulates one or more of the intense thoughts and/or feelings we have stuffed in the process of doing what we had to do to survive the abnormal (traumatic) situation.

Ted

 

[angel2write]

To me, a trigger feels like anything that unreasonably cranks up my anxiety level. Like, if I saw a tiger in the parking lot, that would reasonably raise my anxiety level. But if a man walks by me wearing mirrored sunglasses and my heart starts racing, I flinch, and I have to fight myself not to flee the parking lot.... that is unreasonable. That is a trigger.

Another thing that makes something a trigger to me is the time it takes to calm my system down again. Like, if I glimpse a coiled cord out of the corner of my eye and think "snake!" my heart races and my anxiety goes up. Only in that case, when I look at it squarely, I see it is really not a snake, and my anxiety goes back down. I calm down relatively quickly. With a trigger, not only does the anxiety fight/flight response take off violently, it takes hours to days for me to get my system calmed down again.

The trigger provokes old emotion states. It brings out the emotions that were present during the trauma. It brings back memories, too. Images, sounds, or tactile feelings can flash across my awareness in a way that is more powerful than ordinary memory.

 

[mamachick]

For me, triggers are like taking me back in time, to a time when I felt the same intense fear or other emotion, and my reaction may come out different during the trigger. It is not necessarily anxiety as in a racing heart or feeling shaken. I can feel calm, frozen , nausea.

Tonight I realized that a result of a trigger for me can be freezing, or feeling paralized. A couple of weeks ago, and ex boyfriend began calling me to make amends. At first I expected it to be a single conversation. Then another call, and another. Kind of curious about his calls, I listened and discovered he is just a lonely recovering alcoholic (not really recovering). He is a real Ahole. His father made him a millionaire and he talks obsessively about money. He is very shallow. He is a dick in every sense. It was a brief relationship. Anyway, conversations with him leave me triggered, which I do not do normally. Not sure what or how, but question my sanity in my curiousity and even anwereing since I do have caller ID.

Maybe his existance is a trigger as I dated him briefly following a brain injury. When I came to my senses, I got away from him. He caused trouble with everyone. He couldnt accept the word "no". He is not based in reality and may be delusional. He is definately paranoid and accused me of having his phone tapped when he recently called. He said that I was sitting here and knew he was going to call me. (must have been the antenna hat Im sitting here wearing). Its kind of one crazy thing after another and there is a part of me that thinks I would rather keep my thumb on the pulse since I have spoke with him. Then I realize that I have not spoke with him in years and have been safe.

 

[Tinyflame]

Yes, a reaction/ emotion not specifically related to present realities but occurring in the present due to something (as mentioned above, an object, smell, who a person resembles, etc) that leads immediately to the same feelings during the (a) trauma, and the thoughts/ feelings that went with it (fear, horror etc).
Sometimes I can identify what causes it, other times not or not for a while. The key is to realize it (there) is a trigger from something past, (not a current 'reality').
(For me).

 

[Meadowsweet]

I am quite new to the diagnosis of PTSD, so for the past few years I've been triggered without understanding what is going on with me. So I recognise the reaction I'm having, but I don't always understand the trigger. The reaction tends to include trauma related images and reliving emotions and thoughts I felt around the time of the trauma. But sometimes I have thoughts that something similar is about to happen again and I take measures to stop it. I am getting better at not doing that now.

 

[Sdn]

I'm new to trauma terms too and am unsure of my understanding. To me a trigger is anything one would need to remove to make an area feel completely safe from past traumas.

One of my triggers normally doesn't cause enough anxiety to matter, but if it is there when trying to sleep it'll cause trauma-related dreams that wake me. It makes my bedroom feel unsafe, therefore I call it a trigger. It is the sound of a fan running, but only when fixed in place. Setting it to automatically move back and forth changes the sound enough to not be a trigger.

 

[votedmostcheerful]

I am new to the sight and to the diagnosis but not to the pain. In my case, I strongly BELIEVE the triggers and what they are telling me. I am triggered when I perceive that someone is saying that- as a person, I am not enough, bad, or that I am deficient in an unfixable way.

For example, over the holidays I suggested that we play a family board game that was a gift. My husband, myself and our 11 year old twins excitedly played the game. The game itself is really fun but you reveal parts of yourself as you answer the questions. My adoring sons commented with each play that MY answers were not fun or were LAME! I now see that they have shifted their adoration to my husband --totally developmentally appropriate but I was heartbroken and cried/then spoke to them sternly about their treatment of me. I don't want anyone to walk on eggshells because MOM is too fragile!

 

[lil_fighter]

Welcome votedmostcheerful :) hope you're finding the site useful

It's an interesting one..triggers. I don't know, I mean for me when The Simpsons comes on TV every weekday - that is a trigger because as strange as it sounds, during one of the traumatic events that took place The Simpsons was his choice of DVD to play in the background and when it finished he put on another one and another one. I've never been a big Simpsons fan but because a game show is always on at the same time everyday and my mum watches it, soon after The Simpsons comes on and that gradual build up of the theme tune usually means I have to quickly switch the channel over. I think the theme tune to it is worse than the programme itself with regards to reminding me, but I have tried leaving it on to desensitise myself from making any connection to the trauma but it doesn't work, I cant bear it and I change it over..

I could be fine all day thinking about anything but the trauma..I totally forget about the programme and the trauma, then it comes on and Im back there again and I see this ugly creep's face and I see it all happening again for those few seconds while I change the channel over to the news or whatever..then I can put it out of my head. I get annoyed that such a silly thing triggers memories but you've got to do what you've got to do to get through this I guess.

Another example of a trigger, is listening to songs on my iPod and randomly a song that I was listening to when I was feeling suicidal (there are a few songs) comes on and it reminds me of that dark time, when now Im at a much better stage, trying to be optimistic so I refuse to listen to it because it makes me feel very uncomfortable. For me, these are major triggers.

 

[Victim/Writer]

My triggers are completely unexpected. I was walking down the hallway the other day, feeling completely fine. Behind me, a girl called for her friend in a loud voice, and I just bolted. I just started sprinting, heart pounding, without any thought. That noise is not even related to the assault that caused my PTSD. Is it just general heightened awareness?