What are Your Triggers and How Did You Find Them Out?

[EmoxxKid]

Hola….


This is Geneva and I was sitting here thinking after I just wrote the post about boundaries and such, and I would like to know more about triggers.:think:

I don’t know much about them other than the obvious…but I feel like I am missing something.:doh:

Could you all…depending on your level of comfort with me and …uh…life I guess, tell me what your triggers are, some of them at the very least.

I want to understand better perhaps how to find mine out…again, besides the more obvious ones.


So…just tell me what some of yours are and how you came to find that information out.

Thanks,

Geneva:thumbs-up

 

[kers]

Here is a really good post about triggers: [DLMURL="http://www.ptsdforum.org/thread218.html"]PTSD Triggers - The Core Root Before Symptoms Are Activated[/DLMURL]

Most of my triggers are senory in nature, as described in that post. For example, seeing knives, hearing yelling, having someone too close, smelling body odor or certain foods.

The harder triggers for me to identify were less concrete--I get seriously triggered when I feel pushed or pressured into making a choice, for example, or when I feel overwhelmed by other people's demands. It sends me into symptoms.

It can help to notice when you are triggered so you can pick the situations apart to find the root cause.

 

[EmoxxKid]

Thank you so much kers!

 

[rt1967]

hiya Geneva,
Thanks i really liked what you asked,trying to understand here too what is happening and how it is happening and (make sense ? = understand?) sense is a word i have seen a lot of times lately .I know i read something like we experience the world through our senses and filter them through our beliefs i think what i believe keeps changing thats one thing i think i can kind of understand right now hope i remember.It was helpful to read the post about triggers and difficult too was something i noticed i can't seem able to take in a lot of the words and read it properly it was helpful to read that a trigger might be one of 5 things something i see hear smell touch or taste .Thats only 5 pieces of info :-) that helps loads :-) I can think of fleeting examples of things with all of those senses sometimes whilst writing post and some of them are fuzzy sometimes i can't think my experience keeps changing will be looking out for specific ? if thats the word examples and trying to take note of that .Thanks for helping .
Ruth :-) Good luck

 

[rt1967]

Sorry Geneva,if that was too much info ,it seems to swing between lots of info and thoughts then none just saw the post i'm not sure how you can read right now.Ruth

 

[ruddy]

I'm just starting to learn what some of my triggers are. The more powerful (obvious) triggers are the ones that involve the senses (hands on my mouth or neck, feeling physically trapped).

The more subtle triggers are emotional - usually involving something that someone said. Those are still distressing, but not incapacitating. I'll find myself having emotions that aren't are not appropriate to the situation. I know logically that my feelings are out of bounds, and generally don't verbalize or act on them, but the internal battle rages on.

 

[logan]

My triggers are the doctor appointments the night before and that day.So make my appointment for first thing morning,so i don't panic all day
this all happen because of a tree but they don't scare me i still cut them just alittle smaller lol
but one trigger that get is seeing a boat wreck but that's another story
keep well

 

[baileysemt]

Currently my strongest trigger is a particular song. It is a song that I heard on one of the days of a multi-day trauma, the lyrics and sound of which really "spoke to" what I was going through. That song became hard-wired to the horrible experience and feelings of that day. Now when I hear it, I am transported back right in that moment, to that day, those feelings, what I was going through. As crystal clear as if it is happening now.

It is by far the strongest trigger that I have. There have been many others which over time, I have worked through, and which no longer bother me. (Yes, it is possible! Yay!) This song though, is by far the most powerful trigger I have experienced to date.

Not sure if this is what you were looking for, but hope it helps.


Bailey

 

[nor]

A response from my mother, an inflection in her tone of voice, a short comment....actually, my mother is my trigger. In an instant she can bring back years of hidden memories, hidden guilt, hidden anguish.

There is a difference between talking to my psyc and trying to find the "trigger" and dealing with it versus, talking with my mother and her just making a small comment and sending me into a whirlwind (that I wound up needing to call my doctor for help).

So, you say, don't see my mother.....great, and how do you suggest I do that. She and my father are elderly and need our attention at various times of the week.....

Also, an approach by my husband for intimacy. I literally freeze-it brings back way too many memories...

Whatever.....those are my triggers

nor

 

[vera]

-lighters or matches being lit close to my skin
-someone yelling my name
-hearing women scream
-suddenly realizing someone is standing close to me and i hadn't noticed
-realizing i'm entering a line of interaction in which the other person is entitled to make questions

and this other thing happens... you know when you start getting really close to someone you sort of start talking like them? (inflection, usual words). whenever i get too close to somebody and they start talking like me, they start talking like my ex-guy (we talked alike for the same reasons) and then i start fearing that they're actually *turning into him*. and i want to run.

 

[vst]

News stories of sexual molesters, someone leaning over me while I am sitting on a chair, friends treating me inconsistently, certain smells and when I am somewhere without an escape route...

I am learning my triggers as they happen and so far these are the ones I recognize.

vst