What Are Your Triggers?

[ChavaRo]

1. Songs I listened to during that time period (Eyes Open - Taylor Swift, Open Wounds - Skillet...)
2. My bed, unfortunately
3. Being put in situations that mirror an aspect of my experience - thankfully this is very rare but it's happened twice
4. My own body
5. Pictures of myself
6. Feeling overwhelmed academically, because I partly see it as a result of what happened to me
7. My old bedroom, but I don't live there anymore, and also the room has been completely remodeled
8. Reading text messages from my dad

That's all I can really think of right now. And then of course if I'm somewhere like class and someone says something that triggers a memory...

 

[p-no]

So, triggers, not stressors:

A very specific type of breathing
A very specific body tenseness/posture
Some smells
Smacking (even lightly it is a trigger, but when someone smacks heavily, I get aggressive (and leave the situation (already when I feel it coming))
Holding me tight by my wrists
Holding me down and not releasing me when I say to
Bad breath (sometimes)
Seeing some of my abusers by chance on the street, others don't bother me anymore (despite the fact they're out on the streets and not in jail)
Sperm, especially bad floating in water
"Slippery as an eel"-behaviour towards any person (that's a German idiom used for a specific type of behaviour that I can't explain any other way)
The mere thought of my ex-husband (sometimes) and him physically being there (often, ever since I've left)
The memory of my ex-husband saying to me when I last saw him: "If God wants us to, we will be back together again."

 

[Sorendaniel3]

Hi i know I'm years late to the party but i recently made a list of all my triggers for my therapist and wanted to share it. I'm 17 now and the trauma happened when i was a child so i'm just now working through my ptsd. I've found that i have a lot of triggers
Triggers
these are triggers that i see in real life while going about daily life, stuff in movies/on tv, on the internet, things people say/do. They could trigger a flashback, make me think about stuff, or just evoke an awful sense of dread and/or sadness and anxiety

Guns/gunshots
Rape/pedophillia
Elementary schools
Kidnapping/missing child reports
Duct tape
Rope
Chains
Fire
Cigarette burns
Anything with "daddy" or daddy fetish relationships, just the word daddy i f*cking hate it
Abortion
Baby clothes, seeing happy people with babies or children
Heroin & needles (sometimes)
Incest (daughter/father)
Cameras (unless its a selfie or im taking it)
Knives
Money (very rarely)
Biting
genital mutilation
Anyone with the same name as my abusers
Nails
Stickiness in my hair
Certain songs
Being on my knees
Staying over at someone's house
Getting beat up
Vomiting (sometimes)
Blood (very rarely) but the taste of blood in my mouth specifically is really bad
Having to care for an open wound
Bruises (rarely)
Ripped out teeth
Hair pulling
Decapitation
Porn and the fact that everyone watches it
Basements
Warehouses
Trash bags
Belts (sometimes, hearing a belt be undone)
Certain cologne smells
Blindfolds or mouth gags
Sex in general
Someone referring to me as a dog
Being restrained at all
Car trunks
Someone saying anything like "i dont care what you want"
Having a period
Bathtubs
Showers
Dog collars or any collar
Murder
Necrophillia
Hotels
Not being able to go home
Sheds or places with boarded up windows
Police
Shovels or burying stuff
Little kids
Pins (sometimes)
Saws (VERY BAD)
Peeling wallpaper
Handcuffs
The back of trucks
Stuff in my eyes
Bedrooms
Mattresses
Dresses
Hands on my face or over my mouth
Torture or torture devices
Certain paintings
Slavery/indicating a human has any monetary value
Certain girls' hair
Having my mouth held open at the dentist
Spiders
Prostitution
Make up (sometimes)
Being referred to as a girl
Hanging
The words slut & whore & slave & master
Being in a place with a lot of older men
Loud noises
Some stuffed animals
Bathrooms (specific ones)
People who look like them
Screaming animals
Anniversaries
Someone raising their arm like they're about to hit me
Hitting
Yelling
Anger
Drowning
Being observed/watched
Being told i have to do something/feeling forced to do something
When my mom turns up the tv when someone is talking
Certain colors
Hearing a child scream
Being told i have to take medication (sometimes)
Certain kinds of light
Feeling nauseous (sometimes)
Dolls (sometimes)
The smell of bleach
The smell of sweat on other people
People wearing masks
Hearing people approach my room when the door is shut
The doorbell ringing
Being held in someone's lap (its triggering but it also helps)

Surprisingly drunk/high people do not bother me at all
Its a really long list haha but it helped to recognize them. I was kidnapped & sex trafficked when i was 9 to 12 years old so thats why some of them are so extreme. Thank you for this thread

 

[holdenmonty]

I feel like I have a lot like Daniel but they all seem to boil down to a couple main things and they are the unknown, being disrespected/lack of respect, chaos, and there are others of things that remind me of the trauma's but in all honesty I really don't want to think about them at this moment.

 

[Changing4Best]

I get triggered when men try to kiss me and I am not expecting it, especially married men! I hate that so much. I duck and avoid contact as much as I can.

Being lost makes me panic, especially when I am driving. If I don't know where I am and how to get home from there, I lose it! (I even got into an accident once because of this).

Being ignored makes me mad or sad or self conscious.