What Are Your Triggers?

[katapuss]

Some of my triggers:

Not getting a reply text or email from a person - I interpret to mean they are rejecting me (They usually aren't)
People looking away from me when I am talking to them - (I interpret this to mean they dont like what I have said - and - wait for it - that they will reject me)
Coming into a room where people are laughing - they must be laughing at me of course (probably not)

 

[jennifer0506]

when i don't feel listened to, when someone talks over me, i literally explore. i scream, and cry, and become completely over the top. And when i feel my opinions are not heard. So basically for me, not feeling heard or understood.

 

[Luthien]

This is VERY helpful for me, as I have not really ever though about it deeply enough to compile a list. Maybe knowing my triggers will be helpful.

1) Seeing the people who raped me, or people who look like them
2) The Eagles(as in Hotel California)
3) Blanket over my head (this is one of the worst)
4) Feeling trapped.
5) My hands being held above my head
6) My stomach being kissed
7) December and January (because my traumas happened in those months)
8) Rape or abuse scenes in movies or books
9) Being in pain, especially when I wake up in pain
10) Asthma attacks
11) Vomiting.
12) Not being allowed to express my opinion in an arguement.
13) Sometimes, the smell of mushroom soup. (not always, it seems to depend on other factors)
14) Not being allowed to leave or escape when I have a fight with my husband.
15) Being tapped (like on the arm)
16) Being in a crowd.
17) Loud noises
18) My husband opening the door when I am in the shower
19) People coming up behind me when I am cooking at the counter or stove and trapping me there
19) My husband mentioning my rape or other abuses while we are fighting.
20) Thinking too much about god, or religion, or people trying to push religion on me (this is a hard one, as a lot of my family are Jehovah's Witnesses)
21) Strange men, especially if they get too close or want to talk to me.
22) Having to make a phone call.
23) Dishes and housework. (not always, seems to depend on how I feel in general)
24) Having to be around people who are high, or talking or joking about drugs (I have never done street drugs and I HATE them because of family crap)
25) Being startled.
26) my sister-in-laws, sometimes any of my husbands family.
27) Snow and cold (they depress me and cause me pain, so I trigger a lot)
28) Being criticized
29) Arguing (even if I witness an argument)
30) panic attacks (this is just cruel because it should be only a symptom but it isn't for me. I started having a panic attack before I was raped the last time, and that is why I couldn't do more to fight or get away. Now my panic attacks escalate to the point that I vomit and pass out, because they cause flashbacks)

Wow that is way more than I realized...and it was hard, but helpful to write it out.

 

[jeapea]

Unprofessionalism is a big one for me, too. Thanks for putting it that way. I worked in a corrupt law enforcement department for 8 years. That same department wouldn't enforce a restraining order that my ex violated time after time! Huge trigger for my sense of justice.

 

[jeapea]

Anything I do for myself is a trigger. Anything. Everything. I'm going to look for something I can do for myself today. Something I haven't, or don't... and see if I can do it anyway.... I have my doubts...

After reading these... I have so many triggers I'm surprised I can function at all....
I need to list something I do for me. Something I haven't had to make a justification for doing. New thread, maybe....

 

[cragger65]

I never really thought about it, just dealt with it as it came. Great idea for a thread.

1. Social situations, the idea of being out in public my myself is a big anxiety trigger. People will point and say, "look at that crazy guy, what a weirdo"
2. Laughing (sometimes). If I was off in la-la land so didn't hear what someone has said, and everyone else laughs, I immediately assume they were ridiculing me while I wasn't paying attention. Little hyper-vigilance there?
3. Anything where there is an expectation of me to be "up" and "on" causes struggling. The music group I run is a good example: "Everyone's going to think I suck". "It won't be good enough, they'll get up and leave"., but also family functions, parties.

 

[Esther]

Great idea for a thread.

People not believing me
Feeling like I can't express my emotions
My parents fighting, especially fighting over something related to me
Doctors, especially seeing specialists for the first time
Hospital Blankets
Hearing people approach my room when the door is shut
Conversations about medical procedures
Specific hospital reminders
People who remind me of certain doctors

 

[wattle]

My triggers, the ones I know so far.
Being trapped
Anyone touching my legs(includes my husband)
Angry Men
Authority Figures
drunk people
pubs and clubs
anyone touching my neck or anything over my face
Loud unexpected noises
crowds
mostouches ( Movember should be outlawed!)
Men in uniform
Weird but I freak out if I see swedes, turnips or parsnips, hated them as a kid and was forsed to eat them many times.
Lifts
people hugging me or touching me other than my kids or hubby

 

[Yumeko-chan]

Ah geez. My triggers have changed through the years (I've had more than one trauma), but here's the ones I can think of right now that are current (whether a result of my self-esteem being shredded or PTSD itself, I dunno):

People putting me down, whether direct or indirect
People raising their voices to me, or being angry at me in general (real life only; TV and movies I'm ok with)
People fighting loudly in front of me or in the next room
People telling me that I'm exaggerating the truth or "remembering things wrong" (usually it's my mom telling me this)
Being physically cornered or being held onto with the person refusing to let go

One new one: watching the season premiere of SVU, then going onto the IMDB boards where some people are wondering whether Olivia "should" really be as traumatized as she is, given that she "wasn't really raped" when she was undercover last season (but the attempt was still made). For some reason I had about a million panic attacks, pretty much in a string, for the next week because of that. Subconscious response to my three-year molestation? I don't know. I actually didn't think of that until I was typing this out.

Beyond that, I can have panic attacks for seemingly no reason, no trigger behind them. Which has been especially frustrating, and the no-trigger ones have mostly been within the past couple years. My older ones always had a trigger I could pinpoint, but my later ones, not really.

 

[TLight]

The ones I know of so far:

1. Unemployed man in my house living off of me (huge....this will put me in the hospital).
2. Bullying and intimidating men.
3. Men who talk down to me.
4. Dirty old men.
5. Discovered this one this weekend.........talking or even thinking of dreams.
6. A structured work environment

and 7 and last but not least (a spiritual number?)............LOVE...........this is extremely horrifically terrifing to me. Really sucks........I want it so bad, but I'm terrified of even the thought of it. Sucks.

 

[Mina]

Feeling like I have not been heard - that my opinion doesn't matter, that I don't have a say, that what I say doesn't matter, that nobody's really listening.

Dogs, wolves, etc with their teeth bared, or growling in warning.

Blood. This one has gotten better, but I got really badly triggered on Thanksgiving night when the opening scene of a movie was unexpectedly very violent and bloody. It's funny to me that I can handle it when it's my own blood, but can't deal with someone else's on the screen, even though my trauma involved my own blood.

 

[Vorzha]

I know this is a year old, but do you think the trigger might just be realising that the therapist hasn't got his/her life together either, and that your only source of help can't button his/her own shirt?