What Has Been Your Weirdest Trigger?

[scaldedsheep]

Brooms, scissors, and buckets.

 

[Marie E.]

On certain days, like X-mas, my B-day. I don't want to bother celebrating these things as it hurts me to think about it!

I am half looking forward to my younger kids B-day next month Dec 1st. He will be 5yr. It will be his first B-day without me!

Dishes, cooking, water, driving, strangers outside etc.

 

[Moony]

I am triggered by smells. The smell of a public school (especially the bathrooms) really bothered me. I absolutely hated school for so many reasons, I cannot even begin to name them. It's ironic that I work part-time as a substitute teacher! I think that has desensitized me. The worst is liver. I physically gag at the smell. One of my mother's sadistic habits was to cook food that she knew we hated and then make us eat it. For me it was liver. She would put a time and wooden spoon on the table. If we didn't eat it by the time the timer went off, we got a beating. Of course, this just made me scared and caused me to feel nauseous. A few years ago, my ex husband ordered liver at dinner. I thought maybe I had changed, so I asked him for a bite. As the bite got near my mouth, the smell hit me and it was all I could do not to react very strongly.

I had a similar experience funnily enough with liver. Certain foods are very strong triggers for me, especially beef. I can eat it sometimes but I have to be in an extremely good mood, and I have to cook it myself until it's over-done. When I think about it there are some weird things. Certain phrases, or even the tone of voice someone says something can have a similar effect. I can't trust my sense of smell. I smell things that aren't there. Sometimes if I think there is a smell, that will trigger me, even though other people might not be able to smell anything at all.

 

[Sandra]

Not many houses were done up with halloween decorations this year. So no triggers for me when there was no dummy's hanging from trees. :tup:

 

[lifeguard17]

My weirdest trigger is the sound of a bike being dragged across the ground, or dropped. Whenever I'm cycling, I have to stand the bike up on it's own, or very carefully lay it down, or I freak. That, and hearing a little girl saying "Mummy?" A kid, like 5 or 6, said it behind me on the tube the other day, and I couldn't get out of the carriage fast enough. I hate the tube.

 

[Iwanttolovehim]

Anything around my neck (can't even have a massage), Parks near roadways, chainlink fences

 

[Jen93]

The news where I live has been making my anxiety and flashbacks a LOT worse lately, (They're talking of bullying and how they can stop people from committing suicide over it. (I'm shaking just typing that sentence. Every time I see a newspaper for the past two weeks all it's been about are the recent suicides by middle school, elementary school and high school students because of bullying.)

Running water (I avoided brushing my teeth for a day, and avoided a shower for three once. It takes every ounce of my strength to grab either a peppermint tea at school (to help me stay in the present,) or a camomile (to calm myself down.) I actually had to ask someone to go grab it for me once before class started because I was TERRIFIED. I got weird looks.)

Just walking INTO a classroom and sitting at the desk.

The bathroom (Not at home, but at school. I HAVE to grab a buddy before I use the bathroom, or I'll end up crying as I'm washing my hands.

Certain Poems/Books/Movies: It's terrible, because I'm an English Lit Major. "The Unknown Citizen" by W.H Auden, "The Yellow Wallpaper" by Charlotte Perkins Gillman, That poem which says "Razors pain you........." I think it's called resume and it's by someone named Dorothy Parker.. The movie "Dead Poets Society" The movie "Girl Interrupted." ESPECIALLY the scene with Daisy, Susanna, and Lisa when Susanna and Lisa show up at Daisy's house. The beginning monologue in "Sling Blade" made me cry so horribly.

 

[Jen93]

I forgot to mention British accents. Only certain ones though. I had a British teacher for my grade 12 year, and she didn't set it off, I'm not exactly sure why though.

 

[Marie E.]

I have deep underlying fear of not being heard when I get bad flash backs of both abusive relationships. I often become mute and numb. I am going to therapy again after 2nd T was inexperienced and bad. Don't know if I am making sense :(

 

[MyStarryNight]

Some of my weird ones are running vaccuum cleaners. I freak when I'm around a running vaccuum cleaner or anything thtat sounds like one. Cooking or washing dishes also really trigger me, basically anything involving pots and pans. Sadly, I have literally run out of my inlaws house before because they were cooking. Seatbelts also are really triggering if they touch my neck I always have to adjust them. Also, food can be really triggering. Basically anything that touches my mouth weird can send me reeling. Oh, and these specific kind of paper plates. Every time I buy them my flashbacks seem to get worse.

 

[TLight]

Seems like everything related to housework ( I was bullied and tortured around that issue). But the strangest so far seems to be just a smell in the air, overcast, a chill coming on.......weather. Hum, triggered by weather. Great.

 

[J'aime]

Being in darkness triggers a lot of stuff for me. I am always convinced that Justin is lurking in the shadows, waiting for me to walk by so he can grab me. And then I get frozen in fear, and literally paralyzed in one spot where I am standing, as my mind takes control and spins like crazy, thinking, "What if he grabbed me, strangled me to death, and took Allie?" "Nobody would know anything had happened until later in the day, and by then, he would be long gone with her, and I would be dead and not able to tell anyone what happened!" This fear is so intense, that one day as I was downstairs in the laundry room, the adjoining bathroom's lights were turned off. Suddenly, my brain decided Justin could be in the darkness, and I heard very vividly, "I'm gonna get you, you f*cking bitch". I was so terrified that I ran up the stairs, dropping my laundry on the floor. I got my daughter dressed quickly, and we left the house. I knew he wasn't down there, but the fear was too overwhelming to be in the house.

I am always convinced he's around every corner, waiting for me. I hate dark rooms because he could be there, standing, and watching me, waiting for the right moment to pounce.