What Objects Cause Your Startle Response Triggers?

[pumpkinpie]

I'm answering this as though you asked about the things that make me "jump" suddenly, moreso than other people (an exaggerated startle response).

•Bugs! AAAAAAGGGGHHHHH!
•Telephone ringing
•Any sudden, unexpected noise
•Turning and finding someone standing close to me when I didn't know they were there
•Someone speaking close by when I didn't know they were there

In fact very recently it happened at my therapist's office. I was knocking on her office door and turned around just as she came through another door behind me. I jumped and gave a little shriek, then we both laughed. She apologized for scaring me, which I think hardly anyone would ever do ...but she'll a trauma therapist, and she knows my diagnosis!

 

[p-no]

Got one that, I think, fits the criteria.

Doors popping open all of a sudden.

My kitchen door's handle does not go up when I close the door, so it does not really get shut. Some time later, it will just pop open, maybe because of a slight draft or whatever. Makes me jump.

Made me think of a door I have always had trouble with anxiety-wise. Can't sleep with an open door (even an open closet), too.

 

[Springer80]

Can't sleep with an open door

Hi P-no,

I used to be like that and I'm still more comfortable getting to sleep with a closed door but occassionally I can go to sleep with an open door. Once I left the door of my wardrobe open and the lamp shade was just above it, I woke up thinking it was a 7ft giant. It was weird, like a childs imagination. Thanks....x

 

[Springer80]

I should say actually that the sleeping with an open door thing is only since I've been living alone! And I'm in a first floor buzzered entrance flat and I have the only keys! So it's a moderated victory :)

 

[p-no]

It's a victory. :)

I, too, can sleep with the door open, but if I have a choice, I'll close it. Over the last two weeks I forgot to close the wardrobe twice, and still slept. Only noticed the next morning. A real door open is another thing. I can sleep but it takes a while to get there because the sounds will be different, the sights will be, too. My hypervigilance just never sleeps.

But then again, you know, why not close the door(s).

 

[The Albatross]

Most of my triggers are sounds or smells. Object ones are now intermittant. I find I am more likely to trigger if I am already stressed, over tired, worried, or innordinatly busy.

Shiney floors, blood, mens dress shoes (black only), old fashioned razor blades, mirrors or shards of glass are all ones based on past traumas. Some others but they elude me at the moment.

I guess I am fortunate that my traumas and abuse didn't have a lot of objects in them. Hand guns and rifles used to be ones, but when I remarried he is a sportsman so I normalized it. I have normalized the others as best as I can... but they seem to take me by surprise sometimes still.

 

[pumpkinpie]

I have not been able to answer the question here or to relate the answers here TO the question. :confused: "What OBJECTS TRIGGER your STARTLE response"? Hardly anyone can answer it. That's because the question really asks "what specific physical objects make you jump"? I don't think that CAN be answered. We can say what objects make us feel uneasy, or remind us of whatever trauma we've endured, or cause a flashback. But I don't think an object all by itself can trigger a startle reflex- it would have to be the sudden presentation of an object...and that could be any object...if you have a tendency to be "jumpy".

I think the question needs to be reworded. No offense to the person who asked it, please - I just don't think we can give you the answer you are looking for. :)

 

[The Albatross]

Beg to differ pumpkin pie, I do indeed "startle" at times when I come into contact with or see these "objects". I flinch too and get nausea... not necessarily a full blown trigger.

I have a startle response when someone touches me unexpectedly, when someone comes up behind me, when someone grabs my hair or presses down on my head during sex too but these aren't objects, they are situations.

 

[The Albatross]

Poor wording on my part though in the first post I guess. A startle response is part of my regular body reaction though.

 

[shoulderblades]

The phone ringing or someone knocking at the door. Sends my anxiety tailspinning out of control.

I'm bothered by bedpans and kidney dishes, especially if they're silver. I think this is due to my mum being in a hospice when I was a teenager and she was always vomiting into a silver kidney dish. I was traumatised very badly by her illness and death.

Absolutely hate and startle badly at the sound of dishes being washed noisily, pans knocking together or dropping on the floor, and I hate and startle badly at the sound of cupboards being slammed or the cutlery drawer being rummaged through loudly. My mother was always really loud in the kitchen.

Doors slamming, lawnmowers, sitting in a car with leather or fake leather upholstery, the smell of Glen20 (air freshener), menthol cigarettes, the smell of original Listerine, Tabu perfume, Brute and Old Spice aftershave, the smell of ashtrays with stale ash in it, any scent that reminds me of my grandparents' kitchen, humming machine noises (for years I had to sleep in a room with Mum, who had to sleep with an oxygen tank on all night; it made a low humming sound, it drove me nuts), things to do with crossdressing (my last ex was a crossdresser and was very emotionally abusive towards me), leather handbags that smell of spearmint chewing gum, the interior of old cars which has been sitting in the hot sun, potpourri scented air freshener, sometimes the smell of a particularly crisp, dewy morning can trigger me, the sound of sirens (I live right by a fire station, too, ugh), the sound of talkback radio, particularly 2GB or ABCRadio playing in the background, the smell of newspapers, sometimes the smell of fried fish or chargrilled pork chops, god I have so many triggers. It's ridiculous. :-(

 

[Springer80]

I think the question needs to be reworded. No offense to the person who asked it, please - I just don't think we can give you the answer you are looking for. :)

Hi Pumpkinpie, thanks for your post. I understand your query but trying to separate dissociative objects and startle objects was exactly what I was trying to do.

Ie. objects which bare no relation to a persons individual trauma narrative but trigger a startle response. When I say startle response I mean as an isolated thing.

So for instance, last night/this morning as my heating came on the radiator behind my bed popped as it heated up and gave me a little jump. Radiators don't bother me otherwise in the slightest, same goes for toasters. I suppose I am asking about it in as a purely physiological residue of having lived with ptsd. I no longer have it in an acute sense but i still occassionally jump. However, it doesn't spiral my other senses into a cloud of dissociation anymore.

In a way I suppose because they remind me of my condition and it's associated history, occassionally it pricks my train of thought but i doesn't trigger any alerted state of alarm.

I can't really comment on any objects that relate to my abuse, it's been a while since I have had that sensation of being transported back to that physical time.

I suppose I was looking at things that across the board, regardless of the circumstances that predicated a person developing ptsd-(ddnos), cause a universal startle response on a solely physical plane.

What do you think? I know effectively selecting a basic component of a larger spectrum and it's very hard to define each.

Springer XX

 

[Springer80]

The phone ringing or someone knocking at the door. Sends my anxiety tailspinning out of control.

Hi Shoulder blades,

I just picked up on something.......I can' help thinking some of this stuff is to do with the 'pitch' of the noise. You listed alot of smells too....

I had this theory that all senses are essentially an extension of the touch reflex with the exception of sight, because all of require an operation within us on a mechanical/physiological level.....taste is touch, sound is touch etc etc

It gets better by the way....that perpetual tense state does dissipate. :hug: