Today’s topic is Triggers. Excuse me as I slip into alliterative verse, it’s a literary curse. (And, redundantly, the general trigger warning continues. Take care.)
A trigger is whatever sets off a flashback (a memory in which the survivor re-lives aspects of the trauma). In my ongoing and increasingly stretched metaphor for traumatic stress it’s whatever causes the surge of current which overloads your mains box. It could be a toaster or an unexpected boost from Electricity Inc. Either way the result’s the same. It’s not nearly that impersonal so it helps to know what triggers can be, how the operate and why they’re dangerous. For the mind of a trauma survivor, a trigger seems like a lethal weapon. They can shock survivors senseless, emerging out of ‘nowhere*’.
Triggers are the mental object to which the mind has attached the emotional charge of the original trauma. It’s split into chunks outside conscious awareness where it remains dormant until the survivor encounters a similar object in their environment. The mind is usually very clever about this since, by and large, if you’re aware of a trigger then you’re ready to handle it. For witnesses it’s worth being careful about mentioning a trigger to an unwary survivor; If they haven’t noticed it yet themselves then there’s probably good reason.
Triggers crop up across any of the five senses, sometimes involving more than one. My working theory is that that is a factor of how deeply encoded that particular aspect of the traumatic event happened to be at the time.
It’s interesting to note that even though smell is most closely linked to memory, it isn’t the most common pathway for a trigger — likely because traumatic memories are stored completely differently to everyday memories. It’s not a matter of the survivor searching their awareness hard enough to find them. They can’t. You roll the dice each day and hope you’ll hit the right note whilst simultaneously praying to whatever powers may be that you won’t ever have to hit such a note again. They’re most commonly associated with sight and sound, followed by touch and smell, with taste closing in behind.
Thankfully for those close to survivors, triggers have some common strands. I’m emphasising triggers common to abuse survivors as that tends to be my readership but I’ll quickly note that many more examples abound.
Sight:
- someone who looks, acts or seems like the abuser/s (eg. wears the same hairstyle, has similar hands, clothing or gait);
- objects associated with the environment in which the trauma occurred (eg. a location, mode of transport, piece of furniture, time of year/season);
- any object used at the time of the trauma, or involved in it (for abuse victims this can be something as simple as a belt or ruler. unfortunately common things.);
- places and/or situations in which trauma occurred (a heavy storm, particular holiday or social occasion, hospitals or emergency situations).
Sound:
- Anything associated with anger (eg. heightened tone/raised voices, arguments, things crashing/breaking, loud and unexpected noises);
- Things which sound like pain or fear (eg. screams, crying, groaning, whispers. At this point you can probably imagine how well many films go down);
- Any sounds closely tied to the places/situations where trauma was experienced or which occurred before/during/after it (eg. horns, music, car doors slamming, sirens, dogs barking);
- Anything similar to the sounds that the abuser/s made (eg. footsteps, zippers opening, whistling);
- Words generally specific to traumatic experience (eg. cuss words, labels, put-downs, specific nicknames, certain compliments).
Smell:
- anything which resembles the situation and/or place where the trauma took place (eg. foods, cigarettes, the scent of rain);
- smells associated with the person/s involved in the trauma (eg. perfume, aftershave, drugs/alcohol/tobacco, blood).
Touch:
- Anything related to the tactile experience of the trauma. This can mean before, during or after the trauma. (eg. being approached from behind, people standing too close, particular physical postures or gestures, being held down, restrictive clothing/jewellery.)
Taste:
- Anything associated with the flavour of the event (eg. blood or a copper taste (adrenaline), bodily fluids, things eaten just before/after, vomit, sweat).
Obviously these things vary widely but this gives you an idea. Triggers tend to be one of the most confusing elements of PTSD because while you’re healing you don’t really understand where they come from or why they matter. It’s good if you have someone to remind you that they can help you understand what happened even if you don’t have much of a narrative for the trauma now. Only by confronting and defusing the triggers which lead to flashbacks can you really understand just how deep you go and why things are as they are.
(Btw, the answer to the riddle is that Triggers are like Tigger because they bounce up out of the blue and surprise you… Only minus the actual fun and excitement. They can get you into similar amounts of trouble, though)
*’nowhere’ usually being the fear centre of the brain (the amygdala).
Another excellent post on the topic, very informative.
“For witnesses it’s worth being careful about mentioning a trigger to an unwary survivor; If they haven’t noticed it yet themselves then there’s probably good reason.”
Could you explain that a little? I would have thought that knowing the triggers would be important to help someone avoid them?
~Shiv
It is but they need to develop of awareness of them in their own time. If they’re pushed then it can be too much to cope with. Like in a case study I read once where a child who’d been a victim of sexual abuse had been hospitalised subsequently. He would have panic attacks when he tried to eat a banana and had no idea why. Explaining the connection would very likely not have worked — it tends to bring up a dissociative reaction in survivors who are prone to that and cause outright panic mode in others.
Healing has to happen at the survivor’s own pace, I reckon.