[Rive1976]

So in another thread i had about something else they were saying that sometimes triggers come from nowhere. I cant imagine the fact I get creeped out by the way my father touches me sometimes comes from nowhere.

[ShadowGX]

I think it's about more subtle ones, or how triggers can just pop up unexpectedly and you might not realize it's a trigger until it gets you. I've not read this other thread you speak of to know the context, but that's my guess.

An example from my recent events as a "trigger that comes out of nowhere" was a candle. Just an ordinary candle, I like the smell and the flame is normally comforting, and I had lit it many times before. That time though I was bored while watching a stream so I was just holding the candle and looking at it. This apparently triggered something in me and despite feeling decent prior to holding it I started to feel all of these really bad feelings shortly after holding it. I haven't lit a candle since.

[amandalouise]

Originally Posted by Dnester

So in another thread i had about something else they were saying that sometimes triggers come from nowhere. I cant imagine the fact I get creeped out by the way my father touches me sometimes comes from nowhere.

a trigger is anything that makes a person feel uncomfortable, upset, scared, frightened, highly emotional...

examples

some people cringe when they see a spider for them spiders are a trigger.
some people feel uncomfortable when someone compliments them. for then compliments are a trigger.

I have a fear of heights, for me high places are a trigger.

an example of when a trigger came from no where with me was when a friend sat down next to me at a dinner party. she never hurt me in any way and I had no idea the perfume she was wearing was on that I was allergic to. all of a sudden there she was next to me asking if the chair next to me was taken and as she sat down I felt very uncomfortable. it was only after I excused myself to call home and check in with the sitter that I realized this really close friend of mine was wearing perfume when she normally did not.

most people have what is called personal space, its that area around your whole body, like for about 8-12 inches of space between each other when near people. sometimes it doesnt matter, if someone invades that personal space it can feel uncomfortable or upsetting,

my suggestion is maybe next time you get this feeling you can let your father know it makes you uncomfortable being touched sometimes. maybe you can set a personal boundary of asking people to ask you before touching or hugging you. most schools now starting with preschool teach children to ask before touching someone and having others ask them before getting hugs and such. So it wouldnt be anything out of the normal in you asking people to ask you first you can just tell them something like its something you learned in school and are now going to give it a try but remember if you want others to ask before any touching you will also need to do the same. teach by example ...

[unaluna]

I dont think they come from nowhere. There are too many books out with the title "The Body Remembers"! And i have experienced it myself.

I think you had a "nature vs nurture" debate going on in your other thread. Do you like peanut butter sandwiches because its in your nature, or because thats what you were fed growing up? Right? Who knows? What if they were forced on you, or that was all that was offered to you?

I had many of the same feelings you described. I found them puzzling. But in my last ten (out of almost forty) years of therapy, i figured out, these were feelings foisted upon me by my various abusers, and also were a result of their mishandling of various situations which were more or less innocent (some more, some less!), but they couldnt handle ANY of them. As a girl, i think my parents just held their breath and hoped i didnt get pregnant. For like 25 years. Wtf.

[Rive1976]

Originally Posted by amandalouise

a trigger is anything that makes a person feel uncomfortable, upset, scared, frightened, highly emotional...

examples

some people cringe when they see a spider for them spiders are a trigger.
some people feel uncomfortable when someone compliments them. for then compliments are a trigger.

I have a fear of heights, for me high places are a trigger.

an example of when a trigger came from no where with me was when a friend sat down next to me at a dinner party. she never hurt me in any way and I had no idea the perfume she was wearing was on that I was allergic to. all of a sudden there she was next to me asking if the chair next to me was taken and as she sat down I felt very uncomfortable. it was only after I excused myself to call home and check in with the sitter that I realized this really close friend of mine was wearing perfume when she normally did not.

most people have what is called personal space, its that area around your whole body, like for about 8-12 inches of space between each other when near people. sometimes it doesnt matter, if someone invades that personal space it can feel uncomfortable or upsetting,

my suggestion is maybe next time you get this feeling you can let your father know it makes you uncomfortable being touched sometimes. maybe you can set a personal boundary of asking people to ask you before touching or hugging you. most schools now starting with preschool teach children to ask before touching someone and having others ask them before getting hugs and such. So it wouldnt be anything out of the normal in you asking people to ask you first you can just tell them something like its something you learned in school and are now going to give it a try but remember if you want others to ask before any touching you will also need to do the same. teach by example ...

Thank you. I was asking more about if you can have triggers that come out of nowhere or are they always linked to a trauma. Like with my dad. Also I wouldnt want to hurt his feelings.

[Quarter life]

'Out of Nowhere'...is different than 'From Nowhere'

'Out of Nowhere' means All of a Sudden...'From Nowhere' means having no known origin.

Words are powerful things. That said, we often fumble our words, or use economical speech in attempt to get a point across. Thus causing our actual meaning to be lost in translation.

[Candy1955]

Think through this carefully. Triggers can be due to feelings that don't have anything to do with the person who delivered the trigger, but rather the act or the familiarity of it. I think sometimes we can do unintentional harm by misunderstanding that the person represents the trigger rather than the act or word, i.e. the memory. Just my thoughts.

[Rive1976]

Originally Posted by Candy1955

Think through this carefully. Triggers can be due to feelings that don't have anything to do with the person who delivered the trigger, but rather the act or the familiarity of it. I think sometimes we can do unintentional harm by misunderstanding that the person represents the trigger rather than the act or word, i.e. the memory. Just my thoughts.

So you are saying that when I get creeped out by the way my father touches me someone probably made me feel uncomfortable but maybe not him?

[childofchaos831]

For me, bulky men in general trigger me. I have a real touch aversion normally but I completely dissociate if a larger (not overweight, think broad) man touches me. This doesn't mean that particular man did anything to me. But there was a man who I dated who fits in that description who was extremely abusive toward me. So the trigger has a cause, just not related to the person who is triggering me at that moment, necessarily.

[amandalouise]

Originally Posted by Dnester

Thank you. I was asking more about if you can have triggers that come out of nowhere or are they always linked to a trauma. Like with my dad. Also I wouldnt want to hurt his feelings.

no triggers are not always linked to trauma. a person can be triggered by many things without having been abused or hurt in any way.

example phobia's many people have a fear of snakes but have never encountered a snake and have never been abused or hurt by a snake.

one of my triggers is perfume. I have never been traumatized by any one that wore perfume or Cologne,

trigger is just a fancy word for saying I dont like something, that something made me feel weird or that something scares me.

in fact one of the most common triggers for some people is computers. many people from my parent's generation are triggered by computers, why because they didnt grow up with them,

I bet if you sit down and think about all the things that you like and dont like... foods, music, clothes styles, you will find many triggers (things that cause you to have a reaction good or bad) that was not associated with trauma.

[Candy1955]

That's exactly what I'm saying. I was assaulted years ago and some times my husband walks beside me with his hand on the small of my back and I freeze or have to kind of shrug it off, but it was not my husband who assaulted me, but I can't abide that touch. It's just a reminder, not an indicator, for me. Make sense?

[Rive1976]

Yes. Thank you!

A trigger is similar to hallucination. It can come in the form of sight or a sound. It is a "stimulus", meaning an external factor that makes an organ or a tissue (tissues are a group of cells that make an organ) have a response (i.e., a functional reaction.) An example of a stimulus is food when you're hungry (a conditioned stimulus), it makes your mouth water. The evolutionary significance of a stimulus is to make the body ready for a particular condition. Another well-known example is the jerking of the leg when it is hit by something on the knee. Stimulus must always be an external thing (factor.)


Now a trigger too is a stimulus. It evokes a particular group of cells in the brain that arouses a particular sensation or a memory. For example, a retired army soldier watching a film on combat that is remarkably accurate and vivid, will have his traumatic experience as a soldier triggered. Now it's not in my understanding why and how triggers are formed, but from what I get, a trigger must always be linked to a previous psychological trauma (i.e., participating in a war, seeing someone close to you die in a horrible way, or drowning in a lake or a swimming pool.)

Firstly, a psychological trauma is anything horrible that has affected your mind throughout. It can occur at any age but the most serious psychological traumas are those that occur in childhood (like a child drowning in a river or lake or a swimming pool) and will almost always lead to mental disorders in future. As opposed to a neurological trauma, the brain isn't directly affected. A neurological trauma is something similar to stroke or a head injury. It should be horrible enough to cause a post traumatic stress disorder in near future.

Now it's where it really gets complicated and I don't have the authority to discuss about complex medical conditions (due to my own psychological trauma that damaged my hippocampus....) but triggers cannot "come out of nowhere." Those telling you it can, should argue with the Ph.D level neuropsychologists that have researched upon the issue. For a trigger to be a trigger (be a stimulus that transports you back to the horrible event that you witnessed which is attributed as the origin of your PTSD), you need a psychological trauma. A person who hasn't witnessed childhood abuse cannot possibly get dissociation triggered after seeing someone that didn't abuse them.

Any questions? My speech is slightly disorganized so it may hard for you to follow up but I will try to explain what you did not get in my post.

[Rive1976]

Originally Posted by TheLonelyChemist

A trigger is similar to hallucination. It can come in the form of sight or a sound. It is a "stimulus", meaning an external factor that makes an organ or a tissue (tissues are a group of cells that make an organ) have a response (i.e., a functional reaction.) An example of a stimulus is food when you're hungry (a conditioned stimulus), it makes your mouth water. The evolutionary significance of a stimulus is to make the body ready for a particular condition. Another well-known example is the jerking of the leg when it is hit by something on the knee. Stimulus must always be an external thing (factor.)


Now a trigger too is a stimulus. It evokes a particular group of cells in the brain that arouses a particular sensation or a memory. For example, a retired army soldier watching a film on combat that is remarkably accurate and vivid, will have his traumatic experience as a soldier triggered. Now it's not in my understanding why and how triggers are formed, but from what I get, a trigger must always be linked to a previous psychological trauma (i.e., participating in a war, seeing someone close to you die in a horrible way, or drowning in a lake or a swimming pool.)

Firstly, a psychological trauma is anything horrible that has affected your mind throughout. It can occur at any age but the most serious psychological traumas are those that occur in childhood (like a child drowning in a river or lake or a swimming pool) and will almost always lead to mental disorders in future. As opposed to a neurological trauma, the brain isn't directly affected. A neurological trauma is something similar to stroke or a head injury. It should be horrible enough to cause a post traumatic stress disorder in near future.

Now it's where it really gets complicated and I don't have the authority to discuss about complex medical conditions (due to my own psychological trauma that damaged my hippocampus....) but triggers cannot "come out of nowhere." Those telling you it can, should argue with the Ph.D level neuropsychologists that have researched upon the issue. For a trigger to be a trigger (be a stimulus that transports you back to the horrible event that you witnessed which is attributed as the origin of your PTSD), you need a psychological trauma. A person who hasn't witnessed childhood abuse cannot possibly get dissociation triggered after seeing someone that didn't abuse them.

Any questions? My speech is slightly disorganized so it may hard for you to follow up but I will try to explain what you did not get in my post.

I agree but it doesnt necessarily have to be that person right?

Yes, the witness (who might have flashbacks of the trauma of their loved ones dying, or anything that left scars in their psyche) does not necessarily have to undergo the assault/tragedy first hand.