Unexpected Trauma Triggers

Have you ever been doing some typical activity and suddenly experienced a flashback or gripping fear from a completely separate trauma in your past? Perhaps you’re climbing a set of stairs and then find yourself reliving a painful memory. This can be incredibly frightening and disorienting when that response feels like it comes out of nowhere and with no clear precipitating trigger. And given how we as a society often talk about trauma triggers, that confusion makes complete sense. 

Often we hear and talk about triggers being connected to something we see, hear, smell, taste, or touch; our “5 senses”. However, our bodies have more than these senses, including our ability to notice our internal state. “Interoception” is the name for our body’s awareness of our heart rate, breathing, hunger, pain, temperature, and emotional states. We can experience a trigger through interoception just like we can be triggered by something similar through one of our other senses. 

Our nervous system is constantly working to interpret our world and make predictions of what’s about to happen next. When it perceives a similar sensation to something that occurred right before or during a traumatic experience, it will activate to “protect” us and send us into a stress response. Then, because memory is linked through association, we may start to remember or relive the traumatic experience. This is then made far worse if we are unclear as to what happened to have us end up back in that spot again. 

Thankfully, we can learn to help our mind and bodies move through these experiences and heal the wounds associated with trauma. Therapy can help to provide the skills to reconnect our mind and body to the present, and move through these experiences rather than be caught up in them. We can help find language for what has happened to you, and integrate your experience so it becomes part of a larger story of returning to safety and building resilience.