Your symptoms of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) might come and go. You may be alright until you hear a loud backfire from a car. You get terrified all of a sudden. Images of you fighting in a war flash across your mind.

PTSD can be triggered by a variety of factors. They evoke tremendous emotions in me. You may feel like you're going through it all over again. Triggers may be anything that reminds you of the traumatic incident in some manner, such as sights, sounds, scents, or thoughts.

Some PTSD triggers are clear, such as witnessing an assault on the news. Others are hazier. If you were attacked on a sunny day, for example, seeing a brilliant blue sky can make you angry. Knowing your triggers can help you deal with them more effectively.

How Do You Come Up With Triggers?

When you're threatened, your body prepares to fight, escape, or freeze. Your heart starts to beat quicker. Your senses go into overdrive. To deal with the threat, your brain switches off some of its typical activities. Your short-term memory is included in this.

When you have PTSD, your brain doesn't absorb the trauma properly. It does not mark the event as having occurred in the past. As a consequence, even when you know you're secure, you feel tense and afraid.

Details, such as sights or odors, are associated with that memory by the brain. These are used as triggers. They function similarly to buttons that activate your body's alarm system. Your brain goes into danger mode when one of them is pressed. This may make you feel afraid and cause your heart to race. The trauma's images, sounds, and sensations may resurface. This is referred to as a flashback.

What Different Types of Triggers Are There?

A possible trigger is something that reminds you of what happened just before or during the trauma. They typically have something to do with your senses. Something you see, feel, smell, touch, or taste may trigger your symptoms. While most triggers are innocuous, they lead your body to behave as if you're in danger.

PTSD can be triggered by a variety of factors. The following are a few of the most common:

People: Seeing someone who was involved in the experience might trigger a PTSD reaction. Another possibility is that someone has a physical characteristic that serves as a reminder. If you were robbed by a man with a beard, other bearded males may bring up memories.

Thoughts and emotions: Symptoms may be caused by how you felt after a stressful experience (afraid, powerless, or worried).

Things might trigger your PTSD symptoms if you see an object that reminds you of the event.

Scents: Smells have a deep association with memory. Someone who has survived a fire, for example, could be bothered by the smokey scent of a barbeque.

Returning to the location of a traumatic event might be a trigger. A certain sort of location, such as a dark hallway, maybe enough to elicit a reaction.

Seeing a comparable experience on TV shows, news broadcasts, or movies might trigger symptoms. Scenes from a television show or movie, as well as news reports, fall under this category.

Feelings: Certain emotions, such as pain, act as triggers. For assault survivors, a touch.

Sounds: Hearing certain noises, tunes, or voices may trigger traumatic memories. Hearing a car backfire, for example, may remind a veteran of gunshots.

Tastes: The flavor of anything, such as alcohol, might bring up memories of a painful incident.

Situations: You can connect scenarios to the trauma. Being imprisoned in an elevator, for example, may remind you of being trapped after a vehicle accident.

Anniversaries: It's difficult to go through a date marked by pain without remembering it, as many survivors of September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks have discovered.

Words: Certain words may trigger your PTSD if you read or hear them.

How Do You Identify Triggers?

Some are self-evident. Others are more subdued. Indeed, you may not realize something is a trigger until you experience a reaction to it. It may appear as your PTSD symptoms appear out of nowhere. However, they're frequently brought on by an unknown factor.

When you feel as if you're in danger, it's an indication that you've had a PTSD trigger. A therapist can assist you in determining yours. They can also assist you in developing coping mechanisms.