People often wonder where a symptom begins, in that to identify with a symptom, you actually need to know what triggers you to begin with. Know the triggers, and you aid the symptoms by avoiding the triggers. Whilst avoidance in symptom aspects is not encouraged at all, avoidance of triggers themselves is generally highly encouraged, as these are the core root of PTSD concerns.
The root of triggers is actually so easy, I forgot to even mention it here. The core root of post traumatic stress disorder symptoms, generally stems from one of the human five senses, being:
- Sight
- Sound
- Touch
- Taste
- Smell
To lay it out easier, I will provide examples of each under various circumstances that are directly related to peoples trauma upon this forum. A trigger is vastly different from a symptom, as a trigger is what activates a symptom. Remove some triggers, you automatically lessen / remove some symptoms.
Sight- Rape - a person who may look similar to your attacker
- Abuse - seeing the abuser, ie. family member
- Combat - watching the news outlining current combat situations around the world, seeing the devastation as is the media today, live footage
- Accident - seeing another car accident, or seeing a car that was the same as you had your accident
Sound- Rape - a familiar sentence or phrase your rapist may off used, a similar voice to your attacker
- Abuse - childhood abuse situations such as doors slamming, comments made whilst abusing you or attempting to get too you
- Combat - helicopters, gun shots, the sounds within rain forest or jungle
- Accident - emergency vehicle sirens, small petrol equipment similar to the jaws of life (chainsaw), truck brakes
Touch- Rape - simply anyone touching you, brushing up against you
- Abuse - strong holds, gripping your arm, punching, kicking
- Combat - strong violence, fighting, holding a weapon again, knife
- Accident - just touching the door handle to get in a car, driving a car or motorbike, etc.
Taste- Rape - a foreign object used in your mouth, oral sex
- Abuse - same as rape, blood, sweat or your tears that you tasted whilst abused
- Combat - similar tasting food from when in combat
- Accident - blood, liquid, fuel
Smell- Rape - aftershave, deoderant, washing powder type
- Abuse - same as rape
- Combat - fuels, gun powder, jungle smell, food smell, foreigner scent
- Accident - fuel, oil, medical disinfectant, rubber, burning
I think you get the idea from the very quick list of examples. If you really think about each of your trauma, you could identify one of the five senses, if not more, that are actually a trigger to your trauma, thus increasing your symptom strength.
Identification of your triggers is a primary role and key to success in reducing your symptoms.
Please post your associations below from what you pickup as a trigger sense to your trauma. You should be able to identify atleast one for every trauma generally...