Trauma Trigger

A trauma trigger is an experience that triggers a traumatic memory in someone who has experienced trauma. A trigger is thus a troubling reminder of a traumatic event, although the trigger itself need not be frightening or traumatic.

Triggers can be quite diverse, appearing in the form of individual people, places, noises, images, smells, tastes, emotions, animals, films, scenes within films, dates of the year, tones of voice, body positions, bodily sensations, weather conditions, time factors, or combinations thereof. Triggers can be subtle and difficult to anticipate, and can sometimes exacerbate post-traumatic stress disorder, a condition in which sufferers cannot control the recurrence of emotional or physical symptoms, or of repressed memory. A trauma trigger may also be referred to as a trauma stimulus or a trauma stressor.

A trauma trigger can happen many times in a day and in many different situations. A person that is experiencing a trauma trigger may not even know this is happening. They may react in unexpected ways, become very tired, or experience some extreme emotion. The variety of reactions to a trauma trigger is as broad as the types of trauma. Triggers are usually unavoidable, so a person must learn to handle these intrusive events in order to effectively navigate daily life.