How do I identify a trigger?

When you notice these signs, stop to consider what just happened and the response it activated. Say you spent the afternoon deep cleaning your apartment and rearranging the living room. When your partner gets home from work, you wait excitedly for them to comment. Instead, they head to the kitchen for a snack and then settle onto the sofa without saying a word. You’re disappointed that your hard work went unacknowledged, and you start to get angry and frustrated. You can hear your heart pounding and your jaw clenching. It takes everything in you not to snap and say something like, “Notice anything different?” or “I can’t believe you’re so oblivious!” Try following these feelings back to their origins by thinking back on other situations that made you feel what you’re currently feeling. Maybe it suddenly seemed as if you were a teenager again, trying to make the house look perfect to earn approval from an indifferent parent who traveled often. When the emotional trigger (your partner’s indifference) fired, you’re transported back to that time in your life, when you felt like nothing you did was good enough.

A trigger, can be different for each individual, as well as the symptoms regarding the trigger. Simply a trigger is what arises deep emotional and physical response, and create an overall bad feeling. It can be a word, an action, a sound, or any other sensation. Sometimes, it's related to a traumatic experience we went through, as our body would get in a fight or flight response, trying to protect us from possible dangers. Everyone has different coping mechanisms to get through it, and we can find what best suits us. And, last but not least, it's common to experience being triggered, and it's okay to feel that way!

I think the best way to identify a trigger is by observing your physical body. Most emotional triggers bring up some sort of reaction in your body. Paying attention to the stillness of your body, temperature, tensity, etc, will help you to realize what and how the things going on around you effect your mental clarity. After identifying the target event, causing you these emotions and reactions, you can easily begin to actively work against allowing this to effect you in the future. Growth starts with acknowledgment, so acknowledge your triggers, let them know that they do not control you and that you are the one in charge.

A trigger will usually be a person, event, place, etc. that conjures bad memories and/or feelings. Acknowledging those feelings is the first step to identifying the trigger. Saying "hello" to the thought or feeling that pops up allows you to ask where the root of it came from, making it easier to identify what exactly triggered that reaction. A good rule of thumb is to acknowledge it in the moment so that you are able to place your finger on it right then and there and you'll be able to give yourself a better idea of what in your current surrounding may have given you the trigger.

Identifying triggers can be easy, but it can also be very hard! I would suggest that if you feel yourself overwhelmed or 'triggered' that you take a second to stop what you are doing and reflect on your environment. What media have you just consumed? Who did you just talk to? What's been bothering you lately? If you just watched a disturbing scene in a movie, it'll probably be easy to recognize the topic as a trigger. But if it's a person you love, it may be hard to view them as a trigger. I struggled (and still do) with intrusive thoughts due to obsessive compulsive disorder-it took me a long time to realize a close friend was a trigger for my obsessive thinking patterns! It wasn't her fault, it just so happened that she was a trigger :( Stay strong! You'll be ok :)

A trigger can be from many, many different things, so the first thing you'd have to identify is/are the symptoms you are experiencing that you believe are being actively triggered by an event/action/sound/etc. Identifying triggers can be a little tricky at times, and generally needs a little personal dedication... Essentially, you journal for a couple weeks. When you experience symptoms or recognize the onset of an episode, try to write down everything that you recall about what happened right before that started... What did you eat/drink? What did you hear? Feel? Who did you talk to? What was happening, were you working on a project or homework? Were you at work? Were you talking to your partner about buying a house? Chronicle as many of these details as possible, focusing on accuracy, for a couple weeks. After 1-3 weeks, depending on how the triggered episodes occur (you'll need at least a couple, most likely, before you notice anything specific, unless you are working on PTSD about a specific event), be honest with yourself about whether or not you can safely review the details on your own... If you need to review in counseling or with a trusted friend, please do so... Because reviewing trigger details could be triggering... But ultimately, after a few episodes, you should see some patterns emerge regarding what was going on at the time you were triggered, and that will tell you what, or close to what, is a trigger for your episodes. Now, some people are very aware of their situation and will easily identify with one episode in review, but I wanted to give a tactic that would cover the most common of scenarios. Good luck!!!

In often cases, a trigger will be something that can begin an overwhelming feel of distress for you. Perhaps this trigger will send out signals like the feelings of anxiety, whether being palpatations, sweats or otherwise. When directly noticing a trigger you may feel those signals. Personally, when identifying triggers myself, I have tried to write about them. Putting out what the description of a trigger could possibly be and then reading it back, in order to see how that makes me feel. Of course this may not work for everyone, but here are different ways in which you could analyse your own ideas and feelings towards different situations, this is just some inpiration for that.

I'd suggest doing a sort of diary/logbook for those days. After you've experienced a panic/anxiety attack, text or otherwise log everything that you did, smelled, felt, heard and tasted about 5 to 15 minutes prior to the attack. Make sure to note if you had alcohol, weed or other drugs too. Once you've collected about 5 to 10 of those logs, cross-examine and mark all similarities. If you can't identify any, collect more logs. The goal is to make sure, not to avoid the trigger but identify it and take this knowledge to a professional that can help you deal with it.

When we feel triggered we may notice it by a quickening of our breath, by a stinging feeling at the word of another, or the sight of something. If we do not know this is happening, we can go back to before we acted out of character and figure out why. What happened before you acted in the way you didn't want or mean to? This can manifest as anger, shutting down, walking away, being to move or speak. We can feel hot or cold. What happened before we felt that way? That is the trigger. For example, someone may have been accused of something they didn't do. The effects of defending them self was so traumatizing that whenever someone accuses them of something they didn't do they feel hot, their face gets red, and they just yell, "I didn't do it!" Their trigger is what causes them to react. Can you point out the trigger in this scenario?

If you feel comfortable journaling and reflecting, it can be a helpful way to keep track of certain influences and environments that might be causing you to feel triggered. For instance, you first describe: 1) the event itself, 2) the kinds of emotions that the event made you feel, 3) the kind of self-talk that you experienced while this was going on, and 4) the actions that you took in response to this event. And hopefully, once you've logged some of these things down, you could look back on what you've written and reflected on to see if there are any things that stick out to you like patterns and apparent triggers. And once you've done that, you could make a plan, either by yourself or with others on how to work through those triggers.

For me, it has always been difficult to identify triggers because I tend to tamp down my emotions. However, something that I have found helpful is an acronym called SIFT. SIFT stands for Sensations, Images, Feelings, and Thoughts. When I feel myself getting triggered and I can't figure out why I try to focus on the sensation in my body. Am I feeling nauseous? Does my throat feel like it's closing up? Then, I try to focus on what images are running through my head. What am I seeing in my mind at that moment that might be contributing to those body sensations? Next, I focus on feelings. What emotions are those images in my head eliciting, and how are they connected to the sensations I'm feeling? Lastly, I focus on my thoughts. What sentences are running through my brain? How do they change the sensations I'm feeling? Once you get better at running through that sequence, it gets easier to identify how all of those things are connected and what started the trigger!

One way you can identify triggers is by taking notes during or after you are triggered. This can be in a dedicated journal or notes on your phone. The best way to do this would be to write down everything that happened that day and how it made you feel. Start backwards with what happened most recently. Over time, you will see patterns. Be as specific as possible. For example, if you were watching a movie and started to feel anxious or upset during a scene, be sure to describe it so you have an idea of what may have triggered you.

Journaling my experiences of being triggered have helped me to identify my triggers better. There are also many other ways, like taking a moment to ground yourself during a period of being triggered, identifying what has led you up to the current state of being triggered. You can also identify your triggers while doing trauma work. It is also about respecting yourself, validating your experiences and being understanding, accepting and kind towards what triggers you. In all honesty anything can be triggering due to associations, an object, a sound, a smell, we often miss our triggers when we undermine or invalidate our struggles, so being kind to ourselves is a perquisite to familiarizing ourselves with our triggers.

Pay attention to your body and your thoughts when you begin to feel triggered, and pay attention to your surroundings as well. What do you notice? Are there certain patterns that emerge when you feel a certain way? Do you feel tense when looking at certain things? All of these could be signs that you are experiencing something triggering, and examining what's happening to and around you will help you identify the trigger. Hope this helps! It took me a very long time to figure out how to identify my triggers, so I hope this advice works for you. Cheers!

Something that you react to badly. Something you think you could never be or never do. Usually you hate it within someone else and can't see it within yourself. Or it could be trauma. Something has happened in the past, so when presented with a similar situation you think the past will repeat itself even though the circumstances are different. I did a lot of trigger work in the past 6 years. For me healing was finding the source of my pain, neutralizing it, crying, letting it all out and healing it. Whenever I see something that bugs me, I usually try to figure out why and figure out what that says about me as a person.

Generally, there are certain words that can be triggering for me. These words have been often repeated in my life, and help me identify a potential trigger. Often, people around me (friends and family), will bring something up like how they are trying to lose weight. "Weight" is one of my trigger words. This is because I have struggled with eating disorders in the past, and weight has always been something eating at me. Usually, when someone brings this up, I feel angered, especially when I find this person to be in a better position than I am. Although this is a trigger, I am finding ways to cope with it and learn to be less involved with my figure.

I would say that a way to identify a trigger would be to pay attention to things - people, situations, topics -- that cause you to feel a way that is negatively related to something you are working on not participating or having in your life. Those things that cause heightened emotions or physiological responses, and may cause or result in stress, cravings, dark thoughts, negative feelings, etc. Also, this would be something that you probably will notice is a thing that has elicited these sorts of responses time and time again. Once you ID a trigger, it can be helpful to avoid them in the future.

A trigger is an object or an event that causes remembering past traumatic experiences. When one faces a trigger, an emotional and physical responses may follow. Emotional response may happen with the same intensity as during the time of trauma or abuse. Examples of emotional response include panic, sudden fear, extreme worry etc. Physical response examples are shortness of breath, sweaty palms, unsettled tummy (the feeling of "bad" butterflies), heart palpitations, dry mouth and others. For example, a toy similar to the one that the person had in childhood may rise up the memories of child abuse if it was happening right after the child played with the toy.

A trigger is something that easily makes you mad. It will set you off instantly and it gets you very angry. It can be a sensitive topic for you or it can be someone bulling your friends. It could also be someone getting mad at you and calling you hurtful and mean names. I identify a trigger as something that can bery easily make me mad like someone yelling harshly at me. That will set me off instantly but I use my self control to calm down. I try not to get triggered to easily but it can happen. Everyone gets mad and angry. What matters is that you don't sin with your anger and hurt someone else.

I generally don't seek them intentionally. When they occur, they can be quite startling and sometimes overwhelming. It takes a lot of self-compassion to accept my initial reaction. I try to carefully listen to my body/emotions for better understanding, so that once it has passed I can be better prepared in the future. I have learned that the only thing I can work on is training my senses in how I respond to them.

A trigger is an action, phrase, or even word sometimes that causes someone to remember a traumatic experience and make them relive the feelings or memories.

triggers are things that set off an intense negative reaction and cause distress when mentioned/experianced

Trigger is something that brings back emotions or thoughts from your past. Example: I am a recovering addict. My trigger would be people that use or seeing paraphernalia from drugs. A trigger can also be a word that brings back emotions or memories of something that hurt you in the past

When you're calmer after the attack, write down a series of questions to better understand your thoughts & organize your mind. Then go through it. You'll feel a whole lot better & more in control & you'll identify triggers or what bothered you at that point of time or maybe a reminder of something from years ago.

Triggers can be specifically mentioned or alluded to in conversation, though it's important not to assume a trigger eg. abuse is ongoing due to personal bias. Purely active listening can often help to draw out more information.

Triggers can be identified as events that send your emotions through the charts. It can be difficult to determine exactly what it is that sets someone off. It can be helpful to make a list of what makes you angry or emotional. Once those factors have been identified, can you then learn to avoid them and hopefully keep those feelings at bay.

Sometimes it helps to journal. It does not have to be deep and long. Just a sentence or two explaining the situation and your reactions and feelings. Triggers come out in patterns and if you can get yourself some data to look at objectively you may see it. You can also ask others. People watch you and know you better than you think. So they may have known it already and just assumed you did too!

A trigger to me, is something that incites a feeling in me that I don't want or need in the moment. It's something that could be just a "1" on a trigger scale, where 10 is the worst, but it's a trigger because it will be something that makes me feel mildly uncomfortable/sad.

Well a trigger is something that can trigger a feeling or emotion and even a memory. To identify your trigger its as simple as noting down what makes you feel angry, upset etc. For example i am triggered by bullying, so when i see a form of bullying i get angry. I understand that some triggers are hard to block out but knowing them can help tackle them

A trigger is something that feels reminiscent or similar to a painful memory or experience from your past. It can feel like something other people don't react to, but for you may cause an emotional response, like sadness, shame, or guilt.