PTSD Triggers

What is PTSD?

Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) is a mental health problem that people may develop after seeing or undergoing a life-threatening event, like a car accident, combat, a natural disaster, or sexual assault.
Fear may trigger many split-second changes in the body to help defend against danger or to avoid it. Therefore, people who have PTSD may feel frightened or stressed, even when they are not in danger.

PTSD can also develop from emotional abuse. This is because emotional abuse is often not a single event but a recurring cycle of behavior. PTSD from emotional abuse often does not follow the standard cycle but instead falls into “complex PTSD,” or PTSD that stems from multiple traumatic instances rather than just one [3].

Some PTSD symptoms are more common in women than men. Women are more likely to be apprehensive, to have more trouble feeling emotions, and to avoid situations that remind them of the trauma than men. Men are more likely to feel angry and to have trouble controlling their anger than women. Women suffering from PTSD are more prone to feel depressed and anxious, while men with PTSD are more likely to have problems with drugs or alcohol.

What Are PTSD Triggers?

PTSD triggers are typical everyday situations that cause an individual to re-experience the traumatic event as if it were reoccurring in the present or related symptoms. These symptoms might include strong memories, feelings, or emotions.

When a person has posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), the symptoms can come and go. For example, a person who has this mental condition might feel fine until they hear a car backfire loudly. Then, suddenly, the person becomes very afraid—images of a soldier’s time-fighting in a war flood back.

Specific PTSD triggers can set off your PTSD. They bring back strong memories. An individual may feel like they’re living through it all over again. Triggers can include sounds, sights, smells, or thoughts that remind the person of the traumatic event somehow.

Some PTSD triggers are apparent, such as seeing a news report of an assault. Others are less evident. For instance, if a person was attacked on a sunny day, seeing a bright blue sky might upset them. Knowing a person’s PTSD triggers can help them better cope with their condition.

Types of PTSD Triggers

PTSD triggers can differ from person to person. Certain lifestyle factors — like not having enough social support — can exacerbate PTSD triggers. 

Below are 20 specific examples of PTSD triggers that can set off PTSD symptoms. Please keep in mind everyone’s experience with PTSD and its symptoms is unique. Therefore, someone’s PTSD triggers may differ from the specific examples listed below.

How to Identify PTSD Triggers

Kinds of PTSD Triggers

PTSD triggers can fall into two categories: External Triggers and  Internal Triggers.

External triggers are people, situations, or places that you might experience or encounter e throughout your day (or things that happen outside your body). 

Internal triggers are things that you experience or feel inside your body. Internal triggers include emotions, thoughts or memories, and bodily sensations (for instance, your heart racing).

Listed below are some common external and internal triggers.

Coping With PTSD Triggers

The best way of coping with PTSD triggers is to avoid them completely. However, this is almost impossible to accomplish. Why? Well, you cannot really avoid your emotions, thoughts, and bodily sensations. Much of these are out of our control.

With respect to external triggers, we can follow some steps to manage our surroundings (for instance, not going to particular places that we know will trigger us), but we cannot control everything that happens to us. For instance, you might inadvertently come into contact with a conversation or news story that reminds you of your traumatic event.

Because we usually cannot avoid PTSD triggers, it is crucial to learn ways of coping with triggers. Effective, healthy coping measures for reducing the impact of triggers include:

The more techniques you have available to you, the better off you will be in handling your triggers. In addition, the more coping techniques you have, the more likely you will be capable of preventing the development of harmful coping strategies, such as drug and alcohol use.

Also, simply being more aware of your PTSD triggers can be useful. As a result of this increased awareness, your emotional reactions may start to feel more valid, understandable, predictable, and less out of control. This can definitely positively influence your mood and overall well-being.

PTSD and Substance Abuse

PTSD and alcohol and drug abuse are prevalent and often co-occur. Approximately 50% of individuals seeking alcohol and drug abuse treatment also meet the criteria for PTSD. 

When a substance like alcohol or drugs is used to self-medicate PTSD symptoms, the disorder only becomes more severe. As a central nervous system depressant, alcohol and opiates can worsen anxiety and depression and interfere with normal sleep patterns.

Treating PTSD will not stop substance abuse. However, addiction may continue to persist, given that the substance has hijacked the reward system. As a result, it causes the person to develop enduring tolerance and withdrawal symptoms. In this situation, PTSD must be addressed along with substance abuse recovery. Otherwise, substance abuse will undermine all other treatments by impairing the person’s perception, memory, and judgment.

PTSD and Substance Abuse Treatment

It was normal to treat comorbid PTSD and addiction separately in the past. Addiction or substance use disorder was usually treated first, and the treatment of PTSD will be delayed until the person is sober for some time.

Now, treatment programs have changed. The integrated model of treatment is used to address both PTSD and substance abuse simultaneously. The person may see the same clinician for both treatments rather than seeing two separate professionals.

This program addresses the complexity of comorbid symptoms since some may overlap. Similarly, the individual can manage emotions and PTSD triggers linked with their addiction, which can help foster and maintain recovery.

What Is Dual Diagnosis?

The very definition of dual diagnosis (also referred to as co-occurring disorders) can differ between institutions. However, it is generally defined as the specific treatment of someone who has been diagnosed with having a mental health disorder and substance use disorder and at the same time. There is no distinction of whether the addiction led to substance abuse or vice versa. 

Substance use disorder treatment professionals understand that substance abuse and mental health disorder have a complex relationship that is difficult to extricate from one another.

While there is no single best treatment for comorbid PTSD and addiction, research has shown that successful dual-diagnosis treatment uses an integrated approach. Standard therapeutic approaches include cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT), cognitive processing therapy (CPT), and prolonged exposure therapy [4].

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