How To Recognize and Cope With PTSD Triggers

Triggers of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) may include emotions, feelings, and thoughts. Other triggers can include people, places, and situations. PTSD is a mental health condition that causes symptoms like feeling guilt, difficulty sleeping, and frightening thoughts after a traumatic event. You can calm down triggered PTSD with medication, psychotherapy, and coping skills like meditation.

PTSD symptoms have often been associated with the battlefield: "shell shock" after World War I and "combat fatigue" after World War II. The condition also affects survivors of non-battle trauma. This includes those who have endured sexual trauma, environmental disasters, and traumatic accidents. Read on to learn how to identify PTSD triggers and ways to manage them.

What Are PTSD Triggers?

PTSD can develop at any age after exposure to a shocking, scary, or dangerous event. People who have experienced physical or sexual assault, abuse, an accident, disaster, or other serious event are at risk for PTSD.

Triggers are everyday experiences that cause people to relive the traumatic event. There are internal and external triggers. Internal triggers are emotions, feelings, memories, or thoughts you experience in your body. External triggers, in contrast, are part of your environment.

Examples of internal triggers include:

• Distressing thoughts
• Fear, anger, guilt, or shame
• Having recurring memories or dreams
• Racing heart 
• Sweating

Examples of external triggers include:

• Activities
• Conversations
• Objects
• People
• Places
• Situations

Recognizing Triggers

Triggers are ones that bring up PTSD symptoms. These symptoms can include intrusive thoughts or nightmares that come and go. They can be more severe and chronic, including feelings of numbness, estrangement, guilt, and irritability.

You may feel hyper-aroused, stressed, or anxious. Physical symptoms include nausea, headaches, fatigue, heart palpitations, and muscle tension.

Symptoms have to last for at least a month to be diagnosed as PTSD. Many people develop symptoms within three months of the trauma. Symptoms may appear later and often persist for months or years.

How To Manage PTSD Triggers

Being prepared is one of the best tactics for managing PTSD triggers. Suppose it's the Fourth of July, for example. Fireworks are likely, so you might plan ahead if sharp, loud noises are upsetting. Don't go to a large public place with loud booms where it's hard to escape. You might feel trapped in a large crowd. Instead, find a safe, comfortable, quiet place.

It's neither possible nor healthy to avoid too many scenarios. One of the more disabling symptoms is numbness and avoidance. You might seek treatment if symptoms are so severe that you're not leaving the house. People with PTSD may benefit from medications, psychotherapy, and coping skills.

Medications

A healthcare provider may prescribe a selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor (SSRI) to manage PTSD symptoms. SSRIs commonly treat anxiety and depression.

Examples include:

• Paxil (paroxetine)
• Prozac (fluoxetine)
• Zoloft (sertraline)

Psychotherapy

Psychotherapy (talk therapy) helps you identify negative emotions, feelings, and thoughts and change your outlook. A mental health specialist can guide you through the following:

• Cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT): This helps you identify triggers and understand how they lead to PTSD symptoms.
• Cognitive processing therapy: A mental health specialist will help you process traumatic events and teach you some coping skills.
• Exposure therapy: This therapy asks you to relive the traumatic event in a safe, controlled environment. Exposure therapy can help you gain control of fear and learn ways to cope. The goal is to learn that triggers are not harmful and you don't need to avoid them.
• Eye movement desensitization and reprocessing (EMDR): This involves moving your eyes bilaterally while processing traumatic events. EMDR is thought to help reframe negative emotions, thoughts, and feelings.

Coping Skills 

A mental health specialist may teach you different coping skills that you can use if you encounter triggers. These include:

• Meditating
• Practicing self-care, such as eating a nutrient-rich diet, exercising, and getting plenty of sleep
• Spending time in nature
• Taking time to relax
• Talking to friends or family members
• Trying a new hobby, such as art or music

A Quick Review

PTSD triggers can be internal, such as emotions, feelings, memories, and thoughts. Other triggers may be external, including people, places, and situations that remind you of a traumatic event. These triggers lead to symptoms like feeling guilt, difficulty sleeping, and frightening thoughts.

You may consider consulting a mental health specialist if you have PTSD symptoms. They can recommend medication, psychotherapy, and coping skills to help manage triggers.