Trauma trigger

"Trigger warning" redirects here. For the film, see Trigger Warning (film).

A trauma trigger is a psychological stimulus that prompts involuntary recall of a previous traumatic experience. The stimulus itself need not be frightening or traumatic and may be only indirectly or superficially reminiscent of an earlier traumatic incident, such as a scent or a piece of clothing.[1] Triggers can be subtle, individual, and difficult for others to predict.[2][3] A trauma trigger may also be called a trauma stimulus, a trauma stressor or a trauma reminder.[4][5]

The process of connecting a traumatic experience to a trauma trigger is called traumatic coupling.[6] When trauma is "triggered", the involuntary response goes far beyond feeling uncomfortable and can feel overwhelming and uncontrollable, such as a panic attack, a flashback, or a strong impulse to flee to a safe place.[7][8][9] Avoiding a trauma trigger, and therefore the potentially extreme reaction it provokes, is a common behavioral symptom of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and post-traumatic embitterment disorder (PTED), a treatable and usually temporary condition in which people sometimes experience overwhelming emotional or physical symptoms when something reminds them of, or "triggers" the memory of, a traumatic event.[5] Long-term avoidance of triggers increases the likelihood that the affected person will develop a disabling level of PTSD.[10] Identifying and addressing trauma triggers is an important part of treating PTSD.[6]

A trigger warning is a message presented to an audience about the contents of a piece of media, to warn them that it contains potentially distressing content. A more generic term, which is not directly focused on PTSD, is content warning.

  1. ^ "Post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD)". Vietnam Veterans Association of Australia. 2015. Retrieved 4 February 2016.
  2. ^ van der Kolk, Bessel A. (January 1994). "The Body Keeps the Score: Memory and the Evolving Psychobiology of Post traumatic Stress". Harvard Review of Psychiatry. 1 (5): 253–265. doi:10.3109/10673229409017088. PMID 9384857. S2CID 23677122.
  3. ^ Dalton, Derek (2020). "Trigger Warnings in Criminology Teaching Contexts: Some Reflections Based on Ten Years of Teaching a Sensitive Topic". Scholarship of Teaching and Learning in Criminology. Darren Palmer. Cham, Switzerland: Palgrave Macmillan. ISBN 978-3-030-35158-8. OCLC 1145574118.
  4. ^ Fagan, Nancy; Freme, Kathleen (February 2004). "Confronting posttraumatic stress disorder". Nursing. 34 (2): 52–53. doi:10.1097/00152193-200402000-00048. PMID 14758331. S2CID 33910036.
  5. ^ a b Foa, Edna B.; Keane, Terence M.; Friedman, Matthew J.; Cohen, Judith A. (2008). Effective Treatments for PTSD, Second Edition: Practice Guidelines from the International Society for Traumatic Stress Studies. Guilford Press. p. 274. ISBN 978-1-60623-792-2.
  6. ^ a b Goulston, Mark (2011). Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder For Dummies. John Wiley & Sons. p. 40. ISBN 978-1-118-05090-3.
  7. ^ Cite error: The named reference Laguardia was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  8. ^ Taylor, Holly (2017). "Contagious Speech: Mediating the Eating Disorder Panic Through Trigger Warnings". In Emily Knox (ed.). Trigger Warnings: History, Theory, Context. Lanham, Maryland: Rowman & Littlefield. pp. 27–30. ISBN 978-1-4422-7371-9. OCLC 973920466.
  9. ^ Hilderbrand, Lucas; Sarkar, Bhaskar (2020-02-26). "Trigger Warnings and the Disciplining of Cinema and Media Pedagogy". In Ghosh, Bishnupriya (ed.). The Routledge Companion to Media and Risk. Routledge. ISBN 978-1-317-26822-2.
  10. ^ Lahad, Mooli; Doron, Miki (2010). Protocol for Treatment of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder: SEE FAR CBT Model : Beyond Cognitive Behavior Therapy. IOS Press. p. 18. ISBN 978-1-60750-574-7.