Trauma triggers: We all have them

John Ostwald is professor emeritus of psychology at Hudson Valley Community College in Troy. Email him at jrostwald33@gmail.com.

Did you ever see something, smell something, hear something or even taste something that reminded you of a horrible experience from the past. This may be a trauma trigger. Wikipedia states, that “…it is a psychological stimulus that prompts 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.

I had a trauma trigger the other day. I was watching TV last Tuesday morning September 11th, and all the images from that horrible tragedy, that occurred seventeen years ago, filled the screen. I didn’t have any friends or relatives die during the assault but I worked on a volunteer mental health team when ground zero was still a crime scene. As I watched briefly, some nasty uncomfortable feelings came up so I turned the TV off. Then I said to myself, “It has been seventeen years since I did that work and it still bothers me?” Although my emotional reaction startled me I realized that no matter how many years pass, triggers can cause negative consequences.

I wrote a column about my 911 experience seven years ago. In it I described how mental health workers escorted family members to the site to say goodbye to their loved ones. The city had set up a plywood stage in the middle of the still burning rubble for this purpose. We were also instructed to provide emotional support for police, firefighters, EMTs and other first responders who we often found weeping profusely in a makeshift cafeteria on Peer 94 on West 57th Street.

This trigger phenomenon can happen to anyone. An estimated 70 percent of adults in the United States have experienced a traumatic event at least once in their lives and up to 20 percent of these people go on to develop posttraumatic stress disorder, or PTSD. An estimated 5 percent of Americans — more than 13 million people — have PTSD at any given time. It is interesting that it in some circles PTSD is still called “veteran’s disease.”

The shootings at Parkland, Las Vegas, and other places can also psychologically scar family members, employees and professional helpers. Locally, friends and family members have triggers for family deaths, childhood sexual abuse and domestic violence. One relative said, “I was driving by the exit to Saratoga where my mom died in the hospital there. I happened to look at the speedometer, which read 77, of course her age when she died, and one of her favorite songs from the ’70s came on the radio, all the while, I pictured her sitting next to me, laughing and saying as she shook her head, “You better slow down, remember the ticket I got right here?’”

Another relative is reminded of the death of her brother within the past three years. “These are some triggers for my brother. The smell of a certain detergent, hearing the sound of a lawn mower and seeing some of the beautiful flowers he planted in my yard.”

A colleague told me that arguments with his wife are triggers that remind him of his abusive mother. “My mother’s physical and psychological abuse would always leave deep and lasting feelings of impotence with profound sadness, to say the least. To this day, it is a struggle when my wife raises her voice too much for any reason.”

I have also had another personal experience with triggers after my son’s near death/coma car accident over two years ago. When I see an ambulance, hospital entrance or a ravine like the one he was submerged in, I have a reaction. Time and the use a various healing strategies have helped lessen the impact of these triggers but again, you never know when one will challenge any of us.