Sexual assault triggers

Triggers

 

Have you ever been talking to someone or been around someone and all of a sudden they seem to have a panic or anxiety attack? Sometimes they’ll leave the room or say give me a minute?  Or have you known someone who says mysterious things like I can’t be around guys who wear Old Spice or I can’t stand football players? Or while listening to the radio have you ever known anyone to turn it off suddenly, almost violently and then seemed shaken by the song?  These are examples of triggers.

 

When someone undergoes a violent or traumatic event such as rape, a car accident, a shooting, a near fatal experience, war, or molestation there are certain things that will cause the victim to remember or relive the original event.  These events are called triggers because they trigger the remembrance or reliving of the event. Psychological and brain chemistry studies have shown that traumatic events are more deeply routed and entangled then happy events. You are more likely to remember, relive and re-experience a car accident then you are a great birthday party. Sights, sounds, feelings, smells, textures, thoughts are all more deeply ingrained during traumatic events and are brought to the surface with triggers. And triggers can be anything relating to the event. For example, for a car accident, some triggers might be:

Make and model of a car

Driving over a stretch of road or a bridge

Having another car come at you the same as when the accident happened

Having similar weather conditions at the same time of day on the same stretch of road.

 

For sexual assault some triggers could be:

Smell of cologne

Physical touching or grabbing

Revisiting the location or similar location

Discussion, a news story, or hearing someone else’s experience.

Music or background noise

 

So, when a trigger is pulled what happens to the victim? That depends a great deal on if the person is aware of the triggering event, aware of the original event, has had counseling to deal with the fallout of the original event and has been given coping tools to deal with a triggering event. Encountering a trigger can be a very traumatic experience with reactions ranging from mild mental rattling to suicide, depression and the usual symptoms of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. It can be especially difficult if the person does not remember the event clearly or has suppressed the event. For example, let’s say a woman was sexually assaulted her freshmen year in college and then 22 years later her daughter goes off to college. Her daughter going off to college could be a trigger for the woman. Or let’s say a woman is in an elevator with a friendly male co-worker and they are chatting away. The male coworker is excited and overzealous about an upcoming project and grabs the woman’s arm in his enthusiasm. The close space, the loud voice, the grabbing of the elbow may be a triggering event for the women.  

 

Triggers can hit at any time and without warning. Imagine being in a meeting or having lunch with someone and having a trigger happen. And one of the most common and heart wrenching events that cause a trigger is physical intimacy and sexual relations between two people. In some cases triggers and PTSD can become debilitating to where the person can’t function. In most cases therapy or counseling with a trained trauma counselor can help the victim work through triggering events.