Certain sounds, smells, tones of voice, or other sensory experiences can become triggers when the nervous system associates them with danger. During a frightening or overwhelming experience, the nervous system…
Trauma reactions happen automatically because the nervous system is designed to respond to danger quickly. When a response repeatedly helps a person survive or reduce harm, the nervous system learns…
Yes, you can have triggered trauma responses without conscious memories of trauma. This is because trauma can be stored as implicit memory rather than conscious memory. Implicit memories often do…
When your nervous system registers the presence of a trigger, it will react even if you were not consciously aware of the trigger. Your nervous system has two different processes…
Trauma survivors often experience becoming triggered without knowing why. When you understand how triggers are formed, unknown triggers seem less mysterious. A trigger is any cue that your nervous system…
Trauma triggers form when the nervous system learns to associate a cue, situation, or experience with danger. When something frightening, overwhelming, or harmful happens, the nervous system pays attention to…
A trigger is a cue that the nervous system associates with danger and that results in protective action. That’s a general definition. Now let’s make it more concrete. As a…
Flashbacks can feel physically real because traumatic memories are often stored with more than just thoughts and images. They may also include body sensations, emotions, and survival responses that were…
Normally, memories come with a sense that they happened in the past. Flashbacks can be different. When a flashback is triggered, the memory may not be connected to the information…
There are two reasons you might be able to talk about horrific trauma without emotions. One possibility is that the trauma has been processed and no longer causes significant distress.…