A psychological trigger is a stimulus — image, sound, smell, situation, person — that automatically activates an intense emotional response, generally related to a past painful experience. The reaction seems disproportionate to the present context because it does not respond to it: it responds to the past that the stimulus evokes in the nervous system.
Concept origin
The concept arises from classical conditioning (Pavlov) and was applied to trauma by van der Kolk and other post-traumatic stress theorists. In PTSD, triggers activate the threat response because the brain associated them with danger during the traumatic event and has since been unable to distinguish that the danger has passed.
Therapeutic approach
Trigger management includes: identifying and mapping them (knowing what activates what), developing a prior response plan (what to do when activated), using grounding techniques to return to the present, and in therapeutic work, reprocessing the trigger-threat association through graduated exposure or EMDR.
Related concepts
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