yes there can be several triggers, for some.
for me i have some ranging from distrust to thoughts of suicide as the final results of triggers.
Several triggers can be from something innocent as a hug to shouting, a look, certain words, places, certain people, etc. The list can go on.

Oh I guess I should clarify my question. I mean that does every trigger cause the same response. Or can different triggers cause different reactions and intensity?

different triggers definately have different reactions for me. The intensity for me can be very different as well. So well I would say the answer to your question is it depends on who you are.

I have a few different triggers and they all affect me in different ways, different intensity of emotion.

I "almost" disassociate three or four times a day (Most times, I've learned how to pull back to reality at the last moment before leaving my own consciousness). What gets me is that I never understand my triggers. I've tried keeping a journal, etc. There was no clear patter. Nothing makes sense. I can be cooking dinner, watching t.v., walking down the street... there is no consistency.

I know what happened to me and why I have PTSD, I just don't understand what triggers my flashbacks.

Hope others have more insight.

Enjoy the first day of Spring!

Yes, I have found that different triggers will bring on different reactions. It depends on what memory is triggered. Some can be relatively mild, where I feel upset for a while. Where others will throw me into a full blown flashback or a dissociative state.

I have also found that the same trigger can cause a different response. A lot depends on how I'm feeling at the time the trigger happens. If I'm in a situation where I feel extremely vulnerable, then my response is much stronger.

Take care and peace to you all!

Yeah, some things trigger me mildy while others can cause me to self-ijure, triggers vary in intensitity big time.

My triggers cause me to act differently, around alcohol I get really agitated, I go quiet and moody and feel angry, I just want to get out of there, while people getting angry and yelling at me I start crying and shaking, my heart is pounding and I can spend days hiding at home thinking the world is going to end.

HI, I'd like to add one more thing to your answers: after having dealt with my ptsd symptoms through the year of 2008....2009 was a relatively symptom-free year--UNTIL the other day when I was around a person who decided to discuss something but in an animated way. It totally triggered me....I was stunned that it had that affect on me after all this time and am still bewildered about it. (I had to use my old techniques to calm myself down after that, I won't be talking with her again, she was in a support group and not a friend of mine) I will be talking this one over with my therapist this week!!! I hope you find good helpful techniques for yourself to feel better! take care.

Just found out 1st hand today, YES! The news can set me off but today it was a poster that was very close up and detailed. No filters through the editing of TV. News set me off but the poster put me over the edge completely.

I'm told anything can cause a trigger...a smell, a sound, a picture, a song, anything....I suppose it depends mostly on what caused you to develop PTSD. Me, coal mines......

Triggers are something that is very individual. It depends on your trauma etc..

I think the relevant issue is to learn to be aware of everything about yourself. Being grounded helps you to figure out your triggers , but it takes constant work to stay focused all the time, whatever you do or wherever you are. It is hard work if you're used to being, as I call it 'off with the fairys', but it's worth it ,as it gets easier the longer you keep working on it..

I've learnt through a trauma group to be self aware to the point that I can these days obsereve myself, when I feel a trigger coming. I can choose to go with the flow and see where I'm at, with an issue and choose to stay focused on the internal workings on my emotional part of the brain. However, I might choose to 'pull the plug' if things get too hard or traumatic, almost like my own parent, where I observe sympathetically when it happens, but intevene, if it becomes too overwhelming.

Like if a person triggers me , I workout what's going on in me and if it becomes too much I just find away to exit the situation... : )

I was shocked after almost 20 years of being able to meander through the triggers and warning those around me about the few I had specifically that I had so many more. I just assumed it was "things I don't like" as a general rule. I wasted a lot of the past 20 years not accepting things were triggers and learning to move past them. I think triggers can be very different at different phases of our sensitivity. Right now, EVERYTHING seems to set me off. I am sensitive to just about every aspect of my abusive mother. Plus the acceptance that PTSD isn't always in check and can rear it's ugly head is really rough. Figuring out what does trigger you I think is the best thing I can say. Remember, scents, sounds, tastes and visual sensories are all part of this!!

My triggers? I really don't know. I am just too irrational at the time and, I know, what it seems to involve is when people do not respond directly to what I ask for in terms of parameters for discussions of anything that may be unpleasant or negative. I try to guide people to discuss things in a positive way and with a bit of agreement as to when to talk about such things. When they are sprung on me, even after being as sensitive as possible to their feelings and such, others will bring things in out of the blue without doing as I asked them to do. For example, I have a helper for 136 hours each month. I have told her again and again that I will talk about anything so long as what is being discussed is set up in advance and such. Today, she brought up something just before leaving for the day and I lost it! I had asked her to talk about this issue for 2 days and she sprung it on me in the last 10 minutes of work. I know that, to her, this makes no sense. I understand it all too well. Things that, to me, can turn ugly, need to be set up ahead of time so that I or the other person can do things that would help to mitigate any negative "surprises"! Also, for example, when I am out with her and I am obviously disabled, she is instructed to never answer anyone asking us to describe or to give a reason for anything that we are doing in the store or to let the clerk ask her what "I" want. Clerks do this as they see that she is my "caretaker" and, at that point, I am diminished as a responsible human being, unable to deal with even the simplest things (as though I have diminished capacity or alzheimers or somthing) and am then treated as "less than" a person. I do not like to be invisible when I am, apparently, part of the conversation. So, in some ways, for any discussion or need to deal with various matters, I really need for people to sort of lay the goundwork before any discussions. This way, I am not caught off-guard if the information that I am given is different that what we had agreed to prior to that time (as happened today)/ I hope that this makes sense to someone out there. Also, I do not trust men! This is a real problem for me. I am polite and courteous; however, I strive to minimize any interactions with them that may become more personal in nature; I do much better communicating with women.

Back to the topic, "triggers." I think that I mentioned a couple of them above. Anyone else with the same issues and how did you deal with them in a more positive and constructive manner?