At this time, I dont have a suggestion, but I can identify with the feeling. I like my doors open and my furniture where I can see the door directly but have made process, in one room I cant and its ok...I love that room so much I guess it was worth it...I wil have to think

I am not sure if doors are a trigger for me, but I am extremely jumpy when doors are closed hard/slammed. My brother since a young age, always slammed doors when he was angry. I guess doors are a trigger for me but not in an extreme way...

I am always looking at doors, always feels like if he can come to it.

Maybe I am confusing myself- i am triggered by doors. Sorry- painkillers are making me extremely drowsy.

im assuming you've tried talking to them. if they don't understand and if its making you uncomfortable in your own home why don't you try removing to doors. it might upset them but then they'll realize it really affects you. once you get the point across you can put the doors back on the hinges. just to kind of get their attenion.

I am triggered by slammed doors. I didn't realize this at first and used to become so triggered that I would literally go fetal.

After I got over the WTF is wrong with me moment, I started doing the linking back to the trigger and sitting with that. My triggered memory might not be as intense as yours, and this by-the-seat-of-my-pants exposure therapy was painful and maybe not the best idea.

I recently did the same thing with a trigger that was much more intense , a lot of DIY exposure therapy and I did feel better. It was weird and I definitely felt out on a limb. If I hadn't been so desperate to do something, I probably wouldn't have tried it.

But it did work--almost 3 weeks of viewing youtube videos that mimicked my trauma. Then all of a sudden the desire to see it again left and I felt better. Hesitant to offer this as advice, but it did
work and helped me quite a bit.

Good luck with your roomies, hopefully they'll be understanding and you'll find a compromise.

and no you're not alone i was for a short while triggered by being closed in a room. but sometimes my triggers alter. for the past few years my triggers include being cornered, ropes, and knifes if they're pressed against my neck.

When I get triggered I do grounding exercises, reminding myself I am safe and trauma is not recurring. It is really empowering!

It is challenging having roomies when you have PTSD.
Company can overstimulate or as you have expressed, cause triggers.

Hope you are able to off set this.

Is if possible to open a window in the front and window in the back and ask that the inside doors be left open to get the air through the place?

You could lie and say you had carpets cleaned and they had a smell for a while and you can smell it and so you're leaving some windows open and inside doors open to get the place aired out.

You lie however to keep the doors open on the inside.

Seems you are wanting to let your guests have their intermittent privacy and simultaneously not feel anxious yourself. Both are certainly understandable.

My brainstorming about this comes up w/ something sort of symbolic- like putting chalk boards (window shaped?) on their private space doors and encouraging them to write a brief note like "all fine in here" or " we love you Mom, we're OK", something they could periodically update w/ ease. Guess I'm thinking your guests are insightful enough to understand and be empathetic towards your involuntary discomfort. It's not like you actually want to deprive them of their privacy.

Just a thought, maybe riffing some permutation of this might help a bit.

When my abusive family of origin's stuff finally got to my little sister, she took to locking her door and staying shut in her room for hours talking to herself into a cassette recorder, making tape after tape directed to no one. My family ignored the obvious psychotic break. She never got better.

I, on the other hand, kept engaged in the world of school. When I came home and locked myself in my room just to be away from the parental nuttiness, in my case my father kicked in the door and then me.

Lots of issues around doors. I hear you.

Well I love shut doors because I feel that I am safe from what's happening behind them. Open doors mean I can be attacked easier.

I think it might be too much to expect them to keep their doors open. Sorry but I wouldn't like it. I don't know what to tell you but I don't think they'll be too keen. Prove me wrong and ask!

You are right, boognish. I have asked and they responded with blank stares and nastier messes in the common areas. They are dug in like parasites. My guest room is beginning to smell like a rat's den.

Since I am already the bad guy and gonna be the bad guy no matter what, I might as well be a bad guy with no parasites to clean up after. Might be that kicking them out is my only option.

Closed doors tend to put me on edge. They remind me of being worried that someone is going to kill themself, and worried that the person is angry. I also have paranoia and when I get into one of those episodes I am afraid that people are talking about me or something else like that behind closed doors.