((((( muji )))

even if i see a seemingly loving family in a commercial i can get triggered....

I would be guilty of envying people who can predict their flashback triggers.. I am tempted to call a flashback whose trigger and resulting memory sequence are evident at the time of the trigger event, "A good flashback." Often times, I never do get to *know* and have to just let the mystery be.

For the ones I am able to decipher, the format seems pretty irrelevant. A turn of phrase, a tone of voice, a random odor, etc, etc., ad infinitum, can trigger me, whether in a performance of any genre or in an overheard conversation in a grocery line or a neighbor's garish light.

In my house growing up, sitcoms were a way of life/ family member. Certain comedies trigger me. I am immature and enjoy “It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia”. Every once in a while the topic of the episode will be very triggering. Learning to just turn it off and skip episodes as needed. People here suggested “Atypical” but I found it insanely triggering. Stopped watching. Have fun at the comedy show! Hoping it’s a nice relaxing evening!

Yes.

So many different things can trigger us Muji for so many reasons.... It could be a phrase or does someone resemble someone who has hurt you?

Big hug.....xo

Yep.

I can be triggered by how my cats interact right now, and I can find many TV shows abrasive on the PTSD.

Supportive puma purrs.

I have watched that program Arrested Development. It hasn't triggered me but I recognize my family of origin roles
Hope that the Dave Attell show you enjoy and are not triggered by.
Triggers I believe are always going to be with you. One of the many prices you pay as a Survivor of Abuse. Take care muji.

I find the same thing that everything seems to trigger me nowadays because I have had bad experiences in nearly every one of life's scenarios. I seem to have completely lost my exoskeleton and I want it back.

Oh yes muji. Sometimes its the situations and sometimes the characters remind me of real life people or some times the actor just looks like an abuser or has a similar tatoo.

And not just comedies, the new, talk shows, ugh! I dont watch tv as its broadcast anymore. I watch taped so i can control it more, less commercials and advertisements of shows that trigger me. Triple hugs. Mexico is a beautiful place to aspire to go in Dec. triple hugs

Thanks, y'all, for taking the time to share your responses to my query. I learned a lot from them, beginning with arfie's mention of the concept of a "good flashback."

In my death and dying classes I teach at my community college to nursing students, we talk about the concept of helping dying patients have a "good death," that such a thing exists and is important. So now I can translate that concept to that of a "good flashback," too. Thanks, arfie.

As to my purpose in thinking about triggers, in the spirit of "good flashbacks," it's not just fearful, it's curious as well. In a way, it seems to me that those of us who suffer PTSD flashbacks can turn those to memory work. I'm interested in that as someone whose doctoral dissertation was in history, and who published a history book as a professor since then.

There's a novel that illustrates my point. My doctorate in my first career before switching to hospital chaplaincy and now teaching nursing is in the novel so it means a lot to me. The French classic novel by Marcel Proust "Remembrance of Things Past" is based on the taste of a madeleine cookie that opens the mind's door to a whole novel-length story of "involuntary memories." They're involuntary, but not bad. They recover "lost time" for him, as he says.

One reason I go back to Mexico is that I was a boy there and learned Spanish, how to ride a bike, and how to swim all at once in my first year there when I was 7, a wonderful year for me. So my senses are bathed in good memories, those "good flashbacks" of "involuntary memories" when I'm there. Recovering that "lost time" balances out my trauma memories for me. I'm looking forward to Dec. 18 when I go there again even more now that I've figured that out with your help here.

I do relate, though, to what Loo said about wishing I had my exoskeleton on me here in my life in the USA. What's going on here in society these days is very triggering to me with less of those childhood "good flashbacks" to draw on since I didn't grow up here. I guess, as Knee says, it's the price I pay for having had the good fortune of US citizenship so I could take refuge here in the States in safety from Uruguay's dictatorship back in the day when I was tortured by soldiers there.

As Evergreen says, the shows that trigger me here are not just US comedies, but the news and talk shows, too. I don't have cable TV. I stream it instead through Roku, so I control it that way kind of like taping it as Evergreen says. That's good.

Kate, I like that show "It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia." It's so sarcastically funny. In my wanderings after I came from Uruguay up to the States to go to college, I had a summer job in downtown Philly, so there's that for me in watching it, too, recovering those good youthful memories.

I'm grateful for your help in my processing what's going on here. Fall Break is here this weekend at my community college, so I can take a pause. I'm really going to enjoy Dave Attell's live comedy show all the more this weekend now.

Hugs & support Muji!

I'm a mess right now. It's hard to find something to watch that isn't too loud or too fast or too stupid. I'm glad you find solace in Mexico. I don't have a place if solace yet. ♥️

Hugs Muji! Happens to me all the time with shows. Short videos on youtube. I freaked out yelling the other day because my s.o was watching a movie. I walked into a part I thought was going to be violent in the movie. It wasn't at all. Apparently, the actor was being sarcastic or using weird humor. Definitely not alone. With you in solidarity..

Milla, so sorry things are a mess for you right now. I'm so lucky I've found refuge in Mexico like I have. I keep thinking my luck will run out with each visit, but so far so good, so I'm going to test my luck there again for Christmas. Really hoping. Hoping you find that refuge, too.

Hopealways, thanks for the solidarity! I'm finding that "formula" shows don't fake me out like, shows like Law & Order, stuff like that. They're not as original with plot twists, but that's kind of the point, right?

Funny you should say that about Arrested developments, I started to watch it a few years ago and I stopped. So many people love it but something did not sit well with me either and I don't know what that was. Watch Grace and Frankie, it is funny and warm