"Silly" and "strange" triggers

"Hey, can I ask you something?" generally works fine for me! Or like, prefacing it with an assurance that you're not upset with me. It's more the completely-out-of-the-blue thing that gets me!

Thanks for asking. <3

 

all right, noted!! thank you c:

 

money: the (not) having of it and the spending of it. mostly the spending. i will spend entire hours in anxiety spirals because what if i spent it wrong and now i don't have that money anymore

this is not helpful because you have to spend money on things like food to survive and live and i am #triggered by it

also i am triggered to the point of physical pain and occasional passing out/vomit by pictures and videos of surgery, descriptions of wrist or eye surgery, real-life stitches and heavy scars, and the smell/taste of mint. this is awkward because you can't really avoid scars on people, but the lighter the scar, the less likely i am to be nauseated. i'm kind of upset because my #trigger means that dating post-top surgery people is generally going to be really uncomfortable for me even though i'm into literally everyone. so @chaoticArbiter you're not the only transphobic person here!!! :D

 

transphobics high-five
also I feel you on the money thing?? so much, I feel you so much on that

 

There's this smell I don't really know how to describe. . . It's like, a dentist office smell, like latex gloves and mint toothpaste mixed together? Was reminded of this because I bought some cheap tea tree oil shampoo yesterday and used it this morning, and GUESS WHAT it smells like? Every time my hair gets close to my face I want to, like, rip it out, which isn't great since I'm at work.

 

Oh man, yeah. I get that.

 

I know the smell you mean and I hate it so much

 

oh, another fun trigger: wheelchairs. not other people being in them, just....specifically me being in them. nope nope nope nope nope! Bad.

 

Similar hat, i only have a problem if someone is pushing me in a wheelchair.

Sensory triggers: using foam nail files and the song uptown funk will send me into a sobbing overloaded mess. Its embarassing.

Trauma trigger: hugs (even the idea messes me up a bit)

Anxiety trigger: someone trying to force me to dance. If i dont wanna dance please do not walk up to me and beg or try to grab me and tell me to let loose.

 

oh, I know I'm not specifying whether things are trauma or not for me, but.....that's because basically all my triggers link back to one trauma or another, with the exception of the 'don't touch me when sick' one, so....yayyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy

 

well, the 'don't touch me when sick' one and the 'hair pressed against skin is Itch and Anger' one.
every other one so far has been trauma-related. whooooooooooo

 

Slenderman, which made the "who could ever be afraid of this dumb tall man in a suit" period of tumblr fun. I was scared shitless of him prior to major game memage though. Ghosts. Mirrors. Exorcisms. Trigger as in "intense anxiety spiral leading to visual and sometimes audial hallucinations and frantic attempts to stay awake for days straight."

Pictures of myself, for "triggers paranoia spiral that leads me to wanting to burn down the internet and myself."

The dark, period. That ones a flat phobia, but again, nothing like saying "I'm terrified of the dark" to make you feel like a laughingstock. Blood irl has become a straight up fainting spell sort of nonsense, which irritates me endlessly.

And for straight trauma triggers, bakeries and the scent of fondant. Also pork cooked only cream of mushroom soup. Pork in general? Salted ham too.

 

• "read" receipts and activity receipts. like how it is on fb messenger's "active now/x minutes ago" and "read"
• open doors at night b/c hallucinations and/or an actual poltergeist in my house, im not entirely sure at this point
• pictures of me i didnt know were being taken
• old pictures of me - AKA facebook memories are the fuckign worst
• men with shoulder-blade length hair, but only when seen from behind, and only if the hair is brown
• extremely loud thunder, especially at the volume it is when it hits my house
• unfinished basements
• flickering lights
• seeing fb messenger popping up on my fp/bf's phone

 

Home invasion horror stories give me paranoia for ages. MY space, monsters, I'll fucking fight you.

 

mmmmmmmm the first one, I feel you on @MayaaFeys
....and the two picture ones.

 

Cloves too probably. Clove oil is often used as a topical anesthetic in dentistry, and I think it contributes a lot to "dentist office smell" (which is an anxiety trigger for me too).

 

Humming. Like, a certain way of humming that's fairly common but does not encompass all kinds of humming. It's hard to describe but it's not the kind where it's like "doot doot doo I am thinking", it's like an airy, singsong, exploratory but strained kind of humming?

 

I have this kinda trigger with mirrors in the dark. My seroquel has helped a lot (and ive almost completely gotten rid of the vampire trigger) but i still get this awful fright spike when i go in the bathroom before turning on the light. It could just be like one second to shut the door first really quick so the light doesnt wake anyone up but i'll be shaky and jittery for a while after.

 

....oh yeah, I can't do horror movies or horror games that remotely involve supernatural shit, or I'll get hallucinations and not be able to sleep and be super paranoid and panicky. that's not a trigger one, it's a disorder problem, because ~psychosis~! -jazz hands-
I'm still trying to pinpoint triggers for things like my self-destructive spirals. bleh.

 

I have a bunch of 'normal' triggers (loud noises, things being broken, doors being pounded in, aggression from people who remind me of my parents, blood, etc), but here are a few of my weird ones:

Spoiler: this list got kind of long!

- Clacky mechanical keyboards, though this has gotten a little better since I had to switch to one because of my RSI. (I still have to listen to music constantly to avoid anxiety with it, and it still sets me off really badly sometimes, but it's a little better.)
- Specific (mostly classical rock) bands' music, and music from one specific instrument. I'm hesitant to mention specifics because it's something people can actually use to trigger me over the internet, but some of them are extremely popular and well-established in rock history, so I run into them in the wild more than I'd like. Triggery music can set me off into full-blown traumatic flashbacks still, it's really unpleasant.
- Loud music in general sets me on edge too, no matter what type it is.
- Watching other people do DIY medic shit to each other. I'm okay patching someone else up myself, and I'm okay watching people whose actual job is patching people up, but I can't watch another amateur patching someone up.
- Holes in walls. These also send me into full-fledged flashback mode.
- Rats, especially wild rats. This is a relatively minor trigger because it was added really late in my life but I still feel sick and terrified when I see them, or think I hear them.
- Being scheduled or the threat of being scheduled probably counts, since it engages my fight-or-flight really badly and I do whatever I can to avoid being Trapped again, until it happens, at which point I go limp and feign until it's over.
- Minorly, being kissed on areas which are not my face. Possibly sleeping in the same bed as other people, too, though that might just be Adjacent Trauma Junk.
- The lights of cigarettes in the dark. Now I think about it, the clicking of lighters might be a minor one, too, and wow that's a revelation.
- The smell of wine, beer, and sherry, specifically. Also, dealing with drunk people in meatspace. That one's kind of bordering on not-really-strange, but I figured I'd throw it out there anyway.

ETA: Most of these only really apply in real life, aside from a few of them. I'm able to handle a lot more stuff in media than I can happening right in front of me.

There are probably more but my head's starting to protest so I'm gonna leave the list here for now.

Also, +1 on Tickling Being The Worst Thing. It ties into my 'you are Trapped' fears and is incredibly unpleasant.