"Silly" and "strange" triggers

Ugh, the kissing. I feel the same way. Any time I kiss somebody or have to, I always make sure to do it with the dryest part of my lips out of some hope that there's someone out there that's going to be as relieved when they don't hear a SHMACK or have a huge wet spot on their cheek/hand/whatever after.

 

There are definitely people out there. I’m one of them.

My life philosophy is that if you slobber on my face I will faceplant on your shirt until it’s gone.

 

Idk if it counts as a real trigger but trying to follow along with sheet music and or lyrics can become really stressful if i lose my place, even if im just listening to music not performing or playing

Just skimming through the whole thing and trying to listen for anything i recognize so i can jump back in reminds me way too much of playing in band and trying to keep up (which lol you cant even really ask the person next to you for help because that would distract them and also make it obvious to any audience that youre lost)

 

- The Scooby-Doo episode "High-Tech House of Horrors", which ends with the AI responsible for said house having basically a meltdown over people not paying attention to it until it shuts down. Every single time it came on, my parents would say something like "Oh, hey, look, that's you!"

- Forehead kisses, that one is weird because it's something that didn't happen to me much if at all and, AFAIK, never in a traumatic context.

 

Also, [n]th-ing the tickling, but in my case, it's particularly bad when whoever's doing it is also pinning me down, because that's also a pretty awful trigger. Don't expect to come out of that uninjured.

 

packing for myself/a move on a deadline
people deliberately mispronouncing words to fuck with me
~question games~ without a definitive point (e.g. oh I'm gonna ask you a bunch of questions about a topic I don't care about because it's funny)
edit: the being shushed comfortingly one too g o d

for a while? certain haircuts/a specific type of lisp, being called picky, MLP:FiM
there are others but idt I remember them rn

 

The bitterant in Dust-off is a trigger. My laptop had a rattly processor fan and spraying it with dust-off until it frosted made the noise go away for a while. However, I was having a lot of trouble with school and being depressed, and I would chew on my nails and think there was something medically wrong with me that I couldn't get checked-out because I needed to graduate to get a job with insurance. I would have to use gloves now because soap doesn't get the bitterant off. Or I need to buy it from a gun-store.

 

• Red Ford Focuses.
• Knocking on my door aggressively.
• Kicking open my door will set me straight into a panic attack.
• People reading over my shoulder.
• Whispering. (pls no it's not fun to make me listen to whispering ASMR it's sincerely horrible and viscerally blugh)

Not sure how strange these are, but I feel like they're on the less common side as far as the triggers I have go.

 

I hate whispering sounds too. Not exactly a trigger but I find them really annoying.

 

Non-trauma-related; seeing a slug or even seeing the word written down used to make me feel anxious and grossed-out for the rest of the day. I still can't stand the things, but I can at least casually step over them now.

 

Most of what I understand of ASMR comes from Tarol Hunt. Considering that he fought against it being named "brain orgasm" ... leads me to believe that it can trigger extreme emotions in both directions.

Yes, I skipped some steps. Ping me if you need me to look them up.

Topic shift.

I was listening to American Pie. (Skipping the 9/11 connection.) One Christmas tradition when I spend the day in my current home... is to freak out at how there's not enough traffic noise. I lived in the center of a subdivision for a while, and at least one year the kids were creating more noise by using the street as a hockey rink... still freaked out. I'm fine at BIL's house because they're at the back of a subdivision and I don't know if there is supposed to be any traffic.

 

Stupid triggers I discovered yesterday:

The second floor of the local university's performing arts center.
Drinking fountains (the taste especially but the whole experience is Ungood)

Dry-swallowing my panic med is less stupid, but not something I expected to experience my first ever full-force flashback over.

 

Mine's bleach. Idk why, but every time I smell bleach, I have the strongest fight or flight reaction, to the point that like, I panic at skin-to-skin contact when I can smell it.

No fucking clue why.

 

This is one of those things I am struggling so damn hard with.

I can barely admit I have PTSD, even though I was diagnosed with it. Admitting it AND dealing with my bizarre, stupid triggers? It's really hard.

White Smart Cars (and sometimes Mini Coopers because they look similar)
Telltale Games, especially The Walking Dead (this had me off Twitter when all that stuff went down)
Pot smoke
Being woken up with the lights on, if I fell asleep with them on
TV playing in another room, especially if someone is talking as well

ETA: Also monster ex's name (his given first name, and the version of his middle name he uses). I am trying really really hard to overcome that one, because the middle name is very common, and the first name is gaining popularity, and I can't cringe every time someone uses it.

Even writing that shit out has me on edge and twitchy.

I think, in some ways, it would be easier if I could admit they were triggers. But that would mean admitting everything else, you know?

 

Seeing 'crackhead' used as a tumblr insult, unfortunately. Unfortunate because it looks like its only getting more popular... but it makes my guts squirm. Maybe because of my history with my older brother. I don't know.

 

The arc in the webcomic Penny and Aggie where four people are rushing in and out of a diner mistaking each other for other people. Something about that just hits my cringe reaction. Similar issue I think @LadyNighteyes brought up once regarding the bit in Night Watch where Vimes hasn't yet realised he's travelled back in time. I don't know what exactly it is about those sorts of scenarios, but it might be the autism-related "being expected to act like someone else and not being able to" association.

 

strong shower smell, especially if it smells like, artificially sweet. and, on very bad days, the song "happy birthday". both used to have worse effects than now, tho

 

CW: csa, victim blaming, self hatred

Spoiler

So i sat down and had a talk with a professional and hashed out a previously unknown trgger. Turns out my sister who lives with me is an around the clock 24/7 ptsd trigger. How fucking fun. She personally did nothing to cause my csa trauma but because i said nothing about it for a long time, my abuser preyed on her as well without my noticing.

She can never live a normal life and its all my fault. I hate.

 

You probably hear that it's not your fault all the time, and it's true, but that probably doesn't help when it feels like it is, so would "I'm sorry that happened to you" help?