One of the key things that took me ages to figure out is that I can’t necessarily know what has triggered a trauma emotion. Unless the trauma is very specific (big ‘T’ trauma – eg car accident, violence against you, witnessing a violent act), then it’s very difficult to find the source of the trigger.
Why? We have this prehistoric trait of being sensitive to cues and associations connected to a prior danger. Back then it probably meant the difference between life and death. In our modern world we still hold this innate tendency to react to trauma-related clues.
These clues can be VERY sensitive – the sound of a door opening, certain tones of voices, body language, colours, smells, etc. These clues are stored in areas of our brain (limbic memory) that we just don’t get access to. In addition, when it’s triggered the logical area of our brain (prefrontal cortex) gets taken off-line as the rest of the brain is needed to support the ‘danger’ (usually perceived – not real).
For small ‘t’ trauma, the second problem with trying to understand where a trigger comes from is that they are generally not related to a specific event. What triggers it is the cumulative impact of the trauma environment – not a specific impact event.
So, trying to determine ‘cause and effect’ with small ‘t’ trauma triggers is difficult, and probably less important as a way of trying to minimize the impact of the trigger.
