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People often say that someone or something has triggered them, usually meaning that a current interaction, event, or situation has activated a memory and an associated emotional response. Although the word “triggered” once referred specifically to a facet of a post-traumatic stress disorder diagnosis, it is now commonly used to express emotions related to trauma, though sometimes not directly connected to it (Bonilla and colleagues, 2024).
What Is a Trigger?
A trigger is a signal that recalls a past experience, prompting an emotional response in a person. The origin of a trigger can vary, from a microaggression to a sexual assault, influencing how someone experiences being triggered (Bonilla and colleagues, 2024). Triggered reactions often include negative emotions such as fear, anger, shame, guilt, or disgust, which are linked to past experiences. However, when a current situation resembles the past, sensations and feelings—such as sadness, heaviness, or agitation—may be triggered long before the person is aware of what is being recalled or able to reflect on it. As a result, the body of a triggered individual may react with anxiety, defensiveness, or withdrawal before understanding what is happening internally. Strong trigger responses can activate symptoms, lead to psychological disorders, cause dysfunction, or result in a loss of control (Riachi and colleagues, 2022).
A study examining psychotherapists’ views on triggering factors concluded that everyday events can trigger some individuals but not others, since triggers are closely linked to personal vulnerabilities such as poor coping skills, negative experiences, or past trauma (Riachi and colleagues, 2022). Researchers exploring the use of the word triggered found that the typical experience often involves reminders of sexual assault. However, the word may also refer to experiences like microaggressions, evaluations of eating disorders, grief and sadness from remembering someone, domestic violence (including language of self-blame and responsibility), interpersonal triggers, and reminders of past mental health issues (Bonilla and colleagues, 2024; Guerrero-Hreins and colleagues, 2022). Does this suggest a fragility about normal variations in intensity, friendship, and hurt that makes an event seem abnormal, or does being triggered merely describe intense emotions that are suddenly activated and perceived as unmanageable or in need of control (Bonilla and colleagues, 2024)? Exploring how this language shapes reality and power dynamics, researchers found that when people used the word triggered to describe feelings or reactions to an interpersonal event, anger or upset feelings were often masked by the word itself (Bonilla and colleagues, 2024).
The Important Role of Memory
When it comes to the relationship between a stimulus and a response, the idea that one is triggered sometimes overlooks the role of our own memory in the event, which is instead disguised as cause-and-effect; specifically, that something external to ourselves has caused us to feel something negative. Simply put, when someone believes they are triggered, they are actually perceiving the effects of a stimulus (person, place, or event) on their own emotional memory.
Although the stimulus itself may be harmless, it might not seem so when it triggers a traumatic memory. Unfortunately, in these cases, a person may experience shame due to a strong emotional response, blaming themselves or the person or thing that triggered it. For example, with loss, a person can become fearful that someone or something will activate their memories, which may lead them to avoid not only activities they once enjoyed but also therapists, grief groups, and caring friends. But is avoiding triggers really helpful, or would it be better to face them and understand the emotions and sensations they evoke?
How people automatically respond to a stimulus might initially seem simple and easy to change. However, these responses are rooted in a complex network of emotional, cognitive, and physiological memories that are integrated and stored in our brains. Traumatic memories often exist outside conscious awareness, residing in the body’s sensory system—in our limbs and internal organs (van der Kolk, 2015). Consequently, when a present-moment emotion echoes a past trauma, we may react with tears, withdrawal, or defensiveness before we have a chance to cognitively slow down our emotions enough to understand what is happening inside us and reflect on it.
Traumatic memories can bias our attention and shape our current behavior, which largely determines what triggers us. What attracts our attention—our selective perception—is based on the relative emotional importance of a stimulus, a phenomenon that is termed affect-biased attention (Todd and colleagues, 2012). The potential for emotions to influence attention has been studied in phobias, for example, where people who are fearful in certain situations are more likely to focus on stimuli that resemble those fears (Öhman and colleagues, 2001). Therefore, while we try to avoid triggers, we may also be constantly scanning for them.
Interpersonal Effects of Being Triggered
While one person might have an emotional reaction and claim to be triggered by someone or something, another might not notice. As a result, these differences often lead to interpersonal conflicts. We often overlook that people’s reactions vary because of their affect-biased attention; instead, we might misunderstand or mock their responses, assuming that being triggered signals fragility or mental health issues.
Learning from Triggers
Emotional memories help us manage our lives because they are part of how we learn. All of our experiences in which emotions have been activated and how we responded are stored in our brains and help form scripts—the set of rules by which we live. These are similar to reflexes coded into implicit memory and thus operate automatically and without conscious effort (Tomkins, 1995). Therefore, the emotions we feel now have histories condensed into mini-theories, helping us understand the regularity and change in our lives and guiding us in how to live in the world (Tomkins, 1995). Depending on how well we learn, scripted responses can either support or hinder our interpretation, evaluation, and prediction of our experiences.
Since our emotional responses are shaped by what we’ve learned from past experiences when similar feelings occurred, we can’t erase them. However, we can learn from these feelings and adjust our reactions. Paying attention to what our emotions are telling us, examining the thoughts that accompany our feelings, and evaluating that information can help us recognize and handle the past differently, especially when it becomes part of a present-triggered moment.
