On social media and in everyday conversations, the term "trigger" has become commonly used to describe any stimulus capable of causing some form of emotional discomfort. This is quite clear.
What we may not fully understand is how the term originated and came to be so widely adopted. With a bit of reflection, we can recognize its roots in military terminology.
In the 20th century, within the context of soldiers suffering from what would later be diagnosed as Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), displaying various signs and symptoms upon returning from war, the term "trigger" began to be used to associate certain activating events with these individuals' emotional states.
An emotional trigger, then, is a specific stimulus capable of provoking a strong emotional response in a person who has experienced a traumatic event.
Here, I define trauma not only as an event that was experienced or witnessed but also as including the emotions and sensations processed—or unprocessed—during and after the event.
A trigger can be anything associated with the traumatic event, such as a sound, smell, word, or even a person, place, or specific situation.
In military terms, a trigger is part of the internal mechanism of a firearm. Thus, pulling the trigger fires a round. And what would this round represent?
The ammunition refers to the emotional or psychological vulnerabilities of an individual. These vulnerabilities, as ammunition, can result from past trauma, unprocessed emotions, or unresolved issues.
When someone pulls the trigger, what is fired are these vulnerabilities, hitting emotions that are difficult for the individual to regulate.
So, we now have the trigger, the ammunition, and the target.
But who holds the weapon and pulls the trigger?
We do. Yes, we are the ones who hold the weapon and pull the trigger. This means that our emotional history and internal reactions are involuntarily controlled by ourselves.
Most of the time, we don't even realize we're reacting according to the emotional repertoire we have. And this is where I highlight the importance of truly knowing ourselves.
The goal of a trauma-informed approach is to help individuals better understand their triggers and ammunition, creating tools to manage the uncomfortable emotions that are activated.
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