metapianycist:

“It’s only a trigger if it causes horrible flashbacks” is so utterly divorced from how the concept of a trigger is used by actual real therapists

a thing doesn’t have to cause traditional flashbacks to be a trigger. a trigger can be a thing that causes:

- panic attacks
- emotional flashbacks*
- anxiety episodes
- paranoia/delusions
- hallucinations
- seizures
- rage episodes
- manic episodes
- depression spikes
- suicidal thoughts
- dissociative episodes
- sensory overload
- obsessions and compulsions (as in OCD)

and probably more things than that, i don’t know all the possible things. I’m not trained in clinical psychology, but neither are all the assholes who say “It’s not a real trigger unless it gives you flashbacks”

* an emotional flashback is a type of flashback where you feel the emotions associated with the trauma happening to you while still on some level knowing that the trauma isn’t currently happening to you. this is a more common type of flashback than the traditional kind.

tl;dr the word trigger in clinical psychology (the field of therapists) can refer to many things other than traditional flashbacks. stop telling ppl “that’s not a trigger unless it gives you flashbacks,” because you are utterly fucking wrong.