Someone says something to us, and we are suddenly struck with a sinking feeling in our stomach. Someone does something, and instantly we become enraged or alarmed. Someone comes at us with a certain attitude, and we go to pieces. We hear mention of a person, place, or thing that is associated with an unresolved issue or a past trauma, and we immediately feel ourselves seize up with sadness, anger, fear, or shame.

When any of this happens, we can be sure a trigger has been pulled. We find ourselves in a stimulus-response experience that happens to all of us. The stimulus is referred to in metaphorical terms, as either a "trigger" or a "button," as in, "What she said triggered me"; "What he does pushes my buttons," or "I got hooked again." We might also say, "I have a charge on this," using an electrical analogy.

A trigger is any word, person, event, or experience that touches off an immediate emotional reaction—for example, sadness, depression, anger, aggression, fear, panic, or humiliation, shame. Words, behavior, attitudes, events, even the presence of certain people, can incite reflex reactions in us over which we have no control. For example, we are suddenly surprised by a noise, and we are startled. The noise is the stimulus/trigger; the startle is the reaction. Our reaction can be brief........

© Psychology Today