When something/one triggers someone else what is causing them to trigger and what is happening on a biological level is can the effects change?
is it a different term for the fight or flight response?
In: Biology
When you are “triggered” you are undergoing an emotional response, usually sadness or anger. Things that trigger you are linked to memory. Memories usually have some type of emotion associated with them. Let’s say your mom died in a car accident. Every time you drive by a car accident the memory of your mother’s death comes to mind and with it the associated emotion (sadness, etc). This can work with almost anything.
People can be triggered for many things including things they didn’t experience per se but learned. Let’s say you read about racism and you got extremely angry over it (understandably so). You’re still tying an emotional response to it, thus if you see racist symbols or things seeming racially unjust your brain recalls that emotion tied to that memory (thing you’ve learned).
In sum, on a biological level, the parts of your brain that control emotion are either the same or strongly tied to the parts that control memory. These two interact. Your brain sees something that reminds them of that memory and the emotion tied to that memory is recalled because the two work in concert.
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