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Not sure where this goes but figured Psychology was as good a choice as any.
A few summers ago, I was at my old house working at my computer in my home office. It was the middle of the afternoon and I suddenly heard the chimes of "the ice cream man" (at least that's what we called him when I was growing up -- it always WAS men back then, although that has likely changed). IMMEDIATELY when I heard the music, I started to tear up, and within 10 seconds I was crying uncontrollably. This went on for several minutes.
To this day I have absolutely no idea why. Just before this happened, I was not emotional at all -- I was just doing work on my computer. So it wasn't like I was feeling sad and just chose that moment to start crying.
I am thinking it was a memory trigger, but of what? And have others had similar triggers?
(I had something similar when I opened a can of soup that one of my kitties had just loved ... wrote about that in another thread ... //www.city-data.com/forum/cats/...weve-lost.html . This "ice cream truck" trigger felt different.)
MAniacTHW, can you say something about why that particular episode is relevant to my question? (I'm not saying it's not, but whenever I see videos or links posted it would be nice it the poster stated how they are relevant. EG how does he take an "intense look" at emotional triggers? From what I understand that episode is about someone confessing to a crime he or she did not commit. Not sure what the connection is to my post.)
I read a little about emotional triggers and found there are all kinds, some positive and some negative.
The material I read seemed to say that for an emotional trigger to make you cry, it is likely something associated with that ice cream chime made you feel extremely sad and you repressed those feelings. Hearing the chime touched on your feelings about that situation and so you cried, maybe you needed to cry a long time ago about that but didn't. You are the only one who really knows what that chime means to you, but we all have feelings we have repressed.
Interesting. Certain things trigger certain responses from all people. As a previous poster has said I have always been able to understand the cause of these triggers for me. A train horn..the sight of a Christmas tree through a window on a cold December night, rain on the roof with thunder and lightning, I cud go on and on.
As to triggering a repressed memory, hmmm, Havnt had a personal incident such as that, but, Im quite sure it happens to folks all the time. The things i mentioned as perzonal triggers have a VERY powerful effect on me. Powerful and complicated. Sights smells sounds touch....all trigger different things in different people for different reasons..some good, some VERY distressing and even a mixture of both. Your question really got me thinking. My list of triggers is quite long. Frankly, not a day goes by I dont trigger thus on SOMETHING.
Music can be my trigger. It doesn't trigger any specific memory, but when I hear certain songs I am ready to end it all....I'm glad I have my kids to keep me going
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rough a window on a cold December night, rain on the roof with thunder and lightning, I cud go on and on. 
