News The Word "trigger" Today - Your Take?

[EveHarrington]

I don't use the word outside here.

I cringe when other people use it to describe my reactions.

I prefer to say "it caused a PTSD episode". Normal people will NEVER be able to hijack this statement.

 

[Crystal Rose]

I think by this point, we've all heard the words "trigger" or "trigger warning" in some context that m...

I have been having a tough time online witnessing the stigma surrounding it all and the really ignorant backlash. I try and educate but I had one misguided woman claim that people who have faced trauma (in this case she was diminishing sexual assault because of it's commonplace) are just too sensitive and too empathetic and need to toughen up in order to survive. I feel like throwing my hands up because not only are people attempting to be more respectful of other people's experiences and mental heath in our society and educational institutions - but the backlash feels so loud and angry to me. I just need to get off the internet more and just recognize that the majority of people really have no frame of reference or clue because they have zilch personal experience with the matter.

 

[lostforgottensoul]

I dont know what other word that could discribe something that triggers a bad emotional/anxiety/panic tailspin or flashback etc. "Episode" makes me cringe!

ETA: Trigger is the word as it technically it triggers something.

Plus i cant say "ptsd episode" anyway as most dont know I have ptsd.

 

[Neverthesame]

I like the term meltdown.

 

[joeylittle]

To people I know, it's "my symptoms are flaring up"
To people I don't, it's "I got upset".
My therapist will reference things as triggering me. I, for some reason, have a problem using the word 'trigger'; I think I'm overcompensating for people who use it too often. So, even in therapy it will be described more like 'this happened, and I had this response' (as opposed to 'this triggered me, and I, etc')

 

[Gs172003]

I use ",episode" when I can't describe what's going on. I'm so new to my diagnosis that I don't always know what's going on.

As far as the goofy "triggered" crap on the internet, I take it with a grain of salt.

 

[Silver.]

I tell my s/o I have the ptsd's
but he's my best friend and it's easier for me to say it goofy/child like
I definitely see that in my wording to him, it's me minimizing things, as I always do, but it gets the point across
To others (which means they do know me and that I am a sufferer), I just say I am having "issues"

 

[Freedomfighter]

My understanding is its very hard to get diagnosed with by the VA .how the heck do you fake it enou...

Whoa, you should see the people that stalk me. Every day they feign to be a victim like me, every day they feign to be victims of the same crimes as me, and in actuality they are calculated criminals.

They could easily pass a lie detector test and no one would know, that is how convincing they can lie.

 

[Justmehere]

I used to be very counter phobic much of the time. Couner phobuc behavior is when I move towards something I fear, I move towards it in and effort to deal with the anxiety about it. Counter phobic behaviors can be healthy and unhealthy. Most first responders have a little counter phobia in them.

I've been this way since I was 4 years old. Sometimes it is way harder for me to deal with this he stress of it lining and being close enough to try to control what I'm scared of, that it is for me to avoid it. (Other times I am a more typically avoidant person.)

When my counter phobia was at its worst, if someone put a trigger warning on something, and I'm already not in a good place, 8 times out of 10, I get more anxious not looking.

So I've trained myself to ignore most trigger warning stuff outside of therapy.

It's mostly useless for me anyhow. My triggers are so different than for others.