News Trigger Warnings Becoming A Fad?

[8888]

I personally support trigger warnings. I posted something on MyPTSD forum and added a trigger warning and saw it was removed. Since there aren't trigger warnings here I simply cannot handle being here when I am already in a vulnerable state and know I need to seek support elsewhere when I am like that.

 

[lostforgottensoul]

Since there aren't trigger warnings here I simply cannot handle being here when I am already in a vulnerable state and know I need to seek support elsewhere when I am like that.

There's no trigger warnings on the internet in general or real life. How do you handle that?

Also, if there were trigger warnings on here; how would I know what exactly triggered you (or anyone) to put a trigger warning on?

I am not triggered by graphic content or rape stories or incest stories or torture stores or anything like that. But tell me I am doing something wrong and boom, I am triggered and tailspin. How would you have known that telling me I am doing wrong triggers me.

That's what makes trigger warnings pointless. Everything in here is potionally someone's trigger. Thus you stop reading if it is something triggering to you or read with caution.

 

[joeylittle]

Since there aren't trigger warnings here I simply cannot handle being here when I am already in a vulnerable state and know I need to seek support elsewhere when I am like that.

It's smart of you to recognize that about yourself.

Our general assumption is that one can get key information about content here from the title of the post, or the section it's in.

Even so, there are times when we just feel raw.

Making the right decision for yourself is what it's all about.

 

[lostforgottensoul]

@8888, I'm sorry, I didn't mean to sound insenitive. I was more replying to trigger warnings being or not being here. I agree that you made the right choice for you.

Sorry, it seems that I am not wording things right lately.

 

[Deleted member 541]

For me..... life is a trigger. This site is a trigger. Words are triggers. Virtually anything and everything in the world could be a trigger for someone. Should we put a "TRIGGER" warning on the world????

I get triggered by hairy men, so should all men shave their bodies for me? Or should they walk by me with TRIGGER signs waving so I can avoid?

I get triggered by some flowers, lillies, roses. Funeral flowers. So going into a florist shop is disturbing to me. Should flower shops put signs in the windows warning people that it's a possible trigger???.

I think trigger warnings, are just another way to avoid what we don't want to deal with.

 

[8888]

@lostforgottensoul It's very hard for me to handle, I do the best I can. I think trigger warnings should mostly be for graphic details of traumatic events. You're right that not everything triggering has a trigger warning, Easter is a big trigger for me (I was sexually assaulted at an Easter egg hunt) and Easter is not something that would normally be labeled with a trigger warning. You didn't offend me.

@joeylittle Yeah, it has been helpful to realize.

 

[lostforgottensoul]

I think trigger warnings should mostly be for graphic details of traumatic events

I am on another site that has trigger warning and a trigger code that works like the spoiler code here, to hide all content.

Issue is, if graphic content and traumatic events are hidden behind something that says *TRIGGER HERE* then I skip it even though I wouldn't have been triggered.

See the issue there? It is exactly what happens with my content on there and I get MUCH fewer replies then I do here, thus why I post here and not there.

 

[Deleted member 541]

@8888 I have had so many traumas as a child that I don't really have an anniversary date. I know that the month of Feb is not really difficult, but different for me. I have tons of triggers. Words, things, sayings.... All sorts of things. I can't avoid them because they are everywhere. Plus, exposure therapy (being exposed to your trigger in small doses over time) will desensitized you, so that the trigger will only be a bit uncomfortable and not a horrendous shock. Trigger warnings, just help you to avoid the one thing that is keeping you where you are. Stuck.

 

[8888]

@lostforgottensoul If I read something triggering here I don't usually answer the post. I don't know about other posters but for me it makes little difference in my participation.

@She Cat While I agree there are benefits to exposure therapy, but I need to do that at my pace, not at the pace the world sets for me.

 

[lostforgottensoul]

If I read something triggering here I don't usually answer the post. I don't know about other posters but for me it makes little difference in my participation.

That wasn't what I was saying or my point. I wasn't talking about here. I was replying to you advising graphic content and traumatic events should have trigger warnings.

I am talking about a different website that does have and demand trigger warnings and a trigger code that hides content unless clicked on. Lets say you post graphic content and traumatic events on there, then you also have to hide it behind a trigger code and place a trigger warning on it. I come along, I am NOT triggered by graphic content or traumatic events, but I see that your post is hidden by a trigger code with a trigger warning and my brain starts to spin of all of the triggering things thay could be behind there and I don't want to become triggered, so I skip it and never click on it. But I wouldn't of been triggered and I could of added some damn good advise but I didn't because I skipped it due to it saying it contained triggering content, I wasn't able to help or add anything.

That exact things happens to me on that site. Personally i am attracted to trigger warnings but everything I post has to be hidden by a trigger code and have a trigger warning on it as mostly my content is graphic and everyone is so damn scared to be triggered so not many click on it and I get much fewer replies there then I do here and there is a site that is around 5 times as big. But I get oceans more of replies here. I mean pages and pages and pages were I may get one or two maybe three replies there. And I absolutly believe that not having trigger warnings but instead it is implyed that every post could possibly have a trigger in it is a big reason for that. And places it back on the reader rather than the poster.

If there, to get more replies and not have to put it in a trigger code and put a trigger warning on it I have to censor myself and make what would have been a very open, honest, and possibly graphic post not very open and honest and no where near graphic...and many times it doesn't give enough information for others to understand fully what I mean to fully help me. It is the biggest pain in the ass and it is why I post here and not there and it is also why I have issues with censoring myself here. It is what started it anyway.

On a forum like this it is pointless as you cannot mind read of what is triggering for people and it damages their abilty to gain help. And then what triggers me isn't hidden or have a trigger warning because I am not triggered by graphic content and traumatic events. So it does me zero good. And it is much more accurate to say everything could possibly be triggering, as that is the truth. Continue with caution.

Sorry for the long post but I think comparing the 2 sites, one with trigger warnings and one without, gives a great example of one of many issues with trigger warnings.

 

[joeylittle]

@lostforgottensoul - I'm pretty sure @8888 was just building on your post - saying that they skipped over content here, just the same as if it were hidden behind a trigger warning, the way it is as you described the other site.

In other words, for them - they don't read the content either way. Whereas, you were saying that you skip it when it's hidden, but might not skip it when it's not.

I can't read their mind, or yours - but it looks to me like there wasn't anything to defend - they weren't misunderstanding you, just disagreeing based on their own experience, and saying how it worked for them. I'm sharing this observation because not everyone is going to agree all the time, and continuing to make your own argument isn't always necessary.

 

[lostforgottensoul]

I wasn't really arguing @joeylittle but expanding as I thought they missunderstood what I said.

Obviously was mistaken.