Distressing thread titles.

A Sensitive Topics area on MN would only result in such posters coming back to AIBU because no-one would go on that topic. They wouldn't get the attention.

Are you always this oversensitive? Life isn't all pink and fluffy. I think you need to stay away from the Internet, maybe watch daytime fluffy dramas instead?

All of this.

”Triggered” doesn’t mean “I found that a bit gross” or “it made me feel squeamish or sad”. It’s so undermining to those with actual PTSD to bandy the word around any time something makes you feel a bit uncomfortable.

And slapping “trigger warning” on everything the way people do now is of absolutely no use anyway! You have to actually SPECIFY what the trigger is that you’re warning about.

Same

Hard agree. Please, please no.

duplicate post.

I just don’t see how this would work. You can warn people that the contents of the thread might be disturbing by putting TW in the title so they have a choice not to open it. But as you can’t pre-warn them not to look at the title itself the only way to avoid upset is to keep it so bland and vague we wouldn’t know what the thread was actually about.

No-one’s got time to be opening random threads on the off chance they might be of interest so these threads would end up with no traffic. The title’s the hook, without that… Which would be a shame for threads raising awareness of important topics, or by posters who really need support.

There are a lot of subjects I find upsetting, conception for instance, and various types of bereavement. I scroll quickly past these posts quickly and don’t open them - and I hide them if they keep appearing. But if they were actually medically triggering to me so that the very sight of the title would be too much to bear, then I wouldn’t be scrolling around on a general forum or frankly on the internet at all.

It’s not on the world to edit itself to protect me from my personal issues, it’s on me to stay away until I’ve worked on ways to deal with them.

The thread title mentioned in the OP is indeed distressing. I hid it, and I hardly ever hide threads.
But not in a million years would I think that the person who started that thread should have avoided the distressing words.
It is in the nature of a public place that there will be people whose sensitivities and tolerances are different from yours, and that you will encounter things that are upsetting, disturbing, offensive, etc.
It is amazing how much more censorious people are than they were just ten or twenty years ago.

I am not particularly triggered by thread titles. I skip a lot of things mainly because they don’t interest me. Some of the more prolific thread starters do post ‘attention grabbing’ thread titles. It works and does get lots of other posters reacting to their threads which I guess is the whole point.

I don't think you can realistically expect other people to anticipate every single thing that might trigger someone. You would end up having trigger warnings on every other post. Plus the titles would either have to be so obscure that nobody would know what threads were about without clicking on them or the titles themselves would be potentially triggering in any case.

If you are suffering with some sort of post traumatic stress disorder which means that you can be triggered by reading something on a discussion forum, then you should probably try to avoid forums where people are likely to discuss stuff. Especially with everything that is in the news right now.

Some of the threads are really upsetting to read, because upsetting things are happening in the world. That doesn't mean that they shouldn't be discussed, and I honestly can't see how having trigger warnings on everything will really help anyone.

Maybe just stay offline for a few days if you're struggling.

I've never seen a thread entitled "lovely fluffy bunnies" and then to find it's about rape. Anyway, how the fuck do adults like the OP navigate the world without being "triggered" every 2 seconds. Must be pretty tiring, and tiresome.

How is "TW: Woman's spine broken in violent attack" better than "Woman's spine broken in violent attack?" "TW" on its own is useless.

Most thread titles cover the general nature of their content and that's enough for most people to work out if it's relevant to their interests or better to pass by.

The worst thing that happened to MN, worse than Brexit or Covid was that phase when people wanted OPs to flag up if a thread was hunourous with a warning. It quenched a lot of the natural good humour on the site and left MN a more dour place thereafter.

First time on the internet OP?

Titles need to indicate what the thread is about. If you don’t like the sound of it; don’t read it.

TW’s have passed usefulness now anyway.

Trigger warnings aren't supposed to warn people that they might see an upsetting word. They are supposed to warn people with PTSD about specific subjects which they might want to avoid reading about in more detail.

Your trigger warning, which was "TW coming up of a recent example below" is meaningless and therefore unhelpful because it doesn't actually tell people what the triggering subject matter might be.

If someone has PTSD about (eg) child abuse, they are helped by a trigger warning that says 'TW - child abuse' because they then know that a post is going to be about a subject they would rather avoid.

But if someone just says 'TW, distressing' that is of zero help to anyone, because it doesn't tell someone whether it might trigger them or not and they have no idea whether they can read it.

Also, people really need to know that merely being upset, sad or disgusted about something isn't being 'triggered'. Being 'triggered' is specifically about seeing something that induces PTSD symptoms because it reminds someone of something that happened to them - eg soldiers being extremely agitated by the sound of fireworks because it reminds them of guns or shelling.

Yes, quite.
Also it's really important to retain perspective. For example the thread in question - obviously a really painful injury but the woman in question totally recovered and was back to work within 3 months. People get hurt and life happens, it's not healthy to want to pretend otherwise.

Yeah sorry, not sure what I did there!!

I'm more bothered by stuff like this then what was mentioned in the OP

This.

It's the graphic bodily function ones that get me. Just sitting having my breakfast scrolling and bam, graphic description of someone's profuse diarrhoea 🤮
You can unsee them even if you don't open the thread.
Probably shouldn't Mumsnet and eat!

Seriously? You find a thread title distressing?

How do you cope in life?

I agree with this. If it affects you so much I think that’s more of the issue to turn to, instead of trying to control other people.

Wrong thread, this OP @itsmeafterall has done the classic - no-one is agreeing with me so I am not coming back

What update?
I can’t see any update from OP.

Op your update makes no sense. Everything you've said on it contradicts your OP.