Why is everyone 'triggered' these days?

[Mylifeisamesssuchamess]

Why does everyone seem to be 'triggered' these days? Surely being genuinely triggered would be rare and would usually happen if you've experienced severe trauma. Surely for most people it's just that they feel pissed off about something, scared or upset and it's not as extreme as being 'triggered'.

I agree but with an extra layer of virtue signalling by policing what other people can talk about. I was talking to my cousin who’s a writer. She’s had to fill in trigger warnings to submit entries for writing competitions to for the judges - one of the options was ‘misogyny!’ I mean - if that triggers you as a woman then it must be impossible to leave the house these days.

Surely having the attitude to tell porn addicted admirers to go fuck themselves, literally, is resilience not to fall to pieces over a discussion about a wildlife programme?

Many more people are triggered over smaller situations. It feels like the psychology language that seeps gradually out of therapy rooms and then they are everywhere. Narcissist, love languages, OCD, triggers, they are all overused and so far from their original therapy uses to effectively be meaningless. Which makes it impossible for the small percentage of true sufferers to talk without their conversations to be swept up with all the other "trigger" conversations. Someone being triggered by doors slamming because that was how they used to get harmed is a fuck gulf away from being triggered by a conversation about a vulture ON TV that they didn't watch eating an owl chick. But what, because someone says trigger we are all supposed to modify our behaviour to not cause the slightest ripple of upset. It's unsustainable and in the end all triggers, genuine and instagram ones, will be ignored because it will be impossible for society to function otherwise.

Go away.
I don't minimise his issues. His issues are different to mine. He doesn't have OCD he's just tidier than I am. And he was triggered when the dog farted or his shoes were cold.
If he was triggered because of trauma or mental health issues, I'd tell him to see a doctor and get help. Like I have.
Sympathy and empathy happens when it's needed. But I'm not his therapist so I can't help other than to point him to a shit mental health service that only helps if you are suicidal.

It definitely makes it harder (than it already is) when you have actual triggers. I struggle to say that something has triggered me because it is no longer a good descriptor of the terror that I am experiencing.

I might excuse myself if I know that something is about to happen (fire alarm testing for example) but if I have no warning I think it’s usually pretty obvious to anyone around that I’m not ok (read terrified) and that it’s more than a little upset or uncomfortable.

So many are living with trauma and not treated because it’s become their reality. I was ‘lucky’. Diagnosis meant treatment and understanding. I’m mostly ok until I’m not.

I wonder if therapists develop compassion fatigue from having to see all the people who want therapy due to minor discomforts in their lives as opposed to people with mental illness or trauma.

Sounds like sensory stuff, sensitive to temperature and smells…for your DS. Maybe other stuff like bright lights and loud sounds. Well anyway, hope you feel ok and your DS too.

I know a lot of therapists (sister is one and two close friends are therapists with specialisms in addiction recovery and couples therapy, and I know other people through them), and I would say no. Also, one person's 'minor discomfort' is another person's major issue. There's no objective calibration.

I recommend therapy a lot on here because I have found it transformative, and because a lot of posts suggest there's a real need for it in many posters, whose attitude to/ability to manage relationships suggests unmet needs, projections based on unresolved childhood experiences etc.

Every other thread here also seems to carry a TW., from breaking a fingernail to not being able to open a tin of cat food

I wonder if therapists develop compassion fatigue from having to see all the people who want therapy due to minor discomforts in their lives as opposed to people with mental illness or trauma.

No, in my experience people don’t tend to pitch up to therapy with minor discomforts and if they do the therapist will be looking to understand what’s underlying those issues where a level of distress seems disproportionate to the issue at hand.

It's definitely overused and in some ways diminishes the feelings of us diagnosed with PTSD and the genuine fear of the cause. I rarely say I'm triggered, but it means nothing now most of the time, except to those close enough to know what I went through.

I have complex trauma but never say I am 'triggered' because it feels faddy and like the word has been trivialised. I do think genuine trauma is actually quite common in the population however and am glad it's talked about more these days.

I really don't think this is happening. Therapy is draining and expensive - people go for a reason. Also, you don't need to be traumatised or ill to benefit from therapy or to be of interest to a therapist - most people have some shit that could do with sorting through, one way or another.

I do know what you mean (me, too) but, at the same time, I don't believe someone being 'triggered' is a good reason to make others change what they're doing. Living with the after-effects of trauma, great or small, is a personal responsibility and, as you've just said, is a fairly normal part of life.

When I have an irrational overreaction to something, it's up to me to recognise what's happening and either refocus or get out of there. My aim is to handle my responses and learn from them, so it happens less often. It may be a lifetime project, but I'm doing okay! No-one else is responsible to me or obliged to make allowances for my emotional overload.

Unfortunately this. Same with ghosted, gaslighting and narcissistic. Those words are all relevant, but overused and usually in the wrong situation

Couldn’t agree more. It’s the need to catastrophise and grossly exaggerate one’s feeling for effect. But it happens all the time as people has said.

Diagnosed PTSD is real, frightening and big. But people say they have it being undiagnosed for the smallest things.

People will say they have a migraine to make it sound worse when it’s ‘just’ a bad headache. Etc.

The problem is that it normalises very serious conditions to seem common and easily curable when this isn’t the case.

The lack of resilience in people is a consequence of this as people need to exaggerate their feelings for allowances they shouldn’t need.

Real mental health problems aren’t just ‘get overable’. But feeling down about something doesn’t automatically make you have clinically diagnosed depression.

Its also rampant when a child does something slightly repetitive or is introverted - they must be ND (which again isn’t in any way a bad or negative thing but takes away from those that really are).

Again the lack of resilient is worrying - people need a ‘reason’ to explain why they find things hard.

Words like unhappy & upset are perfectly valid. Too underused, even...

Yes, or ‘My mother is a narcissist’. Armchair psychology throwing around of a term, when what is often meant is ‘Someone who doesn’t behave towards me as I would like’.

Having said that, as someone who is clearly gifted in suppression, I am only just realising that I am in fact living with the decades-long effects of trauma (CSA), and recognising things that trigger me. Utterly ordinary things like sitting on the edge of a high bed, or the smell of hospitals.

There is definitely a hyperbolisation (I made that word up) or words. “Hate” is another word which has moved from a very strong meaning and is often used in a “you’ve disagreed with me/said something I don’t like” way.

of course there are people who are genuinely triggered, but the word has been adopted by a majority in a way which has taken away the meaning from the minority who are.

If we’re aren’t triggered then we’re being gaslighted.

I agree with this.

I don't see this epidemic of people all talking about being 'triggered' in my own life though.