The phrase 'trigger warning'....

[Smartleatherbag]

This phrase, which can be very useful when uses judiciously, is everywhere online just now. Aibu to be irked by its ubiquity?!
I have had actual, diagnosed, hospital treatment for PTSD. I am aware that it might be a good idea to have a trigger warning on things which are very upsetting to lots of people: stories about children being hurt, tragedies etc etc. Bit the constant use is making it worthless.
Anyone else?
Are we all such fragile souls?

I agree.

Have a look in site stuff - there's quite a few threads in there where people are saying the same thing. It's not just you.

YANBU. I posted something similar not long ago. It totally misunderstands PTSD, and IMO trivialises the difficulties suffered by people with PTSD especially as the term gains popularity. In internet contexts, as far as I can see, 'trigger' is used not in the clinical sense but in the sense of 'remind someone of something upsetting'. (I also see it used quite a lot, without any kind of contextualisation, basically to alert people to the fact that a thread will contain morbid content they can rubberneck at.)

That in turn debases the term when it's used in its proper context. I think a fair analogy is the objection some parents of children with ASD raise to the term 'meltdown' used interchangeably with 'tantrum'.

yanbu

Ah thanks, glad I'm not alonealone!

Definitely NBU.

It is utterly absurd how many thread titles on here (which for anyone with a braincell are generally self-explanatory enough- "Man eaten by giant wallaby" stories are unlikely to contain style and beauty content for example....) feel the need for the ooooh-so-dramatic "trigger".

And of course "trigger" has led to us also having to say "lighthearted" if we don't intend to talk about maneating giant wallabies...

The word has been completely devalued and is now void of any meaning.