Trigger warnings

[AnyoneWhoHasAHeart]

It seems every other thread on MN either has a “TW”, or or some poster demanding a “trigger warning” for some spurious reason.

I’ve seen threads where a poster has talked about spiders where a poster has demanded a “trigger warning”, similarly a thread about kids being sick “you should put a trigger warning in the title because of phobias.

Most recent threads are about war and bad parenting.

The word “triggering” has become meaningless. And there really is no need for “trigger warnings” other than for threads about e.g. sexual abuse.

If talking about spiders or vomit is “triggering” then maybe people need to step away from parenting forums.

I thought lots of childfree people use this forum?

I despise it too. My triggers are ubiquitous and not even recognisable as linked to the extreme sexual abuse I suffered as a child. I would imagine it’s the same for many other people.

Maybe I misunderstanding what a trigger warning is. I thought trigger warnings were there to protect people who had suffered a traumatic event, rather than just signal something unpleasant or gross was being discussed.

YANBU
I remember a thread that was a about spiders that had a few photos of spiders in it. The thread title was obvious it was about spiders... yet some arachnophobes felt the need to go on the thread, get upset about the pics and then complain it did not have a TW.

No one but thats a silly stance to take!

A quick glance of a thread, quick read of the first few lines will give you enough information to garner whether you wish to continue reading or not.

That's like watching tv, a film has just started, slow build up and omg something scares you.... do you continue watching knowing it will give you nightmares or simply turn over?

Everyone else in the world cant be held responsible for you and whatever you may find upsetting so switch off, exit the thread, delete the email about mothers/fathers day!! No one is grabbing you by the shoulders making you read/watch this stuff.

Take some responsibility

In other places online I go for starting with a content note as a courtesy. What's triggering in a fight/flight sense to someone else isn't something an author could know. What we do know when we're writing is what we're writing about.

I agree that ‘I’m triggered’ is a phrase thrown around too often these days and that for a lot of incidences people could work on developing more resilience.

However, surely you realise that there are genuinely traumatised people out there who do get ‘triggered’ and that in no way makes them ‘emotionally weak’. This isn’t something that should need pointed out on a thread, it’s a known and accepted thing.

Sincerely,

A woman with severe trauma and PTSD

(and I assure you, PTSD isn’t another ‘modern day manifestation of people’s weak emotional capabilities either’).

You realise there are a lot of trolls that like to kick-off on mn? If someone is being a moron just ignore them, half the time they know exactly what they're doing (like the ones who deliberately miss the point of the post and have a go at the op).

On the other hand, if people want to put TW on their post to try to be helpful, its all pretty harmless and I don't understand why anyone would have an issue with it.

I was involved with teaching third year student nurses about symptom management at the end of life and had to give a trigger warning at the start of the class that we’d be discussing death and dying! These were students who were less than 6 months away from being qualified nurses and two left the class in case they got upset!

(I’ve every sympathy for those who had experienced loss but if that’s the case, they need to take time out and return when they are able to undertake all aspects of their training).

I completely agree.

'Trigger warnings' seem to be in fashion at the moment and to be perfectly frank, considering this is a predominantly female website, it makes women look like a bunch of emotionally weak wet lettuces.

I've yet to see calls for trigger warnings on male dominated forums.

There was a thread a few months ago inviting posters to talk about their lovely DHs and DPs.

Whilst most people thought it was a nice, refreshing thread, a couple suggested it should've had a trigger warning for those who are unhappy with theirs 🙄

Oh and the 'Show us your Christmas fridge' thread - someone called for a trigger warning on that too! 🤦‍♀️

Of course, some people just come on here for a fight.

But if a thread title says it is about spiders, then why would it need a trigger warning? The topic of discussion is right there..

It's Trigger warnings that mainly trigger me tbh

You don't.. and if someone is saying they do, they're trolling!

What actually happens if you get triggered by a discussion? (Not people with PTSD or SA). Doesn’t it just lead to emotional discomfort rather than a full on panic attack? Isn’t some discomfort a normal response for all of us? I’m not trying to downplay but genuinely interested.

I had to take myself out of a Facebook Group about interior decorating when one of the mods tore apart a poster who had used electric candles suspended from fine wire hanging from her ceiling to create a Harry Potter - esque display. Apparently she should have prefaced with a trigger warning because it might remind people of Harry Potter which was written by J K Rowling who the mod deemed anti trans. The mod was ‘triggered’ by the picture and said others would be too. FML

OMG, see now this is the sort of shit that means people hate seeing trigger warnings used, as it just dilutes the meaning.

We had this when I was teaching. We couldn't teach certain books or topics because they COULD be triggering for students. However, I feel sometimes those are the very things we should be addressing.

The only time I felt it was appropriate to avoid topics was after Lockdown when we avoided anything that had the death of a parent in it. So many students had lost loved ones to COVID. It does rule out vast amounts of Disney though.

I agree that schools can play a part in both not adding to stress on kids, but also broaching important topics sensitively to allay misinformation or make to them less scary, is important too.

My son's school had a similar case where alarming gossip about wwiii was doing the rounds and school had to deal with it very sensitively as our town has an airfield and army barracks. Imagine being a child whose had a father or uncle return from Afghanistan in a wheelchair, or is a pilot that may get called up? We regularly have huge globemaster planes thundering of the tops of our houses. It can understandably be nightmare fuel for some poor kids.

I thought the words trigger warning or triggered was a young people trend thing like it trendy to be triggered about something daft or that man said hello to me I so triggered

i find them suprisingly useful….if a tv show doesn’t have at least two warnings relating to sex/violence/swearing/smoking any of the numerous others, then I assume it’s not worth watching!

I am so done with trigger warnings. And I'm sick of being told when I write something that I should have included one.

My child got racially abused in school. I posted about it on facebook and I almost immediately got "can you put trigger warnings on posts like this?" from a white woman. No other comment, just that. Her only thoughts were "I should be protected from having to read this" not "How awful that happened to someone who is supposed to be my friend, I wish they had been protected from having to hear that".

Fuck aaaall the way off with that. There are nasty thing that happen in the world and it's not my job to protect your delicate ears from hearing about it, especially when my children can't be protected from it by any of the people who's job is actually is to protect them from it.