Are people abusing the concept of a trigger?

[BloatedGuppy]

Before the days of home internet it was often refered to as First Year Syndrome, where first year medical and psychology students would begin realising that whatever various minor issues they were having were also symptoms for some fucked up serious condition, do a self diagnoses with an extremely limited dataset and convince themselves that something was horribly wrong with them.

Used to really shit me off when people self-diagnosed but now I just tell them that whatever symptoms they've used as the basis as a diagnosis are also the symptoms for a brain tumour (which is sort of true because the list of possible symptoms is massive).

FUN FACT

Last summer my girlfriend starting complaining one evening of generalized numbness on her left side. My girlfriend is given to occasional fits of dramatics, and also suffers from extreme anxiety, so mostly I was just annoyed with this random symptom that would likely go away once she calmed down. By the morning it was still there, so I grumpily dragged her to the walk in clinic, where she saw an 80 year old doctor who was retired and just filling in for the morning. He said she was probably perfectly fine, but JUST IN CASE sent her to Vancouver General to get a CT Scan. Just on the one in a million shot it was something.

So we went, happy with the news it was almost certainly nothing, and got the CT Scan, which revealed a shadow on her brain, which we had to wait 14 tense hours to learn was a brain tumor nestled in a cluster of highly vital nerves, which it had begun to press against.

It was a risky surgery (with blindness, facial paralyzation and death via stroke as potential complications) but she had an excellent doctor, and last November they got 99.8% of it out (it's sticky, like instant mashed potatoes, and adheres to the nerves and structures around it) without incident. It'll come back, but in 30-40 years, and hopefully by then the surgery will be even safer.

TLDR - Sometimes it IS a brain tumor!

PS - Completely unrelated sidenote...

Spoiler: This is the kind of shit *I* see on Tumblr

It's basically a humor site for me.

I've also heard rumors there is porn on Tumblr but I cannot confirm. =|

 

[bartholen_v1legacy]

That second article triggered me! Delete it or I'll report you to the mods!

As in, it triggered me to want to scream SHUT THE FUCK UP YOU PUSSIES AND GROW A PAIR! YOU'RE IN LAW SCHOOL, YOU'RE SUPPOSED TO FUCKING DEAL WITH THE BLACK SIDE OF HUMANITY! GODDAMMIT YOU DON'T LIKE IT JUST GO BACK TO KINDERGARTEN AND WATCH TELETUBBIES!

Bunch of self-important pseudo-intellectual privileged keyboard warrior pussies.

 

[RhombusHatesYou]

TLDR - Sometimes it IS a brain tumor!

Indeed it is.

However, that doesn't change my view that people who self-diagnose should be beaten with a stick.

 

[Something Amyss]

It's basically a humor site for me.

I've also heard rumors there is porn on Tumblr but I cannot confirm. =|

I can, but only in the name of legitimate research. IT keeps coming up in my completely legitimate google searches.

 

[BloatedGuppy]

That second article triggered me! Delete it or I'll report you to the mods!

As in, it triggered me to want to scream SHUT THE FUCK UP YOU PUSSIES AND GROW A PAIR! YOU'RE IN LAW SCHOOL, YOU'RE SUPPOSED TO FUCKING DEAL WITH THE BLACK SIDE OF HUMANITY! GODDAMMIT YOU DON'T LIKE IT JUST GO BACK TO KINDERGARTEN AND WATCH TELETUBBIES!

Bunch of self-important pseudo-intellectual privileged keyboard warrior pussies.

Totally. I *hate* keyboard warriors. Always mouthin' off, typing in all caps, issuing angry commandments.

It's ridiculous!

 

[The Wykydtron]

I do get the concept of what a trigger is, I just can't fully believe the sheer volume of people crying it legitimately. Looking around a bit maybe there's a lot of The Boy Who Cried Trigger going on a lot?

If you say so. I personally haven't seen this sprouting forest of people crying "trigger" that apparently everyone else has.

I'm curious, do the pro-trigger warning believe that if a student who has PTSD from being raped is studying emergency medicine should have to be warned at the beginning of her lectures that rape may be discussed?

If she warned her instructor beforehand, then yes, I think she has the right to have her condition respected. If not, then what is the instructor, psychic?

If you've got an actual psychological trigger, see a therapist, talk to a close friend or relative about it, don't post it on social fucking media.

Why not? Who gains what by telling victims to be silent about their suffering?

Because people who post on 4Chan exist

I can think of a lot more reasons as to why you shouldn't go super public about your triggers rather than if you should. What's more likely, some randomer posting emotional support or some bellend trying to activate maximum triggers for fun?

It's not really being silent cuz y'know you have friends and family for that, you just don't need to announce it to absolutely everyone, if only for your own safety.

 

[BiscuitTrouser]

The concept of emotional or psychological triggers is real and legitimate. A combat veteran might be triggered by the sound of fireworks exploding. A rape victim might be triggered by rape jokes.

However - the concept has been selfishly co-opted, cheapened and trivialised by a group of people best summed up as "special snowflakes" - people who feel they deserve special treatment, even if that means becoming internet hypochondriacs and eagerly self-diagnosing psychological issues, traumas, and a pick-and-mix selection of genders, sexualities, dysmorphias and custom pronouns. It's utterly ridiculous, and what's more I don't think we can continue to wave this kind of thing away as merely "kids on Tumblr", since evidently it's spilling over into real life.

In my opinion this is a side effect of the way identity politics has been given a platform and privilege in political and academic discourse. When you tell people that who they are and how they feel is more important than what they've done and what they know, and furthermore when the minority voice attracts special attention and is shielded from criticism, then you're positively encouraging and rewarding people who self-identify as members of minority demographics - the more obscure and "victimised" the better.

It's madness.

This. This. This.

Triggering is a legitimate phenomenon, whereby a stimulus associated with a very traumatic event causes flashbacks, either emotional or sensory, relating to the traumatic event, the person in effect "re lives" the feeling of it in some sense or another.

Lets use me as an example, I few years back I witnessed my mother try and take her own life. There was a lot of blood and a fractured skull, it was pretty horrific. Fortunately I was lucky to not have that sink itself in my memory forever, im pretty ok with blood (Bio-med desensitising ho!), but reasonably, if it did stick with me forever, I have the right to ask my friends "Hey, graphic depictions or descriptions of suicide really give me flashbacks of an awful awful memory, can we try and avoid them when we are talking?". I think thats a totally valid thing for my friends to do for me, id certainly do it for them. Theres an emphasis on creating safe spaces for myself though, id certainly unfollow twitter or tumblr users that posted shit I didnt want to see, id definitely avoid violent movies until my Psyche had recovered from the shock and Id try and set myself up for recovery as best as i could. The attitude that you need to try and make "everywhere" a safe space and just move on with your life as if it didnt happen, in my opinion, is harmful to the person in question. Having a break whereby you make your own bubble to recover from things, seeking help from family, friends and therapists (who will hopefully help you expose yourself to and thus overcome the trigger in a way you can control), is certainly a good way to go rather than expecting the world not to remind you by ploughing on regardless.

I did something pretty similar, I avoided this shit like the plague for a week so I could bundle my psyche together and face up to what happened. I can relate to that feeling, I turned down a therapist initially because at the time all I wanted to do was get my head in order on my own terms. Now I dont give a shit what people talk about, but that week definitely was the time for me to hunker down and do some reflection. I can respect legitimate trigger warnings on that basis, and for others that time may be WAY longer than a week.

Rape, suicide, graphic violence, any sort of life ruining trauma can be a legitimate trigger. No one who has lived through those and is haunted by them wants to relive them and thats fine. But a "food" trigger? Maybe they are a VERY specific case where fruit remind them of a similar scenario mentioned before, to those who actually suffer unrelated triggers Id do what I could to help them, but the sheer volume on tumblr seems unlikely that they all cause such flashbacks. A trigger shouldnt make you feel gross or uncomfortable, thats just normal dislike. A trigger is borderline PTSD. People who coopt it for stupid shit really undermine veterans and survivors of terrible ordeals. Its disgusting.

 

[lowtech redneck]

Yes, a thousand mother fucking times yes. As someone with Bipolar Disorder, Pure-O, and GAD (generalized anxiety disorder), a survivor of violence, child abuse, and sexual abuse I have triggers and have had an insane amount of triggers in the past. However, never would I have even thought to put the burden on others to avoid all of my triggers. Instead I got, and am still getting therapy. It is obscene to expect the general public, in any way, shape or form, to accommodate your triggers. They are the burden of those who have them, not everybody else! I am sick and tired of this panty waist society that thinks being offended gives them any fucking rights whatsoever. It does not. If something in an article, or a picture, or a profession triggers you, then avoid situations where they will arise, quit demanding the world accommodate you, and get some professional help in the real world, not help from some random johnny on the internet, you are being selfish.

Thank you, I was going to post something along these lines*, but you said it better than I ever could. The entire concept of trigger warnings is objectionable and ultimately harmful to anyone with actual medical issues to deal with.



*Severe OCD, just a few decades ago I would most likely have ended up hospitalized for life.

 

[Dizchu]

I don't have a huge issue with trigger warnings. If someone is expressing something that may be distressing to others, a warning about the subject matter is kind of a thoughtful gesture.

But then you get your Melody Hensleys that claim they got PTSD from troll comments. Yeah, no. Not being offended is not a right. Also using trigger warnings to describe differing opinions is a dick move. It leads to echo-chambering and hostility.

People need to realise that bad things happen in the world. Being sheltered their entire lives will only lead to psychological ineptitude whenever something bad or inconvenient DOES happen.

 

[The Lunatic]

Spoiler: Tigger warning!

Spoiler: Trigger Warning! Contains opinion special snowflakes might not like!

No, you can't get PTSD from the internet. And frankly, it's rather insulting and demeaning to those who actually have this condition for you to use it to describe your inability to cope with differing opinions other than the one you broadcast loudly in your own head.

The reality is, PTSD is a terrible condition which affects many people, it has frequently done, and will continue to ruin lives. And now, for some people, the entire concept is tainted by these morons who just want to do it in order to feel special. It's bullshit, and I feel deeply sorry for those who actually suffer with this and have to deal with people who do this kind of thing.

 

[sageoftruth]

Perfect example of a trigger? Right here:

Spoiler

.

A simple phrase can cause a world of pain if it associated with something negative.

Are people abusing the concept of a trigger? Of course some people are. Some people use "triggered" as another way of saying "I dont like that" or "that offends me". Tumblr is a cesspool of this kind of behavior. However triggers, especially when it comes to PTSD are a very, very real thing. A loud noise such as fireworks are quite a common trigger with soldiers.

Perfect example of a trigger? Right here:

Spoiler

.

Thanks. That painted the perfect picture of what I was trying to grasp. So that's what a trigger is. Sometimes videos simply speak louder than words. Kudos.

 

[NemotheElvenPanda]

Yes, oh heavens yes. Triggers are often the result of intense trauma as people have mentioned earlier; PTSD being the most often cited example but can also apply to certain disorders like eating disorders; the time of day where you'd normally vomit due to bulimia would count as a sort of trigger. Generally though it refers to people who've had to deal with trauma, and trigger words or scenarios aren't things that just make you uncomfortable but have you re-experience those events to where they can make functioning in daily life either difficult or impossible. A real life and personal example is one of my friends whose been dealing with suicide and depression for most of her life was triggered while watching a play that involved overdosing on medication, and was completely shattered emotionally afterwards and had to remove herself for the rest of the night so she could recover. That is a trigger. Being offended by a fruit that looks like a heart is not a trigger. If someone doesn't make you relive something that scarred you and can potentially make death seem like a better alternative, you don't have triggers. If you do, you get therapy for that sort of thing. Using triggers as a means for the world to essentially pad itself for your convenience is the exact opposite of handling trauma which makes it worse, and harms everyone in the process.

 

[IamLEAM1983]

All I know is Tumblr is in love with the concept of triggers. It's a platform a lot of people use for soapboxing, and if you dare to so much bring nuances to one of their fairly Manichean declarations, I've seen some of them claim to be "triggered" by that.

I'm sure a few people realize that valid triggers would involve anything that causes a fragile individual to remember past forms of abuse or to slip back into a post-traumatic stress disorder - but a lot of people use "trigger warnings" as a way of saying "here's what you can't mention in my presence, because I don't have an ounce of self-control and am unwilling to nuance my opinions."

That's why I'm generally antsy around certain Tumblr users. A lot of people see the platform as a means to validate themselves, to claim that they're right and everyone else is wrong when they've done very little actual research.

 

[BloatedGuppy]

The other half I don't is how "trigger" is replacing "emotional". There's somebody I follow that I have a lot of respect for their intellect, but when they went out shopping for a wedding dress for their upcoming wedding, they posted something along the lines of "I didn't expect dress shopping to be so triggering". I literally facepalmed when I saw that. "Emotional reaction" and "trigger" are not synoynms. I'd make a fuss about this more often if it were not for the fact that a more pressing travesty of the english language, the complete misuse of terms within Orwell's 1984, has enveloped half of my nation since the NSA leaks in 2013.

I'm guessing they were using one of the more commonplace definitions of trigger, and not the more formal PTSD related definition.

3. anything, as an act or event, that serves as a stimulus and initiates or precipitates a reaction or series of reactions.

http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/trigger

This is one of many pitfalls when it comes to the English language, and why specificity in terms is so desirable, especially when it comes to emotionally loaded language.

For example, if I were to say "The incompetent tanking in my raid group last night triggered my irritation", that would be a correct usage of the word trigger. I could even say "The incompetent tanking in my raid group last night was triggering" and I wouldn't be inaccurate, because it was, I'm just not specifying what is being triggered. In that case, you could probably accuse me of using potentially misleading language, and you'd have an argument.

I should probably specify here that the tanking last night was fine. It was just an example. <3 tanks.

 

[Mau95]

Hm, what a bunch of thin-skinned individuals.

 

[BloatedGuppy]

Eww, MMORPGs. You triggered irritated me by making me remember all the MMORPGS I ever liked are all dead.

RIP Star Wars Galaxies.

RIP City of Heroes.

You could say I triggered irritation in you, and you wouldn't be wrong. You'd still be a big nancy though. There are plenty of good MMOs still making the rounds.

Well..."plenty".

Like maybe three or four.

 

[JimB]

I'm not saying be silent. In the thing you replied to I said talk to a therapist, friend, or relative. Work it out. Work through it.

Fair enough. I did misrepresent your opinion somewhat, and I apologize for that.

Posting it on social media will only make things worse.

How so?

I think what ks is saying there is that if discussing something can cause horrible flashbacks/whatever and that one finds it so hard to talk about this, then why would one be discussing this on social media? If one does have this problem with this topic, why would they go out of their way to bring it up (especially on social media, which has such a reputation for its negativity)? Surely by doing this they are doing the thing that they were trying to avoid.

People have their own methods for coping with things. I deal with issues I'd never discuss with another living person, and which I'd immediately flee the room if a real person tried to discuss them with me, but I will talk about them online. It feels safer here, since I am in control of the discussion (at least in the sense that I can choose my own level of participation with absolute sovereignty) and since my never having looked any of you in the eye puts you in a weird place in my mind where I can pretend you're not real and your judgments of me don't matter.

I'm not saying the people who discuss their triggers online feel the same way I do, but I can say it makes sense to me and to my experiences.

 

[Redd the Sock]

Time was the saying was if you fall off the horse you have to get right back on. Today we'd keep you away from horses, pictures of horses or even hearing the word horse for the rest of your life.

Triggers are real, We all get that, and it is respectful to mind what might set someone with recent issues off. Thing is, eventually, even the soldier needs to be able to hear a car backfire without jumping for a foxhole, the person in a car accident needs to get behind the wheel, and the rape victim needs to not jump at anything that reminds them of the occurrence. A trigger is like a form of mental injury, yet if it was a physical injury, you'd expect to let it heal and get back into life. Yet as it's mental we let it linger and a trauma becomes a lifelong disability.

And as I like to say, that's the best case scenario. The tumblir crowd has little idea of what real trauma is and often use the term trigger as a way to justify asking others to never take them from their comfort zone, or bury themselves in self pity that people aren't propping up their self esteem and saying mean things to or about them. It's all the harm done to the first group without the reasonable excuse to get to that point. Moreover its a sign of real self esteem and other mental health issues that aren't trigger or PTSD related getting undiagnosed and enabled. Someone legitimately near suicide over harsh tweets is not mentally well and needs treatment to deal with negativity, not shelter from said negativity.

 

[Riot3000]

Of course the term trigger is misused online terms and words that are misused is a long list a very long list and even though people still won't know where to agree.

I do not worry about triggers online I only apply triggers when working with clients like when I worked at a domestic abuse center I had to be weary of what I said or what games the kids would play as to not upset the mother. For me I will only apply triggers when working with a client personally. Trying to apply it throughout the web is an exercise in insanity and will only annoying or be counter productive to the people you want to help.

 

[Popido]

Insane sociaty breeds insanity. This PC behavior will only lead to bloodbath.