Atlantic: I was wrong about trigger warnings
(archive.is)
You're viewing a single comment thread. View all comments, or full comment thread.
Comments (29)
sorted by:
I think the only person who actually needs a trigger warning is Alec Baldwin
Trigger warnings were actually first used by groups of people with Dissociative Identity Disorder to prevent them from "triggering" their condition. It's just that it got picked up by mental illness tumblr and they used it for attention.
To be fair, it was also used for legitimate and serious cases of PTSD where a trigger could result in rather serious reactions, namely from things like war veterans that would enter into some form of aggressive mentality. What's important to note is that trigger warnings in this instance was less about avoiding the triggers, but more to ease a person into re-acclimatise to what is otherwise normal situations.
The idea of isolation from """triggers""" is actually counter-intuitive and results in worse situations, not improvement as they can never actually get used to normal life due to the constant avoidance of these otherwise normal circumstances.