Your triggers are your responsibility. No one should walk on eggshells just to be in your life.
– Anonymous
Ever notice how so many people seem to be “triggered” these days? It’s like the word has become the Swiss Army knife for expressing discomfort. But here’s the thing – we might be doing more harm than good by throwing this term around so casually.
Let’s rewind a bit. The concept of being “triggered” originally came from psychology, specifically in relation to Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). It described a genuine, often severe reaction to stimuli that reminded someone of past trauma. We’re talking serious stuff here – veterans having flashbacks, assault survivors experiencing panic attacks. Real, debilitating responses to trauma.
Fast forward to today, and “triggered” has become the go-to word for anything that makes us mildly uncomfortable. Disagree with someone’s opinion? Triggered. Don’t like a joke? Triggered. Your latte isn’t quite foamy enough? You guessed it – triggered.
This shift isn’t just annoying; it’s problematic on several levels. First, it trivializes the experiences of people dealing with actual trauma. When we use “triggered” to describe minor irritations, we’re essentially equating our mild discomfort with someone else’s genuine psychological distress. Not cool.
Second, it’s become a convenient way to shut down conversations we don’t want to have. By claiming to be triggered, people can avoid engaging with challenging ideas or perspectives. It’s like a “get out of difficult discussions free” card.
But here’s where it gets really tricky. In trying to create safe spaces and protect people from potential harm, we might be doing the opposite. By overusing trigger warnings and treating everyone as potentially fragile, we could be hampering personal growth and resilience.
So what’s the solution? For starters, we need to reclaim the true meaning of “triggered” and save it for situations that genuinely warrant it. For everything else, let’s call it what it is – disagreement, discomfort, or just plain old being judgmental.
We also need to get better at having tough conversations. Instead of immediately crying “triggered” when faced with challenging ideas, we could try engaging, listening, and – gasp – maybe even changing our minds sometimes.
Ultimately, it’s about finding a balance. Yes, we should be considerate of others’ experiences and traumas. But we also need to be able to discuss difficult topics without walking on eggshells. It’s okay to be uncomfortable sometimes – that’s often how we grow.
So the next time you’re tempted to say you’re “triggered” by something, take a step back. Are you really experiencing a trauma response, or are you just feeling challenged or uncomfortable?
By being more precise with our language, we can create space for both genuine trauma survivors and productive, if sometimes difficult, conversations. Let’s save “triggered” for those who truly need it, and work on building a discourse that’s both compassionate and courageous.
Our vocabulary is increasingly limited and our ability to express ourselves is weakening and this also affects our mental capacity. There are many causes, but the main one to blame is the use of social media. We prefer images, memes and short videos. We are hungry for visual stimuli and we burn them in a few moments. Our attention span is increasingly short and we struggle to maintain high concentration. Furthermore, we no longer read. And when we read a text, it must be short, well formatted, with many paragraphs and terms in bold so that we can devour it in a few seconds and somehow grasp its meaning. We simplify spelling and syntax by sacrificing them on the altar of speed and immediacy. When a term is abused or misused in the context of a speech, first of all it ends up losing its meaning, it has many meanings that get confused and overlap, it becomes a sort of panacea, a magic word that seems to explain everything or too much and can even end up hurting someone.
You raise valid concerns about the impact of social media and changing communication habits on our language skills, cognitive abilities, and attention spans. The shift towards visual content and rapid consumption of information does appear to be altering how we process and express ideas. This trend towards brevity and simplification in language use could indeed have far-reaching effects on our capacity for nuanced thought and communication. The potential for overused terms to lose meaning or become problematic is also a noteworthy point. These are complex issues worthy of further examination and discussion. Thank you for your insights, Aldo.
A brief but pertinent article. One thinks of the somewhat overused (perhaps) illustration of the irritating grain of sand inside the oyster shell.
It seems to me that individuals are increasingly painting themselves into corners where they are unable to relate to anything or anyone outside of themselves. This means that their life-experience will become negligible, and in turn, that means they will not become people who can listen and understand and help those who have had major traumas and find it difficult to cope when they are “triggered”.
Pain may be evil in itself yet it is the only way to expand your heart and soul to embrace others and learn to show compassion, which after all means “to suffer together with…”
Really appreciate your insights here. And your closing paragraph is simply profound – thank you!