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A trauma trigger is a psychological stimulus that prompts involuntary recall of a previous traumatic experience. The stimulus itself need not be frightening or traumatic and may be only indirectly or superficially reminiscent of an earlier traumatic incident, such as a scent or a piece of clothing. Triggers can be subtle, individual, and difficult for others to predict. A trauma trigger may also be called a trauma stimulus, a trauma
stressor A stressor is a chemical or biological agent, environmental condition, external stimulus or an event seen as causing stress to an organism. Psychologically speaking, a stressor can be events or environments that individuals might consider demandin ...
or a trauma reminder. The process of connecting a traumatic experience to a trauma trigger is called traumatic coupling. When trauma is "triggered", the involuntary response goes far beyond feeling uncomfortable and can feel overwhelming and uncontrollable, such as a
panic attack Panic attacks are sudden periods of intense fear and discomfort that may include palpitations, sweating, chest pain or chest discomfort, shortness of breath, trembling, dizziness, numbness, confusion, or a feeling of impending doom or of losing ...
, a flashback, or a strong impulse to flee to a safe place. Avoiding a trauma trigger, and therefore the potentially extreme reaction it provokes, is a common behavioral symptom of
posttraumatic stress disorder Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is a mental and behavioral disorder that can develop because of exposure to a traumatic event, such as sexual assault, warfare, traffic collisions, child abuse, domestic violence, or other threats on ...
(PTSD), a treatable and usually temporary condition in which people sometimes experience overwhelming emotional or physical symptoms when something reminds them of, or "triggers" the memory of, a traumatic event. Long-term avoidance of triggers increases the likelihood that the affected person will develop a disabling level of PTSD. Identifying and addressing trauma triggers is an important part of treating PTSD. A ''
trigger warning A trauma trigger is a psychological stimulus that prompts involuntary recall of a previous traumatic experience. The stimulus itself need not be frightening or traumatic and may be only indirectly or superficially reminiscent of an earlier trauma ...
'' is a message presented to an audience about the contents of a piece of media, to warn them that it contains potentially distressing content. A more generic term, which is not directly focused on PTSD, is ''content warning''.


Triggers

The trigger can be anything that provokes fear or distressing memories in the affected person, and which the affected person associates with a previous traumatic experience. Just as
trauma Trauma most often refers to: * Major trauma, in physical medicine, severe physical injury caused by an external source * Psychological trauma, a type of damage to the psyche that occurs as a result of a severely distressing event *Traumatic i ...
is not merely an unpleasant or adverse experience, a trauma trigger is not merely something that makes a person feel uncomfortable or offended. Some common triggers are: * a particular smell – such as freshly mown grass, the fragrance of an
aftershave Aftershave is a product applied to skin after shaving. Traditionally it is an Alcohol (chemistry), alcohol-based liquid (splash), but it can be a lotion, gel, or even a paste (rheology), paste. It often contains an antiseptic agent such as de ...
product or
perfume Perfume (, ; french: parfum) is a mixture of fragrant essential oils or aroma compounds (fragrances), fixatives and solvents, usually in liquid form, used to give the human body, animals, food, objects, and living-spaces an agreeable scent. Th ...
. The sense of smell,
olfaction The sense of smell, or olfaction, is the special sense through which smells (or odors) are perceived. The sense of smell has many functions, including detecting desirable foods, hazards, and pheromones, and plays a role in taste. In humans, it ...
, has been claimed as more closely connected to traumatic reminders than other sensory experiences. *a particular taste – such as the food eaten during or shortly before a traumatic experience * a particular sound – such as a helicopter or a song *a particular texture * certain times of day – for example, sunset or sunrise * certain times of year or specific dates – for example, autumn weather that resembles the affected person's experience of the weather during the
September 11 attacks The September 11 attacks, commonly known as 9/11, were four coordinated suicide terrorist attacks carried out by al-Qaeda against the United States on Tuesday, September 11, 2001. That morning, nineteen terrorists hijacked four commercia ...
, or the anniversary of a traumatic experience * sights – (real, photo, film or video) for examples, a fallen tree or a light shining at a particular angle * places – for example, a bathroom, or all bathrooms * a person, especially a person who was present during a traumatic event or resembles someone involved in that event in some respect * an argument *a sensation on the skin – such as the feeling of a
wristwatch A watch is a portable timepiece intended to be carried or worn by a person. It is designed to keep a consistent movement despite the motions caused by the person's activities. A wristwatch is designed to be worn around the wrist, attached by ...
resembling the feeling of
handcuffs Handcuffs are Physical restraint, restraint devices designed to secure an individual's wrists in proximity to each other. They comprise two parts, linked together by a Link chain, chain, a hinge, or rigid bar. Each cuff has a rotating arm whi ...
, or sexual touching for victims of sexual assault * the position of the body * physical pain * emotions – such as feeling overwhelmed, vulnerable, or not in control *a particular situation – for example, being in a crowded place The trigger is usually personal and specific. However, it need not be closely related to the actual experience. For example, after the
Gulf War The Gulf War was a 1990–1991 armed campaign waged by a 35-country military coalition in response to the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait. Spearheaded by the United States, the coalition's efforts against Iraq were carried out in two key phases: ...
, some Israelis experienced the sound of an accelerating
motorbike A motorcycle (motorbike, bike, or trike (if three-wheeled)) is a two or three-wheeled motor vehicle Steering, steered by a Motorcycle handlebar, handlebar. Motorcycle design varies greatly to suit a range of different purposes: Long-distance ...
as a trigger, which they associated with the sound of
sirens Siren or sirens may refer to: Common meanings * Siren (alarm), a loud acoustic alarm used to alert people to emergencies * Siren (mythology), an enchanting but dangerous monster in Greek mythology Places * Siren (town), Wisconsin * Siren, Wisco ...
they heard during the war, even though the resemblance between the two sounds is limited. The realistic portrayal of graphic violence in visual media may expose some affected people to triggers while watching movies or television.


Experiences

People who have experienced trauma and who have developed trauma triggers may panic when the trigger is experienced, especially if it is unexpected. For example, the noise of fireworks may seem unbearable to a combat veteran whose trauma is coupled with sudden, loud noises as the trigger.


Trigger warnings

Trigger warnings, sometimes called content warnings, are warnings that a work contains writing, images, or concepts that may be distressing to some people. Content warnings have been widely used in mass media without any connection to trauma, such as the US
TV Parental Guidelines The TV Parental Guidelines are a television content rating system in the United States that was first proposed on December 19, 1996, by the United States Congress, the television industry and the federal communication commission (FCC), and went ...
, which indicate that a show includes content that some families may find inappropriate for their children. The term ''trigger warning'', with its trauma-specific context, originated at feminist websites that were discussing
violence against women Violence against women (VAW), also known as gender-based violence and sexual and gender-based violence (SGBV), are violent acts primarily or exclusively committed against women or girls, usually by men or boys. Such violence is often consi ...
, and then spread to other areas, such as print media and university courses. Although it is widely recognized that any sight, sound, smell, taste, touch, feeling or sensation could be a trigger, trigger warnings are most commonly presented on a relatively narrow range of material, especially content about
sexual abuse Sexual abuse or sex abuse, also referred to as molestation, is abusive sexual behavior by one person upon another. It is often perpetrated using force or by taking advantage of another. Molestation often refers to an instance of sexual assa ...
and
mental illness A mental disorder, also referred to as a mental illness or psychiatric disorder, is a behavioral or mental pattern that causes significant distress or impairment of personal functioning. Such features may be persistent, relapsing and remitti ...
(such as
suicide Suicide is the act of intentionally causing one's own death. Mental disorders (including depression, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, personality disorders, anxiety disorders), physical disorders (such as chronic fatigue syndrome), and s ...
,
eating disorder An eating disorder is a mental disorder defined by abnormal eating behaviors that negatively affect a person's physical or mental health. Only one eating disorder can be diagnosed at a given time. Types of eating disorders include binge eating d ...
s, and
self-injury Self-harm is intentional behavior that is considered harmful to oneself. This is most commonly regarded as direct injury of one's own skin tissues usually without a suicidal intention. Other terms such as cutting, self-injury and self-mutilatio ...
).


Controversy in higher education

The idea of giving content warnings to university students about their coursework has been disputed and politicized. Much of the dispute centers around content warnings given to all students about the presence of generally uncomfortable subjects in the curriculum, such as racism and misogyny. There is no significant dispute over providing
reasonable accommodation A reasonable accommodation is an adjustment made in a system to accommodate or make fair the same system for an individual based on a proven need. That need can vary. Accommodations can be religious, physical, mental or emotional, academic, physic ...
s to the small number of students (usually current and former military personnel and sexual assault survivors) who qualify as having a disabling level of post-traumatic stress disorder and whose ability to learn the normal curriculum can be improved, for example, by mentioning in advance that the next reading assignment contains a detailed description of a violent event or that an upcoming
ballistic pendulum A ballistic pendulum is a device for measuring a bullet's momentum, from which it is possible to calculate the velocity and kinetic energy. Ballistic pendulums have been largely rendered obsolete by modern chronographs, which allow direct measure ...
demonstration will produce loud sounds. In 2014, the
American Association of University Professors The American Association of University Professors (AAUP) is an organization of professors and other academics in the United States. AAUP membership includes over 500 local campus chapters and 39 state organizations. The AAUP's stated mission is ...
criticized the use of general content warnings in university contexts, stating, "The presumption that students need to be protected rather than challenged in a classroom is at once infantilizing and anti-intellectual. It makes comfort a higher priority than intellectual engagement and...it singles out politically controversial topics like sex, race, class, capitalism, and colonialism for attention." This view is supported by some professors such as
Richard McNally Richard McNally is a Professor and Director of Clinical Training at Harvard University's Department of Psychology. As a clinical psychologist and experimental psycho-pathologist, he studies anxiety disorders and related syndromes, such as post ...
, professor of psychology at Harvard, and some psychiatric medical practitioners, such as Metin Basoglu and Edna Foa. They believe that trigger warnings increase avoidance behaviors by those with PTSD which makes it harder to overcome the PTSD, create a culture that decreases resilience, and more geared towards political virtue signaling, and are "counterproductive to the educational process". Since the publication of the American Association of University Professors' report, other professors, such as Angus Johnston, have supported trigger warnings as a part of "sound
pedagogy Pedagogy (), most commonly understood as the approach to teaching, is the theory and practice of learning, and how this process influences, and is influenced by, the social, political and psychological development of learners. Pedagogy, taken as ...
". Other supportive professors have stated that "the purpose of trigger warnings is not to cause students to avoid traumatic content, but to prepare them for it, and in extreme circumstances to provide alternate modes of learning." Universities have taken different stances on the issue of trigger warnings. In a letter welcoming new undergraduates, the
University of Chicago The University of Chicago (UChicago, Chicago, U of C, or UChi) is a private research university in Chicago, Illinois. Its main campus is located in Chicago's Hyde Park neighborhood. The University of Chicago is consistently ranked among the b ...
wrote that the college's "commitment to academic freedom means we do not support so-called 'trigger warnings'," do not cancel controversial speakers, and do not "condone the creation of intellectual 'safe spaces' where individuals can retreat from thoughts and ideas at odds with their own". Students at
UC Santa Barbara The University of California, Santa Barbara (UC Santa Barbara or UCSB) is a public land-grant research university in Santa Barbara, California with 23,196 undergraduates and 2,983 graduate students enrolled in 2021–2022. It is part of the U ...
took the opposite position in 2014, passing a non-binding resolution in support of mandatory trigger warnings for classes that could contain potentially upsetting material. Professors were encouraged to alert students of such material and allow them to skip classes that could make them feel uncomfortable.


Limited value for general use

Although the subject has generated political controversy, research suggests that trigger warnings are neither harmful nor especially helpful. Among people without traumatic experiences, "trigger warnings did not affect anxiety responses to potentially distressing material in general." Studies disagree on whether trigger warning cause transient increases in anxiety in those without traumatic experiences. For participants who self-reported a posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) diagnosis, or for participants who qualified for probable PTSD, trigger warnings had little
statistically significant In statistical hypothesis testing, a result has statistical significance when it is very unlikely to have occurred given the null hypothesis (simply by chance alone). More precisely, a study's defined significance level, denoted by \alpha, is the p ...
effect.
Effect size In statistics, an effect size is a value measuring the strength of the relationship between two variables in a population, or a sample-based estimate of that quantity. It can refer to the value of a statistic calculated from a sample of data, the ...
s on feelings of avoidance, decreased resilience, or other negative outcomes have been "trivial" in controlled research environments. While trigger warnings have garnered significant debate, few studies have investigated how students typically respond to potentially triggering material. In a 2021 study, 355 undergraduate students from four universities read a passage describing incidents of both physical and sexual assault. Longitudinal measures of subjective distress, PTSD symptoms, and emotional reactivity were taken. Greater than 96% of participants read the triggering passage even when given a non-triggering alternative to read. Of those who read the triggering passage, those with triggering traumas did not report more distress although those with higher PTSD scores did. Two weeks later, those with trigger traumas and/or PTSD did not report an increase in trauma symptoms as a result of reading the triggering passage. Students with relevant traumas do not avoid triggering material and the effects appear to be brief. Students with PTSD do not report an exacerbation of symptoms two weeks later as a function of reading the passage.


History

Trauma triggers have been recognized by medical professionals since the 19th century.


See also

* Acute stress reaction *
Content rating A content rating (also known as maturity rating) rates the suitability of TV shows, movies, comic books, or video games to this primary targeted audience. A content rating usually places a media source into one of a number of different categories, ...
*
Emotional dysregulation Emotional dysregulation is a range of emotional responses that are poorly modulated and do not lie within a desirable scope of emotive response. Emotional dysregulation can be associated with an experience of early psychological trauma, brain in ...
*
Hypervigilance Hypervigilance (more accurately understood as Hyper-awareness) is a condition in which the nervous system is filtering sensory information and the individual is in an enhanced state of sensory sensitivity or sensory domination. The name itself is ...
*
Motion Picture Association of America film rating system The Motion Picture Association film rating system is used in the United States and its territories to rate a motion picture's suitability for certain audiences based on its content. The system and the ratings applied to individual motion pictures ...
*
Parental Advisory Advisory (abbreviated PAL) is a warning label introduced by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) in 1985 and adopted by the British Phonographic Industry (BPI) in 2011. It is placed on audio recordings in recognition of profan ...
*
Repressed memory Repressed memory is an inability to recall autobiographical information, usually of a traumatic or stressful nature. The concept originated in psychoanalytic theory where repression is defined as a protective mechanism that excludes memory of ...
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Survivor guilt Survivor guilt (or survivor's guilt; also called survivor syndrome or survivor's syndrome and survivor disorder or survivor's disorder) is a mental condition that occurs when a person believes they have done something wrong by surviving a traumati ...
*
Thematic elements "Thematic elements", or "thematic material", is a term used by the Motion Picture Association and other film ratings boards to highlight elements of a film that do not fit into the traditional categories such as violence, sex, drug use, nudity, an ...


References


External links

* * * {{Authority control Treatment of mental disorders