since some of y'all don't seem to know what it means:

what the word "triggered" means and how the internet warped its actual meaning; a thread.

disclaimer: i am not a professional so my wording may be off but as somebody who experiences triggers i wanted to speak out on this issue.

tws for this thread: mental health , ptsd , self harm , eating disorders (just mentions of self harm and eds, tho).

what is a trigger? in the context of mental health, a trigger is something that can remind a person of past trauma and fill them with intense anxiety, sadness, and for people who have ptsd, flashbacks. it can be a place, sound, person, smell, song, etc.+

anything that reminds the person of a past trauma can trigger them. triggers can also apply to people with eating disorders or addictions when it comes to relapse. people who struggle with self harm, for example, can have their self harm issue triggered by someone talking abt it+

in my own experience, i have certain songs that i cannot listen to because they trigger me into having panic attacks or breaking down crying. i also have ptsd and suffer from flashbacks when i hear about things similar to the traumatic thing that happened to me.+

so what happened to the word triggered?

well, i'm not sure how and when it started, but it started being used against mentally ill people and other minorities for speaking out about the issues they face. the word quickly turned into something people used instead of+

"mad" or "salty" or literally any other equivalent to those. it became a meme and something used to shut people down if they dared to get upset by something the other person said.+

you may be asking "well what's the big deal? why are ppl so upset by how the word is used?" i was in intensive therapy around the time the word started becoming a meme and many other kids who were in therapy with me, including myself, felt FOOLISH using that word because+

it became a joke. the one word we had to properly describe what we were going through was made into a joke. it was used against us to belittle our experiences and struggles. and it became so normalized that many people who use it don't even know its actual meaning.+

in conclusion, stop using words you don't know the meaning of! stop using the word "triggered" to bully and belittle people, it's not a good look. people who experience triggers are real people going through real extremely hard times. it's not easy for us to live with things+

like this. always be mindful of the language you use and educate yourself if you don't know enough. if you have any questions u can ask me but don't be rude or i'll ignore you or be rude back