We Need To Stop Using Words Like “Triggered”, Unless Talking About Mental Health

Alison Rollins
4 min readMar 12, 2019

By: Alison Rollins

TW: Somewhat graphic details of personal experience with panic attacks.

I scroll through Facebook and stumble on the thousandth video I’ve seen today. It’s a motorcycle video from someone called MaxWrist, and they say they’re triggered when someone waves them on when in front of them. I’m pretty sure they don’t have PTSD (if they do, I sincerely apologize). They’re just aggravated. Another article on the DailyWire I see is called “SJWs Triggered By ‘Green Book’ Winning Best Picture”.

“Triggered” has become a word for those who are easily offended, shocked at something, or being sensitive. I get it, words change meaning. But to those who experience mental health neurodivergencies such as PTSD and anxiety disorders, being “triggered” can be a serious matter. I’ll speak on this with my own personal experience.

I’m not talking about being overly sensitive about some internet meme. My panic attacks have certain triggers. Being in large crowds of people, being hungry, being social after not really having left the house that day. Being in a situation where I’m reminded of dark times I’ve had in the past. Being triggered for me means bringing about a sometimes overwhelming sense of dread, a sense of existential absurdity that things are the way they are. I struggle to stifle the obsession with these thoughts so that they don’t spiral to the point that I feel like I’m walking around in a movie. A movie — oh cool, you say — nope, it’s not cool at all. It’s like being detached from reality.

The word “triggered” has been used for decades to describe the situation someone with PTSD is in when they are reminded of a traumatic experience at some point in their life. So why are people using the word “triggered” as an often politically charged insult or even describe themselves as triggered when they see something even remotely containing shock value?

The explosion of people using the word in a politically charged, insulting, or joking way comes from people with a history of trauma needing a safe space to discuss things without having to relive that trauma. Additionally, discourse around the need for trigger warnings on certain content has led people to equate trigger warnings to censorship, but I won’t really get into that.

Both safe spaces and trigger warnings are necessary for people who have experienced trauma, but the word “triggered” has been to used to jokingly insult people who are being perceived as overly sensitive or overly politically correct: “Oh, you’re offended that I used that word? You must be so fragile and triggered that you need a safe space! But it’s America, so I’m allowed to say whatever I want.”

A popular word choice for pages on Facebook that make fun of easily offended people, apparently.

The thing is, there are people who are ACTUALLY triggered. They don’t want to be forced to relive whatever trauma they’ve experienced. They don’t want to trigger episodes of PTSD or panic attacks. “Well, suck it up and learn to control your triggers!” Um, duh, that’s what we’re trying to do, by going to therapy and doing things that help us manage them. But people shouldn’t be forced to face their triggers head on unless they’re ready to.

Being triggered has nothing to do with me being a “liberal snowflake” as people like to call it (thanks, I do love snow), nothing to do with a “sensitive” comment about being politically correct, and nothing to do with being temporarily shocked at a video on the internet. Let’s stop making “triggered” a political thing and a way to put people down. I hear the responses coming now:

“Well I’m not going to be censored!” “It’s just a word!” “You’re getting triggered by people using the word triggered!”

Ultimately, it’s your choice whether you use the word or not. The point of this article is to make people aware where the word “triggered” comes from. There are people out there who experience triggers that can be very scary — they aren’t using the word lightly. If you’re interested in the etymology of the word “triggered”, I recommend taking a look at this great timeline on Adolescents.com.

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