History UsefulNotes / Trigger

* Fiction audiences who see trigger warnings [[SpoiledByTheFormat as an inherent spoiler]], especially when their purpose is to say [[TonightSomeoneDies that something potentially triggering is going to happen to a character]].

* Fiction writers who legitimately do want to surprise readers and don't want to reveal a shocking plot twist or a surprising scene just because it involves a trigger, as well as fiction audiences who want to ''be'' surprised and see trigger warnings [[SpoiledByTheFormat as an inherent spoiler]], especially when they [[TonightSomeoneDies say that something bad is going to happen to a character]].

* Fiction writers who legitimately do want to surprise readers and don't want to reveal a shocking plot twist or a surprising scene just because it involves a trigger, as well as fiction audiences who want to ''be'' surprised and see trigger warnings -- especially those involving character deaths -- [[TonightSomeoneDies as an inherent spoiler]].

* Fiction writers who legitimately do want to surprise readers and don't want to reveal a shocking plot twist or a surprising scene just because it involves a trigger, as well as fiction audiences who see trigger warnings -- especially [[TonightSomeoneDies those involving character deaths]] -- as an inherent spoiler.

* Fiction writers who legitimately do want to surprise readers and don't want to reveal a shocking plot twist or a surprising scene just because it involves a trigger.

[[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PTSD Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder]] is a very complicated mental injury beyond the scope of Wiki/TVTropes in and of itself, but one interaction between PTSD and fiction is the concept of the PTSD trigger. Someone suffering from PTSD may be triggered by many things--and sometimes, sadly, some things in fiction may induce this trigger response. Someone who has been triggered by a trigger may go through more emotional discomfort than fiction is supposed to produce, physical discomfort, terror and depression beyond what the story was supposed to induce, {{flashback}}s to their experience of the traumatic event, or even a full HeroicBSOD or FreakOut.

'''Do not put trigger warnings on any Wiki/TVTropes pages other than FanFicRecommendations.''' Works that have full pages should already indicate the existence of triggering content in the description or trope list in a natural way, and a trope's description should be a good indication of whether or not there will be any significant triggering content in its examples.

* Depictions of DomesticAbuse and its subtropes, which can be a PTSD trigger and/or BerserkButton for victims of abuse)

There is one other type of suicide trigger that has nothing to do with depicting suicide or depression itself--this one consists of something that purports itself to be anything from compassionate. Instead, religious groups, {{Social Darwinist}}s and proponents of ToughLove "realness" say something on the lines of "You people should pull yourselves up by the bootstraps, and if you don't, you are WEAK" as if to reinspire a will to survive. All psychiatric studies agree that this form of treatment on suicide backfires horribly: the sense of contempt, guilt tripping, and sanctimony only becomes a ''REINFORCEMENT'' for suicidal behaviour, justifying self-destruction instead of curing it. This most affects people the most if they suffer from low self-esteem/never feeling "good enough" or "real enough" (such as depression, anxiety, anorexia nervosa, and some forms of OCD), and those who once lived in situations such as abusive religious groups or the like, because someone who feels like they CantCatchUp may well think suicide is relieving the world of themselves, or "taking responsibility" in the only way they can. In fact, SocialDarwinist Honour-based societies like UsefulNotes/NaziGermany and modern-day Japan are ''notorious'' for having some of the highest suicide rates in history, because the slightest imperfection was a moral impetus to off oneself.

* The ScreamingWoman.
** Screaming/shrieking/yelling in general especially at close range (whether out of sadness, fear, rage...) can be a trigger to those who suffered intensive verbal abuse (e.g. someone who went through something like "est" or "Attack Therapy" or various other religious/"therapeutic" sects that practice it, someone who was in a DomesticAbuse situation), or alternately, who were in a situation where their own screams for help went unanswered.

MoralGuardians and the {{Bowdlerize}} tend to assume that ''nearly everyone'' and anyone under a certain age automatically suffer from being triggered and often use this as a part of NewMediaAreEvil and YouCanPanicNow, which often leads to people assuming the legitimately triggered are in league with them--which is not the truth, for the most part. A legitimately triggered person merely wants to be warned of and avoid the triggering content, while MoralGuardians or the {{Bowdlerize}} are actively opposed to its mere ''existence''.

* {{Paedo|Hunt}}philia, ParentalIncest, BrotherSisterIncest, {{Twincest}}, and IncestIsRelative. Any of these can be triggers for PTSD for rape and sexual abuse victims, and a BerserkButton as well.

There's also the concept of the "reverse trigger," in that something that "should be" disturbing or triggering in the ''bad'' way actually triggers a different reaction. Intense interest is one such "alternate response." (e.g. a crime or disaster victim wanting to gain control by learning more about the event and how it happens / how he/she survived / how it can be prevented/defended against, so they obsessively research something that "should" be a PTSD trigger). Outright {{fetish}} is another such response, and a very controversial one, because the fetishes that result are triggering to other people and often seen as sick or unhealthy or offensive (e.g. fetishes for racial humiliation roleplay or dubious/nonconsensual sex scenarios in fiction or roleplay fall into this category)

* People who believe that trigger warnings (or trigger warnings beyond a certain extent, e.g. they may be fine warning for rape or seizure-inducing content, but aren't warning for "bared dog teeth" or "spiders") are PoliticalCorrectnessGoneMad.

It's also a [[FlameWar rather hotly debated question]] of ''where'' exactly trigger warnings belong. Blogs? Comics? Literature? TV? Movies? College syllabi? [[UsefulNotes/MediaClassifications Ratings systems]] and ContentWarnings do usually provide some help, but even those aren't as specific as some would like. (The easily triggered will know they may want to stay clear of a film that's rated R "for intense graphic violence," but a movie rated PG-13 "[[VaguenessIsComing for some thematic elements]]" isn't quite so helpful.) Or if a professor is teaching ''Literature/HuckleberryFinn'', should the syllabus include a trigger warning for its [[NWordPrivileges racist language]], even though the book itself is anti-racist? As you can see, [[Administrivia/RuleOfCautiousEditingJudgment this can get very complicated very quickly]].

Technically, triggers don't have to make you feel ''bad'' -- any emotion counts -- but the kind that make you feel good are usually referred to by another term, like HappyPlace or {{Fetish}}. Possibly the most famous example of a sensory cue triggering pleasant emotions is Creator/MarcelProust 's account of how the taste of limeflower tea with a madeleine cookie opened up a deluge of long-forgotten happy childhood memories when his aunt used to give him the same snack.

Anger triggers, while somewhat less potent in most cases, are more commonly depicted in media and have their own trope, the BerserkButton. That said, in some cases [[FisticuffProvokingComment they ''can'' be potent enough to result in physical violence against the person who invoked them]] (the "fighting words" defense for assault in common law systems relies on this, that what someone said was ''so'' recognizably enraging that they became an AssholeVictim and the person who punched/slapped them was entirely justified in doing so, e.g. someone who does not have NWordPrivileges using the word to someone who ''does'' and getting punched for it or a man who calls a woman the word referenced in CountryMatters and gets slapped may not only not have a case in court, but the police may even refuse to press charges viewing the assault as "he got what he deserved" or the person who said the "fighting words" as agreeing to mutual combat by doing so). Unfortunately, in rare occasions an anger trigger may even lead to homicidal behavior (and even one of these is recognized under law--"voluntary manslaughter" in the US legal system occasionally covers homicides where someone was arguably driven beyond any rationality or sense into a blind killing rage in the moment--the textbook examples being when someone walks in on their spouse cheating on them and violently assaults the other man/other woman, or happens upon someone abusing an animal or child and, instead of calling the police or nonviolently ending the crime, kills the abuser)

MoralGuardians and the BluenoseBowdlerizer tend to assume that ''nearly everyone'' and anyone under a certain age automatically suffer from being triggered and often use this as a part of NewMediaAreEvil and YouCanPanicNow, which often leads to people assuming the legitimately triggered are in league with them--which is not the truth, for the most part. A legitimately triggered person merely wants to be warned of and avoid the triggering content, while MoralGuardians or the BluenoseBowdlerizer are actively opposed to its mere ''existence''.

Genuine triggers provoke the same response, time after time, however familiar the trigger should be. Strictly speaking, they can change over time, but they do so at an imperceptible pace; they sometimes return at full strength without warning; and they are unlikely to ever fully vanish, even if they get small enough to control.

Technically, triggers don't have to make you feel ''bad''--any emotion counts--but the kind that make you feel good are usually referred to by another term, like HappyPlace or {{Fetish}}.

* Depictions of substance usage, intoxication, or the consequences thereof. These can be triggering for people with addict parents, family members, s/os, or friends, especially if their substance usage was directly tied to abusive behavior, and can also be triggering to former addicts who fell deep into their addiction.

* Complex PTSD is caused by less intense but longer-lasting trauma such as long-term abuse, be it physical or psychological.

There is one other type of suicide trigger that has nothing to do with depicting suicide or depression itself--this one consists of something that purports itself to be anything from compassionate. Instead, religious groups, {{Social Darwinist}}s and proponents of ToughLove "realness" say something on the lines of "You people should pull yourselves up by the bootstraps, and if you don't, you are WEAK" as if to reinspire a will to survive. All psychiatric studies agree that this form of treatment on suicide backfires horribly: the sense of contempt, guilt tripping, and sanctimony only becomes a ''REINFORCEMENT'' for suicidal behaviour, justifying self-destruction instead of curing it. This most affects people the most if they suffer from low self-esteem/never feeling "good enough" or "real enough" (such as depression, anxiety, anorexia nervosa, and some forms of OCD), and those who once lived in situations such as abusive religious groups or the like, because someone who feels like they CantCatchUp may well think suicide is relieving the world of themselves, or "taking responsibility" in the only way they can. In fact, SocialDarwinist Honour-based societies like NaziGermany and modern-day Japan are ''notorious'' for having some of the highest suicide rates in history, because the slightest imperfection was a moral impetus to off oneself.