don't let it happen to you

What if Trigger Warnings Don’t Work? | The New Yorker
https://www.newyorker.com/news/our-columnists/what-if-trigger-warnings-dont-work

...among people who said they believe that words can cause harm, those who received trigger warnings reported greater anxiety in response to disturbing literary passages than those who did not. (The study found that, among those who do not strongly believe words can cause harm, trigger warnings did not significantly increase anxiety.) Most of the flurry of studies that followed found that trigger warnings had no meaningful effect, but two of them found that individuals who received trigger warnings experienced more distress than those who did not. Yet another study suggested that trigger warnings may prolong the distress of negative memories. A large study by Jones, Bellet, and McNally found that trigger warnings reinforced the belief on the part of trauma survivors that trauma was central (rather than incidental or peripheral) to their identity. The reason that effect may be concerning is that trauma researchers have previously established that a belief that trauma is central to one’s identity predicts more severe P.T.S.D.; Bellet called this “one of the most well documented relationships in traumatology.” The perverse consequence of trigger warnings, then, may be to harm the people they are intended to protect.

Trigger-warning studies, however, have revealed that giving trigger warnings does not seem to result in recipients choosing to avoid the material. Instead, the warned individuals tended to forge ahead. If those suffering from P.T.S.D. were responding to trigger warnings by opting out of reading or discussing the flagged content, then, as McNally has pointed out, that would be concerning from a mental-health point of view, because the clinical consensus is that avoiding triggers worsens P.T.S.D.

Never seen a criticism of trigger warnings/content warnings before now that wasn't reactionary as shit, but this one is interesting. Discuss.

My general opinion on content warnings still stands, however: Whether or not they're good for a reader isn't the point, the point is that the reader has a choice

(It's a little more complicated than this, but more or less.)

Highly recommend! As a writer, it also tends to be the time I can really work out my ideas

I wouldn't speak in *as* certain terms, but please preserve the things you care about.