Getting away for a brief respite recently, my husband and I went for a walk. We were in a touristy locale of shops and restaurants among many others out enjoying the warm, sunny summer day. It was good to be away and focus on having fun together, creating some new memories and building our relationship. We joked as we walked, as we so often do. Amid the joking, I said, “As long as we don’t talk about babies, children, or gender, I’ll be fine.” It was a little funny, a little snarky, and more than a little true.

These days, people regularly talk about trigger warnings, which are defined as statements that occur at the beginning of a piece of writing, video, speech, etc., alerting the participant of potentially distressing material contained within that might trigger a traumatic reaction. Trigger warnings began as an internet phenomenon and have spread into print and other media. Their usage comes on the heels of the creation of the diagnosis of PTSD or Post Traumatic Stress Disorder in the 1960s. The concept of PTSD originally focused on the experiences of soldiers returning home from war, but has since become more widely used to diagnose the aftereffects of all kinds and levels of traumas. For some interesting reading on the topic of PTSD and the development of trigger warnings, take a look at this May, 2015 article entitled “Generation PTSD: What the ‘Trigger Warning’ Debate is Really About.” Continue reading →