Warnings can trigger trauma
Trauma memories can suddenly return when survivors are exposed to material that reminds them of the event, and Flinders University psychology researchers warn trigger warnings on big screen and TV series may even worsen these negative memories.
Their study indicates trigger warnings do not lessen the blow of recalling past trauma.
The new studysuggests that warning messages may not adequately prepare people to recall a negative experience but may instead prolong bad memories.
“Trigger warnings are intended to mitigate this potential distress however often they can be more distressing when they come up on screen as a surprise,” says researcher Victoria Bridgland, from the College of Education, Psychology and Social Work at Flinders University.
For example, Netflix’s 13 Reasons Why, warns: 'The following episode contains graphic depictions of suicide and violence, which some viewers may find disturbing.'
“Our research investigated whether vivid memories of trauma are more distressing if they happen without any warning.”
The study was conducted with 209 mainly female participants, ranging in age from 17-50 years old. They were given two sessions, two weeks apart.
In the first session, participants recalled a negative event and completed a series of questionnaires, including how emotionally impactful the event felt. The second session asked participants to recall the same event again and answer the same questionnaires.
Psychology researchers Victoria Bridgland and Associate Professor Melanie Takarangi, who also measured participants’ reported coping strategies, wanted to explore if trigger warnings changed the way people recall a negative memory.
“Surprisingly, we found that participants who were warned in the first session reported a smaller decrease in emotional impacts from their negative memory, such as difficulty with sleep and frequency of other experiences, over the two weeks between tests,” says Associate Professor Takarangi.
“Our findings suggest that warning messages may prolong the negative characteristics associated with bad memories over time, rather than prepare people to recall a negative experience – which is the opposite to what these messages aim for.
“They also do not increase the reported use of coping strategies,” she adds.
How do you feel when you see a trigger warning on a show that you watch?
So what is the solution? Unfortunately life is not all rainbows and unicorns. Bad stuff happens everyday. The real issue is that there is no resilience. It has been systematically removed over the last 20-30 years so little Jack and Jill don't have their feelings hurt. Problem is now they cant deal with life so much so even a warning is 'triggering' and every negative event is given the same level of catastrophe. We now have a society that can no longer cope with everyday life and 'mental health issues' is worn like a badge and used as an excuse for poor behaviour. Everyday normal emotions are redefined, no one gets nervous they are suffering anxiety, no one is sad they are depressed, no one is shy they have borderline personality disorder.
We need to get back to letting kids fail, stop giving every kid an award, bring back winners into sport, let kids invite their friends to their birthday party not the whole class and so on. Kids gave to learn to deal with disappointment and being hurt and losing. If not we are breeding a generations of emotionally stunted adults who are unprepared and unable to cope with life.