Triggers

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 May is Mental Health Awareness month. I thought I would take some time to write about a common occurrence in daily life: triggers.
 
 
Triggers should always come with a trigger warning.
 
If you are one to frequent social media, you have probably seen the phrase, "Trigger Warning", at the beginning of a story. For example: "TW: homophobia, transphobia, ableism," etc.
 
These trigger warnings are placed on posts on social media to alert people about the content they're about to read. Conversely, they help people avoid content that will be upsetting to them.
 
The word "trigger" is a common occurrence these days. What exactly does it mean?
 
Merriam Webster defines to trigger as:
"to cause an intense and usually negative emotional reaction in someone."
 
With the way the world has been in the last two years, a contentious election in the U.S., a global pandemic, we have all been traumatized, and have been triggered by something.
 
I believe that there is a spectrum of triggers. Sometimes the triggering event is easily overcome, a minor inconvenience, as if swatting away a mosquito. 
 
Then there are stronger triggers which have a deeper impact. I liken this to seeing something on television that is upsetting. For example, if you're afraid of snakes, and you see an image of a snake on television, you naturally avert your gaze, closing your eyes. It takes a few moments to reset, until the offending image is burned out of your brain.
 
Then there are triggers that leave us gasping for breath, or falling to our knees in anguish. This is where Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, or PTSD, comes into play. These triggers can lessen in impact over time or remain steadfast and persistent decades after trauma.
 
These triggering events can leave mental and physical scars that can be difficult to overcome. For example, I wrote a blog a few years ago about being run over by a semi-truck. I walked away from the crash without a scratch, and am incredibly blessed to be alive to tell the tale. Even though it's been three years, I am still uncomfortable when in the close proximity of a semi-truck.

There are also triggering things that come into our experience, via social media or television. Watching the news is enough to be triggered. Images from the war in Ukraine have been devastating to witness.
 
However, one can be triggered by reading a book, or listening to music. There is one song that always triggers me: “White Light” by George Michael. I know the song as soon as it starts, before George begins singing.
 
George wrote the song about a near death experience he had in 2012. He had a bout of pneumonia, and was hospitalized for months. The doctors and nurses fought for his survival, and he pulled through. In the song George expressed his gratitude for his doctors and nurses, for having survived the ordeal and for being alive to tell the tale. The lyrics of the song are haunting, and he meant them to be….
 
“I’m back, louder than ever baby,
prouder than ever baby….
….there’s no white light
          and I’m not through…..
I’m alive, and I’ve got so much work
         that I’ve got to do
           with the music
Was it music that saved me?
Or the way that you prayed for me?
Guess either way I thank you
I’m alive….”

Listening to the song in 2012 and thereafter told the tale of gratitude at a remarkable recovery of a quintessential artist. However, George Michael died on Christmas Day of 2016. To hear that song after his death, it is haunting. The rhythm of the song, the beat of the song, represents his own heartbeat.
 
Perhaps the song is a comfort to George Michael’s fans. And in truth, there are moments when I chose to listen to the song when it plays. Most often though, I advance to the next track in my playlist. The song is all about his survival. To hear it after his death, the song makes me feel uneasy, and reminds me that George is gone. He cheated death once; he didn’t do it a second time.


Of course, a person can also be triggered watching a fictional TV show, or movie. Any ordinary show or movie can trigger someone. It doesn’t have to be the first hour of “Saving Private Ryan"-anything in a scene can be potentially triggering.

So many scripted TV shows and movies contain triggering content. The only indication of content in movies and TV shows comes in ratings.
 
For years, Hollywood films have been given a rating:
-G: General audiences
-PG: Parental Guidance suggested
-PG-13: Parental Guidance for children under 13
-R: Restricted-ages 17 and under must be with an adult
-NR-Not Rated
 
Television shows, whether on network TV or streaming outlets, have a ratings system as well, like the above ratings system. Additionally, streaming services have their own rating systems, as well as content codes-“V” for violent, “L” for language, etc.
 
As someone who watches most of my content through streaming resources, it doesn’t always register with me to check the rating of the content I’m watching. After all, a program could have any manner of ratings and content codes. I don’t even know if streaming services offer a guide to all of the codes, to allow viewers to make a decision on programming they’d like to watch.
 
 
Last year a friend recommended the show “The Underground Railroad” on Amazon Prime. I had a Prime account at the time, and decided to watch it, based on my friend’s comments.
 
The show tells the tale of Cora, an enslaved woman who has escaped her enslavement, and is on the journey to freedom. For those who are unaware of period dramas that take place around the U.S. Civil War, they are filled with unspeakable violence. There are several films from that era that have unspeakable violence, namely “12 Years a Slave”, “Free State of Jones”, and the 2016 version of “Roots.”
 
To my mind, “The Underground Railroad” can be placed among these films. The show was disturbing to watch. There is also a fantasy element to the show, which would make more sense if the viewer were high on drugs or drunk on whatever liquor they chose to partake in. Even though I watched this series a year ago, I still remember some of the violent scenes and images in the show. I cannot unsee what I have seen.
 
 
Another example: I recently watched “The Last Days of Ptolemy Grey”, a novel made into a TV show on Apple TV Plus. When a particular episode started, I noticed a “V” pop up in the upper right corner of the screen, to alert me to their being violence in the show.
 
*Perhaps now would be a good time for me to offer my personal definition of the word “violence.” To me, violence is a fist fight, a car crash, or a gun battle you would see in any action film. However, the violence in this episode was, again, unspeakable.
 
The episode had a flashback scene that took place during the U.S. Civil War, or shortly thereafter. In the show, three white men kidnapped a black man from his home in the dead of night. Carrying torches, the white men set a barrel on end next to a tree, and made the black man stand on top of it. The white men then poured a flammable liquid at the black man’s feet. The white men then put a noose around the black man’s neck and rigged it up to a branch on the tree.
 
I will spare you the grizzly details of this scene. In truth, I don’t know what happened. I had to avert my eyes in that moment. Whatever act of violence was going to happen, I didn’t want to see it. I chose not to see it. The scene was triggering enough without witnessing the acts of violence. To witness violence, using my definition of the word, is one thing. However, witnessing a lynching is completely another.
 
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Whether aware of it or not, triggers come up in our lives when we least suspect them. The perfect example of this is the example at this year’s Academy Awards Ceremony in which Will Smith slapped Chris Rock. In the days after the ceremony, it was referred to as “the slap heard round the world.”
 
I was watching the ceremony live, as were many around the world. The incident happened so quickly; I had no idea what was going on. At first, I thought it whatever happened was a joke. However, Smith returned to his seat, and spoke to Rock:
 
“Keep my wife’s name out of your f*cking mouth!”
 
At this point, everyone quickly knew whatever had just happened, it wasn’t a joke, and no one was laughing.
 
Later in the night, Will Smith won the Academy Award for his performance in the movie “King Richard.” 
As I watched his acceptance speech, I couldn’t help but think about what had happened earlier in the evening. As I listened to his acceptance speech, it dawned on me that Will Smith was possibly triggered in that moment.
 
Last year, Smith released his memoir, “Will.” During an interview to promote the book, Smith told the story of his witnessing his mother being physically beaten by his father when he was a child. Smith said that he felt like a failure, as he couldn’t protect his mother in that moment.
 
I then had the thought, “That was the trigger. He couldn’t protect his mother from attack when he was a child. Now that he’s an adult, he can protect his wife from attack.”
 
*note: I use the word “attack” to refer to the comment Chris Rock made about Jada Pinkett Smith, which started the whole incident. I don’t feel Rock’s joke was an attack. I don’t feel the joke was funny either. And of course, this is just my analysis about what happened in the moment. Whether Will Smith was triggered in that moment or not is anyone’s guess.
 
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There was a time when the word “trigger” was a buzzword, something heard in conversations around PTSD. For those of us who have survived this global pandemic, we are all traumatized. The smallest thing can trigger us and can have a range of impacts on us. We never know when we will be triggered, or how it will impact us.
 
 
I share these thoughts with you in the hope for change. As stories social media have trigger warnings, movies and TV shows should have trigger warnings along with content codes.
 
“Warning: this program contains animal cruelty….”
 
“Warning: this program contains scenes of torture….”
 
“Warning: this program contains scenes of sexual assault….”
 
“Warning: this program contains a toxic family dynamic…”
 
“Warning: this program contains images of a lynching…”
 
 
While I advocate for trigger warnings on scripted television programs and movies, doing so would be problematic at best. As much as I want it to happen, I believe that creators would not label their content if they could, for two reasons:
 
-Screenwriters, actors, directors, producers, etc., want people to view their content. If people read a trigger warning at the start of a movie, most would then shut the movie off, avoiding the triggering content entirely.
 
-Triggers are subjective. A content creator couldn’t protect all viewers from triggering content; different people are triggered by different things. We all have different experiences in our past and have different reactions to things. What can be triggering and upsetting to someone can be completely harmless to someone else.
 
The only way to protect viewers from harmful content is for the viewer protect themselves. Viewers need to watch for ratings of shows and movies, as well as content warnings. Know that the definitions of content warnings will be broad. What is “violence” to one may be “an unspeakable horror” to others.
 
I have recently begun to watch for ratings content I watch. When I see a content warning on a program, I tread carefully. That being said, it’s hard to know what you can potentially see, given that every streaming provider seems to have a different rating system. But if I come across content that makes me uncomfortable, I turn it off. My mental health is more important than watching a movie.
 
As a consumer of creative content, make steps to protect yourself. Be mindful of the ratings and content warnings of programs and movies you watch. Make note of content markers on programming. Decide for yourself if it’s something you’d like to engage in watching.
 
When you find yourself triggered, do everything you can to get back to a peaceful mindset. Ground yourself by planting your feet firmly on the ground. Feel the Earth beneath you. Take slow, mindful breaths. Put your hand on your heart; feel the rhythm slow with each breath. Know that what you’re feeling is temporary. You are stronger than what triggered you.
 
Triggers will happen in life. There is no way to avoid them. The only thing that we can control is our reaction. Treat yourself kindly in these moments. Take a pause. Read your favorite book. Eat your favorite comfort food. Take a luxurious, relaxing bath. Listen to some amazing music. Watch your favorite sitcom. Do everything you can to restore your peace.
 
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