On trigger warnings
I'm not taking it out on trigger warnings. They're useful and in some cases important, but it's really context-dependent. I could take it out on their becoming a trendy way to virtue-signal on every social media post, but that's a different topic. No, my gripe with trigger warnings is that their overuse produces a culture of fear, avoidance and protection.
When we come across something that's confronting and distressing, it's natural to externalise the threat. It's natural to want to eliminate it, to hold it accountable. But - and maybe this is even more distressing to hear - the threat is often within us. Trauma lies dormant within the complex circuitry of our nervous systems and our collective, inherited history, and suppressing the trigger does not solve the problem. They are a valid strategy, but a short-term strategy at best.
So what does? I'm not telling people to go and expose themselves to their triggers and intentionally get re-traumatised. Again, I'm not advocating the abolition of trigger warnings in the midst of our mental health crisis. What I am advocating - and maybe this is radical, maybe this is idealistic - is a world where trigger warnings do not need to exist. A world that is built around warnings, avoiding distress and enforcing safety is a shrinking world. But I want to live in an expanding world - a world built around building resilience and tolerance for discomfort and curiosity and collaborative growth.
This is also why I wish the field - my own field - of psychotherapy or social work didn't exist. Or that safe spaces don't have to exist. I wish for the day that we can feel so safe and resilient within our bodies and our communities that we don't even think about outsourcing it. It is not about avoiding or reducing pain, but growing our collective capacity to hold pain.