I just wanted to let everyone know that we now have an icon that is called the trigger icon.

It looks like this-


Anytime you post something that might be a trigger for someone, you should try to remember to use the trigger icon.

Sorry, new here..what exactly is a trigger?

Hi BonKers,

A trigger is something that can trigger anxiety or depression in others. Like if you are writing about something that upsets you odds are it will upset someone else too so you should use this icon: which is in the list of icons you can use for the 'heading' of the thread/reply. If you're writing about something that is really depressing it is a good idea to use a trigger icon just in case it might evoke depression in people who read it. It's just a little thing we use here to help warn other members of a potentially upsetting subject matter being written or discussed in a given thread or reply within a thread.

Welcome to the board BonKers!

can i add,,,,

if you happen to see a post or a thread that needs the trigger icon and it isn't marked...send me a pm with the link to the thread or post.

THanks Curious. I forgot to add that in my reply. YEsterday in my "Feeling Depressed" thread I began with a frowning icon because I had no idea an argument was coming and after I posted about that I PM'D Chemar and asked for a trigger icon to be added and put in "Trigger Alert" space which is done like this:

Possible triggers
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That way they can't see it in the preview and get disturbed by accident if they moused over a thread in the forum with a trigger icon that way only if they open the thread will they see what its comtents are.

wow. reading this note about trigger icons has made me love this forum already!




i just (about 10 minutes ago) joined to see what i can do for my bipolar boyfriend. sometimes i wish i could walk around with trigger warning stickies to place over people's mouths or on their foreheads. hmmm... wonder what they'd do if i did...?


vague:girl

Welcome to the forum vague.girl. I wish we could slap trigger icons on people too to stop them from being inconsiderate, but life's not like that, so we just have to learn to deal with other people on other levels, like sometimes going so far as to ignore whatever they'd tried to say that was a trigger for you (or in your case your bf)

Glad you joined us.

Hi all, I'm just going to introduce myself here, since when I tried to do it before I ended up on an MS thread. (I've apologized to those people reading.) I think I can appreciate the "trigger" concept, but how would I know if, let's say, I mention "divorce," or "cancer." Those are pretty hefty words. Do I have to censor myself just in case they will be triggers for other community members?

Just trying to be careful. Thanks to anyone who will shed some light.

Rain

Hi Rain! Welcome to the board. It's a good idea to use the trigger icon if you think you'll go into detail on something heavy like that so I would but if you're just mentioning it briefly in a reply, like "I am so sorry for your loss, I lost my father when I was 12 to cancer." and that's it no need to just use a trigger icon on your reply. It's the details that can trigger someone IMO. Although I might be wrong, some people are so sensitive that just the word can trigger them, but you shouldn't have to overly censor yourself just to participate in threads here. Again welcome to the board! Looking forward to posting with you Rain!

Dear Rain,
Welcome.
Write about whatever you want.
Put the trigger sign up if you think someone could get upset.

Tell us about yourself.
Mari