Every show with a suicide now has a disclaimer with a suicide hotline at the beginning. Is there any evidence that these warnings make a positive difference?
Every show with a suicide now has a disclaimer with a suicide hotline at the beginning. Is there any evidence that these warnings make a positive difference?
There’s evidence that trigger warnings actually worsen anxiety and are counterproductive
The way to treat anxiety is to face the source of anxiety to try and change your relationship and reaction. The best way to do this is via controlled access that exposes one to the trigger gradually in a context that has no risk of harm (eg a media depiction, discussing the concept, building up to discussing the source of trauma that led to the phobic response if applicable)
Trigger warnings enable active avoidance. This sensitizes one to the aversive stimuli and makes the phobic response stronger. As a result when one encounters the stimulus (eg a friend, family, celebrity etc commits suicide, suffers an eating disorder, etc) your resilience to the trigger is now even lower and the response is more likely to be more significant than it was before.
That said education on access to resources like 988 or other warm lines can lower suicide rates, maybe. Research is more mixed here because it’s difficult to prove causation
good points! this is a decent depiction of exposure therapy.
TW have an odd history. they originally were very useful, because one thing you forgot to mention about exposure therapy is all the work that needs to be done leading up to it. you have to have physical grounding skills in place before exposing someone to adverse stimuli.
so imagine you have severe PTSD from SA and a college class is gonna show a film that depicts it in an ugly scene. it could fuck up your whole semester to have traumatic stress symptoms come back unexpectedly. I’m talking panic attacks, flashbacks, mood disruption, difficulty controlling violent impulses, difficulty concentrating, difficulty connecting with others… PTSD can be wild.
so the prof might give a TW on the syllabus, so people just dont come in that day if they don’t wanna see it.
nowdays TW is just “here’s a thing you dont like!” not “here’s something that could potentially ruin your life again”