There is growing awareness of the concept of being ‘triggered’, along with a growing sensitivity for protecting people from experiencing this if they are in a vulnerable state.

‘Trigger’ is a term in mental health that essentially refers to a sensory event which catalyses a traumatic response. A trigger happens very quickly and the person experiencing it has almost no control of their reaction. For example, a loud sudden noise for someone who has a traumatic background resonating with this sound, might suddenly feel overwhelmed, threatened or panicked. The ‘trigger’ in this sense often takes the person back to the initial experience of trauma, and they lose connection with their present-day surroundings.

In the last several years, the mainstream use of this word has increased significantly. People colloquially refer to being triggered without meaning to imply the trauma based context in which the term has its foundations in. This has developed a secondary meaning of sorts for the word, which might have been needed to express a different state of reaction. Language is a living thing and changes to reflect the needs of the population of the time.

However, what is important is that we have an understanding for differentiating the two, and that, like so many mental health concepts, more casual (though contextually valid) use of a term doesn’t dissolve the meaning of the clinical use of that term.

In my experience in practice, the vast majority of time the word ‘triggered’ is used, isn’t in relation to a traumatic response, but something that made one uncomfortable, and perhaps tempted to engage in disordered behaviours.

We often see now ‘trigger warnings’ which are important when used appropriately to help the public consent to what they expose themselves to, and have the choice to opt out if they know they might be in a vulnerable place. A trigger waring can support one to take responsibility for self-care through conscious exposure.

But it is important to recognise two things:

1) We cannot possibly always protect ourselves from triggers of the clinical or colloquial sense because often they would not be obvious to any one else. It might be the use of a certain word, an outfit someone is wearing, even a smell. It is also not possible to control others, or our consumption of the world around us, to that extent (and wouldn’t be healthy to try!)

2) Being triggered isn’t necessarily a bad thing. If it happens, and it will happen, it is part of feeling the discomfort of areas we need to continue to grow. We can’t live in avoidance of a clinical trigger and live a full life, but even more so with a ‘trigger” in the sense of discomfort or challenging reaction, we need to feel these responses to be able to work with them and eventually let them grow into something else.

As a trigger-awareness increases I have also seen the community of advocacy grow a little more weary in what and how they share. Of course, sharing from experience needs to be done in a careful, thoughtful way to be of most use. But if becomes so edited and polished it doesn’t really represent the actual experience it also then probably isn’t serving anyone. I actually hear this a lot in practice, that stories of other’s lived experiences often don’t resonate because they are too straight forward, uncomplicated and follow a tidy narrative arch that doesn’t seem to translate into real life.

As a community, those experiencing eating disorders are often asking for more voice, more conversation, more transparency. This isn’t possible if we at the same time becoming so trigger sensitive that the voice people are yearning for becomes distorted. Of course what trigger means for you and how it is experienced is very individual, and you need the support of a therapist who knows you well to help you discern what and when exposure and interaction with these platforms is of value. But for some, it may be the case that being triggered doesn’t have to be dangerous, or even avoided, and can actually be a prompt to continue to recognise where growth is available.