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Recently, students on campuses across the country have begun asking for “trigger
warnings” to be placed on course material that might cause distress or provoke
https://www.chronicle.com/blogs/conversation/treatment-not-trigger-warnings 1/5
15/08/2022, 12:36 The Conversation: Treatment, Not Trigger Warnings
I have enormous sympathy for students who arrive on college campuses suffering
from the aftereffects of childhood trauma as well as for returning veterans trying to
go back to school burdened by symptoms of PTSD. These students have often been
living with their symptoms for a long time and have come to accept them as
normal. They may not be fully aware of the impact symptoms are having on their
daily lives, and many of them are certainly not aware that help is available. The late
teens and early 20s can be a critical window in the development of symptoms that
can impair people for the rest of their lives.
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15/08/2022, 12:36 The Conversation: Treatment, Not Trigger Warnings
I am also skeptical that labeling sensitive material with trigger warnings will prevent
distress. The scientific literature about trauma teaches us that it seeps into people’s
lives by networks of association. Someone who has been raped by a man in a yellow
shirt at a bus stop may start avoiding not only men, but bus stops and perhaps even
anyone wearing yellow. A soldier who has seen a comrade killed by a roadside
explosive device may come to avoid not just parked vehicles, but also civilians who
look like the people he or she saw right before the device exploded. Since triggers
are a contagious phenomenon, there will never be enough trigger warnings to keep
up with them. It should not be the job of college educators to foster this process.
It would be much more useful for faculty members and students to be trained how
to respond if they are concerned that a student or peer has suffered trauma. Giving
members of the college community the tools to guide them to the help they need
would be more valuable than trying to insulate them from triggers. Students with
unusually intense responses to academic cues should be referred to student-health
services, where they can be evaluated and receive evidence-based treatments so
that they can participate fully in the life of the university.
One of the most important treatments for PTSD is exposure therapy, which helps
patients unlearn the associations between traumatic events and triggers so that
they can start functioning again. Narrative therapies also provide exposure by
encouraging patients to tell their stories over and over again, allowing them to find
a less central place for the event in their personal history so that they can start to
rebuild their lives.
One of my biggest concerns about trigger warnings is that they will apply not just to
those who have experienced trauma, but to all students, creating an atmosphere in
which they are encouraged to believe that there is something dangerous or
damaging about discussing difficult aspects of our history. The current DSM
specifically excludes exposure to media depicting traumatic events as a cause for
PTSD. During my training as a psychiatrist, I have seen how the aftereffects of
trauma can destroy lives, but I remain convinced that discussion and debate are
among the most important things a college education has to offer.
https://www.chronicle.com/blogs/conversation/treatment-not-trigger-warnings 3/5
15/08/2022, 12:36 The Conversation: Treatment, Not Trigger Warnings
https://www.chronicle.com/blogs/conversation/treatment-not-trigger-warnings 5/5