The term “trigger warning” has been used frequently in the latest years, whether it is for books, TikToks or blog posts, which shows that the demand for warnings about certain matters has increased – like suicide, self-harm or sexual abuse. Trigger warnings are statements that warn of a negative emotional response to potentially distressing information for the benefit of people with post-traumatic-stress disorder. That reality expanded itself to the literary world and many authors have been adding those warnings in their books – in the back or before the introduction – so possible readers are aware of the possible triggers they may suffer throughout the book.
Many popular books – like Verity (Colleen Hoover) and Hearstopper (Alice Oseman) – include trigger warnings before the beginning of the novel and in their respective websites to alert fans or possible readers about sensitive narratives throughout their stories. However, even though the warnings seem like a simple kind gesture towards readers, many people took their opinions on-line and stated that giving those small predictions of the narrative actually made their anxiety worst whilst reading the books, being scared about the magnitude of what they are about to read and playing possible scenarios in their heads before actually getting to that central – or even minimal – part of the plot.
So are trigger warnings in books actually helpful to the reader or do they raise anxiety while reading?
“Maybe I’m not ready for this book” – Trigger Warnings as an alert
Books are an immersive experience. The reader has the ability to live stories that may or may never happen to them in their lifetime. A way to escape reality and find new ones. In that sense, trigger warnings started as a way to alert users about sensitive topics. Ultimately, they are a guide as to what readers believe they can tolerate reading or not. From self-harm to sexual abuse, many individual have certain boundaries as to what they are willing to experience while reading, or even worse, what they are willing to relive merely to read a popular book.
Although many triggering thoughts may not be a part of everyone’s life, a lot of people have lived terrible experiences – like self harm, a topic that is well represented in a big variation of books, one of them being Heartstopper, by Alice Oseman. In the books, Charlie Spring struggles with an eating disorder that eventually leads him to self harming. The cartoons made by Oseman do not show the actual harm done by Charlie, however, they do represent well the state of mind in which the character was. Besides, in the book Solitaire – which tells the story of Charlie’s sister, Tory – his sister tells one of the most horrific moments in Charlie’s struggles, which ends up being a pretty graphic description.
Therefore, Oseman opted to add trigger warnings before those books. But, how does that impact possible readers? The reality is, many people struggle with many traumas. Traumas that they should not be obligated to face if they are not ready to face them. It is a very personal and deep decision. When adding a trigger warning, interested readers may decide that they are not in an emotionally safe mindset to read the book or may even stay alert to possible triggers, if they decide that they can read it. Therefore, trigger warnings are a way to protect readers from themselves and trauma. Narratives have a huge repercussion on the way people move on with their lives, and it is necessary to consider that not everybody is ready to face their deepest fears.
However, those warnings do not restrain self-harm or eating disorders, it goes far beyond that. A lot of books tell amazing narratives, but they include sensitive topics such as sexual assault and domestic violence. Although it may not deeply affect some people, survivors can have PTSD reactions to reliving those terrible moments of their lives just for the sake of a book. Or even, many people are not willing to imagine such grotesque scenes in their heads, even after not necessarily living them. People have different limits as to what they are willing to imagine, and those limits are totally valid. An exact representation of that is the TikTok sensation It Ends With Us, by Colleen Hoover. The book took over BookTok for months and everybody was all hyped to read it. However, the trigger warnings were useful for individuals that weren’t safe reading the story of Lily, a young girl that unfortunately suffered domestic abuse from her boyfriend.
Trigger warnings are a way to save people from possible distress and are the least an author can do towards their readers. Although they may not be big towards many, they are a way to prevent books from putting people in an emotionally unsafe position.
“Why am I anxious?” – The Negative Side Effect
Although many benefit from trigger warnings in the literature world, others tend to believe that those warnings lead them to feel more anxious throughout the book, imagining worse outcomes than what is actually written by the authors. It’s true that being able to anticipate a response can make you more proactive in regulating your stress if you have such skills, or even decide to not read the book at the moment. On the other hand, some specialists also suggest that anticipating a particular response can also cause one to exaggerate the anticipated response.
Even though that is a possibility, it doesn’t compare to possible reactions that are avoided by readers that have already dealt with the trauma. Besides, feeling that sense of anxiety and feeling like you are producing an exaggerated response – or even dealing with intrusive thoughts even after reading the trigger warnings – may be a sign that the reader is not ready for that narrative, and that’s totally okay! Many books are not appropriate for some people, and if you are stressed even thinking about the possibilities of the scene, right now is not the time for that story, since the reader isn’t in the right head space.
That’s how trigger warnings become useful. If the reader is stressed or anxious with the possibility of certain scenarios, the book is not right for them at the moment. It doesn’t mean that they will never read it, it’s just a “See you later!”.
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The article above was edited by Juliana Sanches.
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