Trauma warnings are multiplying at the same rate as the scientific studies that conclude that they are ineffective. These warnings which warn that the contents could being delicate, irritating or triggering disturbing reactions are now proliferating in the world of the arts, a realm of emotional upheaval and aesthetic shock. Museums, literature classes, books, shows, operas are now warning their visitors, readers and spectators. Look, in a series of texts, on this phenomenon of trigger warningsor TW for short.
It’s a meta-study from Flinders and Harvard universities that came out last summer, and it didn’t make much noise. Too few ? A Meta-Analysis of the Efficacy of Trigger Warnings, Content Warnings, and Content Notes [Méta-analyse de l’efficacité des traumavertissements, avertissements sur le contenu et notes sur le contenu] summarizes and cross-references the results of 12 empirical studies on the use and effect of trauma warnings. The conclusion ? Be warned: trauma warnings don’t work.
When trauma warnings have an effect, it is negative. They then create anxiety in the person reading the warning, when they suddenly begin to anticipate with exaggeration what is to follow. “Why do trauma warnings fail to change individual emotional responses? ask researchers Victoria ME Bridgland, Payton J. Jones and Benjamin W. Bellet.
“It is possible that most people are not competent in emotional preparation (for example, in emotional reappraisal, or in the use of coping strategies). In general, the authors note, “trauma warnings alert people to distressing reactions they might experience, but do not explain How? ‘Or’ What reduce these reactions,” the study read.
For sensitive people only?
“Some may argue that trauma warnings are more useful to individuals who have experienced trauma that has a similarity to the content presented (a sexual assault survivor reading about a sexual assault, for example). Others argue that trauma warnings are only really useful for vulnerable individuals (such as those with severe post-traumatic stress symptoms, for example),” the researchers continue.
“To date, the literature suggests that trauma warnings do not decrease anxiety responses in individuals, even when the content is similar to that of their traumatic event, and may increase anxiety in those who suffer of post-traumatic stress. »
By following a path strewn with traumawarnings, don’t we unconsciously let the trauma retain a lot of hold, of power?
“Although several questions require further research, trauma warnings should not be used as a mental health tool,” the meta-analysis concludes.
These results join those of Amna Khalid and Jeffrey Aaron Snyder, who, in September 2021, had looked at 17 studies. The Data Is In — Trigger Warnings Don’t Work observed research on trauma warnings posed in different disciplines, including literature, photography and film clips.
Anything (or almost) can trigger
These studies, Pascale Brillon knows them, and the results do not surprise her. Mme Brillon is a psychologist, trauma specialist. At UQAM, she teaches, among other things, the course on post-traumatic treatment. A course that was awarded a trauma warning to remind us that we were going to talk about … trauma, reports the specialist. “It may raise eyebrows… But the students having asked for it, we did it, always wondering if it gives anything. »
It is true, replies the specialist, that a trauma can come back to haunt a person, and that it can be retriggered, in a way. More medically speaking, “one of the criteria for post-traumatic stress is when faced with a stimulus associated with a past traumatic event, we can experience flashbacks — visual, auditory, sensory. We can also be invaded from the somatic point of view by anxiety, outbursts of panic. This symptom bears the name, however pretty, of reviviscence.
What causes flashbacks? “Everything that is directly or indirectly related to the traumatic event experienced. If I see someone who reminds me of the event, if I read, if I hear sounds, if I see the same objects, the same colors, the same luminosity, these elements can reactivate an associated fear structure to trauma and cause flashbacks. It is therefore difficult, if not impossible, to predict and warn about what may be a trigger, a trigger, for a person suffering from post-traumatic stress. In all, 3% of adults in Quebec reported having been diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder, according to the Mental Health and Stressful Events Survey, August to December 2021 from Statistics Canada. According to these figures, about 6% of adults in Quebec meet the criteria for probable post-traumatic stress disorder.
Warning ! Stay calm !!!
In psychology, warning someone, telling him that he will “perhaps be shaken” or that he will experience something difficult does not always have the desired effect, specifies Pascale Brillon. “We want to calm the person down, make them more capable of coping with what awaits them. But often, “it is rather an increase in anticipation, a worsening of anxiety and an exacerbation of avoidance behaviors” that occurs.
“As we follow a path strewn with trauma warnings, don’t we unconsciously let the trauma retain a lot of hold, of power? asks the specialist. “In psychotherapy, we seek to enact rather the opposite: ‘You are capable of exposing yourself. Slowly. Gradually. Gently”. »
“We are going to help them to expose themselves, to accompany them. It is a strategy that allows the person to identify the source of their fears, to question their worries, to realize that their abilities are greater than they thought, that they are stronger and more resilient than she imagined, that she can better digest the trauma, and not maintain her grip on her daily life,” explains Ms.me Shine.
The psychologist likes to work with a certain form of discomfort: it is also what develops resilience, individual and collective, she believes. “Life is hard, very hard, so trying, cruel, unfair. But we are resilient. She suggests viewing discomfort much like doctors view germs and viruses: “Often they like them because they help build a strong immune system.”
“Exposing ourselves to completely different opinions, to revolting past historical facts can maximize our understanding of all parts of our society, increase our emotional and cognitive maturity and motivate us to become involved so that certain traumas, individual or social, and certain revolting injustices are never repeated again…”, concludes the psychologist.
Tomorrow: A short history of traumawarnings