Sky said "IMO no one should be ashamed for making a request. But don't be upset if that request isn't quite possible."

I agree with this. We can make requests and those that feel they can work with it, will. However, the second sentence is just as important here, I think. Not all will see, understand, etc., the request and that should be just as acceptable.

It's good self-care to make requests for self. It's also good self-care to recognize that this is a large community and all triggers can't be avoided all of the time. It pretty much leaves our experiences at our fingertips. That's one reason I suggested a search...to help us to feel empowered in our experience here by searching keywords of our triggers that aren't obvious ones in the community.

I'll tell y'all a secret...when I first came here I was blown out of the water by a trigger word that I didn't know was present until I saw it in black and white. For a month or two, I searched that word everytime I came on. I wanted to see it on my own and searching for it was OK...but it didn't feel OK to be surprised by it. What ended up happening was that my repetitive searches for it decreased the anxiety altogether and I quit searching. I realized it wasn't used very often. The next time I saw it, it was a "start" for me, but that's all. Now? Now I have no reaction to it. It's just a suggestion in a way that we can get "creative" to help our experiences here when some to most of us have real, definite triggers. I think it's a good thing to do when we feel "triggery".

It's fine to ask for help...a good thing, in fact. It's also fine to do what we need to do individually. There's no right, wrong, better or worse here.

Online self-care is very important and we can creatively manage it with the tools we have most of the time.

KD