Trigger Warning ...

I can use myself as an example. I don't get triggered by all kinds of sex talk, fetishes, consensual acts, sexual sub-cultures etc. But I can be triggered by certain types of sexual abuse and violence, the kind that is not consensual.

I've run up against triggering descriptions as I was reading along a few times, usually with something that's just been posted. If there's a trigger icon, I can choose to read it or not, or I can gird my loins and not be taken by surprise. I'd say 95% of the posts in the sex sub-forums don't trigger. But I hate running up against that 5% that do, without any warning at all.

I read the sex sub-forums for specific reasons, mostly to do with relatives and friends who engage in some fetish type behaviors and other types of sexual behaviors that were never part of my own behaviors. They talk to me and I find that I can be a better friend if I can listen without feeling shocked at hearing something totally foreign to me. Sometimes the only reason it's not foreign is because I've read the comments of posters who engage in similar things, their concerns, worries, compulsions and joys.

I always appreciate a trigger icon. I can choose to go forward or not and if I go forward and find something distressing ... well, I was warned. What distresses me may have no power to trigger anything at all in another person. It's just better to be safe than sorry. We never know who's on the other side of the computer screen and what they may have experienced in their lives.