Sometimes one single word, action, or phrase—whether spoken by people, videos, printed texts, or contained in slide shows—can be very hurtful and trigger negative memories. Those memories might immediately hit our emotional side, making us want to crouch down, hug ourselves, and cry. Such tragic moments have motivated the usage of a cautionary mechanism known as “trigger warnings.” Trigger warnings are precautionary alerts that people receive regarding the content of a lecture, video, book, movie and any other visual material that can trigger them. The warnings help the victims of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), panic and many other mental disorders to take notice of what they will face, as well as prepare them and ease their tension.…show more content… In the same article, “On Trigger Warnings”, the Subcommittee of committee A on Academic Freedom and Tenure of AAUP states “It makes comfort a higher priority than intellectual engagement” (P.3). Thus, trigger warnings should be hanging in front of the entrance or somewhere before students could reach the sculpture so they are perceived that there will be triggering objects in front of them. Then, students who are not triggered by certain subjects can still see and learn about the sculpture as they wish. Also, it can help students who feel sexually assaulted to try to overcome what they fear and to learn how to think in another way by walking past the nude sculpture. As stated by author Greg Lukianoff and Jonathan Haidt in last year ‘s article of The Atlantic, “The Coddling of the American Mind”, “According to the most basic tenets of psychology, helping people with anxiety disorders avoid the things they fear is misguided”. Hence, “Cognitive behavioral therapy” helps students with mental disorders learn how to think critically to “minimize the distorted thinking and see the world more accurately” (46). Based on this motive, encouraging students with mental health disorders to engage with what they fear the most can help them to overcome it and be confident when faced with it. Therefore, trigger warnings in college should play a role as awareness rather than take away the opportunity to learn diversely and overcome the fear that students may
