Triggers

bizarrolord:

Yes, they are a legitimate thing, and many times they can be goofy to other people, but the thing is you’re supposed to overcome them.

Let me tell you a little story about myself and a rather severe (and in retrospect, stupid) phobia I had as a teenager/young adult.

I was terrified of lobsters. As in I tried to avoid the seafood section of a supermarket because of the lobster tank. And if I perchance saw a lobster in said tank, I would scream so goddamn hard that the entire store could hear me. When I went to my grandma’s in Maine and they had a lobster boil, I had to sit inside of the house and eat my vegetarian food (as I was a vegetarian back then) lest I start screaming and running around like a chicken with my head cut off. And I hated it. I was embarrassed to be scared of something I knew could not harm me, to the extent that I freaked out whenever I saw something with lobster print on it. My parents thought it was funny, and so, every Christmas for a long time, they got me at least one thing lobster-related. (The pinnacle of which was a realistic plastic singing lobster in the style of Big Mouth Billy Bass, which I was terrified to even touch even though I knew it was animatronic and covered in plastic.)

The thing is though, looking back, even though my parents sounded like they were doing something abusive by Tumblr standards, I ended up eventually being desensitized to the little bastards. My parents helped me get over my trigger, and I myself would force myself to stand in front of the lobster tank without panicking. Eventually I quit being vegetarian due to a little problem called “too much carbs and terribly easy weight gain” and I found out those little buggers are delicious, which I think ultimately put the nail in the coffin of my phobia.

The reason I go after people with “ridiculous” triggers is that they seem not to want to get over them like I did, they don’t seem to be embarrassed by them, and (I might be a bit judgmental here) they seem to not affect them off of Tumblr. Human beings often get scared of, or reminded of trauma by, really stupid shit. Not wanting to get better so that you can be functional in your everyday life is denial at best and a tool for manipulating others into doing your bidding at worst. I really hope people with legitimate triggers and/or phobias can get the help they need to overcome them; otherwise I’m going to look at you as being manipulative and spoiled.