Imagine breaking your wrist. You go to school and you ask your gym teacher if they can give you a heads up for the days where you will be playing volleyball so that you can sit out in order to heal properly. Sounds rational right? You were recently wounded, and don’t want to increase the already intense pain. Wrong. Everything is just offending you. You are coddled. You just want everything to be warm and cuddly.

When I finally started to heal from depression, my wounds were still raw. I remember trying to watch a movie, and I didn’t realize that it had a scene where a character had a panic attack. I quickly reached for my remote and pressed down hard on the red button on the top. Everything started swirling, and then I myself had a panic attack.

My injury may not have been external, but it was real. Trigger warnings are not there to stop discussions. They are not there to pamper people or censor anyone. I used to rely on trigger warnings. I couldn’t read, or talk, or watch something about depression or anxiety for a few months after my own experience with them, because it would hurl me straight back to my time spent constrained to my bed. It was like stabbing half-healed scars, so that they would open right back up again.

So unless you are my psychologist, or psychiatrist, or my doctor, don’t tell me how I, or anyone else, should deal with their triggers. You think that we just need to grow up? That we aren’t living in the real world? That the pain we experience isn’t real? It is none of your business how someone else deals with his or her mental illness. If a mere warning of sensitive subjects in the material or lecture being presented allows people to avoid traumatizing flash backs, panic attacks, or depressive episodes, why is it such a big deal?

This is precisely why we have food-warning labels in big letters that read: Contains Peanuts. Or why people with heart diseases are warned before not to ride roller coasters. Or why a doctor informs patients of possible side effects of a medication. People deserve to be informed so that they can make a decision of what is best for them. This doesn’t mean pretending peanuts, or roller coasters, or medication don’t exist, it simply means that you are in control of your ability to deal with these “triggers” of allergic reactions, heart attacks, or harsh side effects.

People are capable of making decisions about their health for themselves. Trigger warnings are a mental health concern, and should be treated with the respect that physical health gets.