You’ll recall Billy Wilder’s insurance-fraud-themed movie, The Fortune Cookie.
“Fake! All these newfangled machines. Fake! It proves nothing. In the old days, we used to do these things better. The man says he’s paralyzed, we simply throw him in the snake pit. If he climbs out, then we know he’s lying.”
“And if he doesn’t climb out?”
“Then we have lost the patient, but we have found an honest man.”
That’s the slovening of medical terms in public discourse for you. OCD isn’t the only one but it’s a pretty obvious one. I can’t stand it when wall art is hung askew, even by a few millimeters. That doesn’t mean I have OCD, people. My friend who throws away her toothbrush if it falls on the floor? Yeah, maybe.
Yeah, it’s one that I am particularly aware of, because as you say, in public discourse, it’s really common. Most months I get one or two or three people contacting me to [ask me if I would]/[tell me that I should]/[instruct that I must] use plain white plates and a plain tablecloth in my food videos, because the patterns are triggering their OCD.
Some of them might be telling the truth; maybe they do actually have OCD, but this is one are where I don’t think any accommodation needs to be made. If you can’t bear to look at my flowery plates and loud shirts, so be it - don’t look; don’t tell me to live in a featureless wasteland just because it’s what you would choose.
So very true. We all have personality traits, habits and mild compulsions which guide our behavior. But such things only rise to the level of a disorder when they cause significant & persistent dysfunction in an individual’s life. If it annoys other people without causing them harm, that’s their problem.
Of course. I like the simpler solution to things. I get it. There are people with real issues who live in a scary world that are very unhappy. I say to them get you some help. It’s available. And I wish you well on your journey.
My problem is it’s become cool or the thing to be triggered by everything and OCD about every little experience. No, no, no it’s just you don’t like it. That’s ok. Don’t like it. But it doesn’t trigger you. You’re just gonna gripe about and make everyone else uncomfortable.
Going through a thing here right now. Ivy says cranberry sauce just grosses her out. She hates it. Makes her feel stabby. She doesn’t like to even look at it.
My simple solution: Don’t Look at It!!
Physician, heal thyself
But it is so common for people to diagnose themselves from what they find on the internet and social media. Fibromyalgia anyone? Social anciety? PTSD? And, there is a segment of minority the medical community that is happy to treat them. Heck, as aggressive as some folk are to establish SOME diagnosis and demand SOME special treatment, it likely does rise to the level of some diagnosable mental impairment.
Well, that’s not always true. Therapy is cost-prohibitive and we’re currently facing a shortage of mental health professionals nation-wide. I think that’s one reason you see so many people “self-diagnosing.”
I think sometimes people use it get what they want and get a little attention while they’re at it. At a US Socialist convention a few years back (YouTube link), someone made a point of personal privelege that some people, such as himself, had difficulties with sensory overload and it would be helpful if people would keep the chatter down so he could hear the speakers. Was that really necessary? He could have just said, “The surrounding chatter makes it difficult to hear the speaker, and I think a lot of us would appreciate it if everyone would refrain from chit-chat while the speaker is at the podium.” But instead he made it about him and accommodating his disability.
Ok. I have a problem with sensory overload being even considered in a person who chooses to be where things will effect their senses to the point of it being a mental infirmity.
Nope. Not buying it.
If it bothers you so much, go home.
Yeah, how about, “It’s fucking rude to talk over the speaker?” But I know so many offenders, maybe not everyone agrees it’s rude.
That’s just a personal peeve of mine. I always end up attending events with people who do this, and it really bugs me!
Well, sensory processing issues are a real thing, so please at least buy that part. It’s one of the diagnostic criterion of autism spectrum disorder. My son has a range of sensory processing difficulties that affects a lot of what he does, from what he’s willing to eat, to how he handles the ambient beeping in grocery store check-out lanes (so far, not very well - he struggles to free himself and then runs like hell.) The most recent EEG fiasco we had was almost entirely a result of my son’s sensitivity to being touched on the head (if you missed that rant, it was an attempted medical procedure that had to be aborted because he fought it so hard.)
How people come to manage such sensitivities varies from person to person. I am one of those people who gets easily overloaded, so I try to avoid crowds unless it’s for a really cool reason, but when I do have to grin and bear it, I build relaxing, quiet space into my day before and after the event. Some people use noise cancelling headphones. I’m sure there are other ways people can learn to deal with it.
But all that said, it’s rude to talk over a speaker! It’s not necessary to invoke a disability to make that point.
Oh. I know it’s real thing. I have things that overload me all the time. I avoid. I back up. I take personal adult responsibility for my problem and don’t throw it at others.
The overly-sensitive part is my problem. We’re are becoming a race of babies who can’t adult the real world.
Crappy shit is out there. If you move around in the world you’re gonna come in contact with it. Get up and move. Leave. Go home. Hug your dog. Meditate. Take care of yourself ever how you can. It’s your responsibility, after-all.
(Again, I mean adults. Children are a whole other thing)
In all honesty, my kid is pretty damned good at regulating himself, for a three year old. When he’s overwhelmed, he asks to go home. When he gets home, he relaxes himself with counting.
We’re working on getting from “going home now” to “finding somewhere quiet to take a break, and then trying again” but he’s young yet.
Nice! You’re parenting well, it seems. I’m proud for you and him.
I have to ETA …that’s actually really amazing considering his age.
That’s a really good example. For whatever reason, this guy didn’t think it enough to ask that people respect the speaker. Instead, he had to make it about himself and his sensitivity.
My wife has a great deal of difficulty hearing when multiple conversations are going on, or even if there is background music or noise. So I am aware that it is possible to express one’s preference as to background talk without making it about one’s self.
A different way to frame this could be: we are creating a world which makes it harder and harder for more types of people to adult.
I first encountered trigger warnings on some atheist and feminist blogs I used to read in the mid '00s. At first I thought they were a good idea, but as time went on and the warnings proliferated, I began to change my mind. You can’t warn for everything, and it really seemed they were trying to. There was one blog in particular where the warnings became nearly as long as the posts; I stopped reading it because the writer’s analysis began to seem overwhelmingly negative and mean-spirited.
I feel like although an individual warning might be beneficial, the larger message you send by putting warnings on everything is harmful, because the healthy thing to do is face your fears, take responsibility for your own emotions and develop techniques to manage them. Putting warnings on everything runs counter to this by implying it’s preferable and possible to simply avoid your fears, and that it’s other people’s responsibility to manage them. It’s worse because it’s part of a larger culture of avoiding risk and thus failing to develop coping skills.
However, if the content advisory is presented in the light of helping people choose media they are interested in/likely to enjoy, rather than preventing trauma, it’s much less likely to be problematic.
This is not a thing. You cannot cause a serious allergic reaction simply by eating peanuts next to someone with an allergy. For example:
Or:
https://www.annallergy.org/article/S1081-1206(18)30209-6/fulltext
Whether there is any analogy between this and PTSD trigger warnings I’ll leave to the reader.
Probably not that relevant, but really not quite as simple as that:
More importantly, the main concern should be on the surface contamination and not airborne particulate. Tray tables and personal seating areas on an airplane should be wiped down
All it really takes is a quick turnaround and an aircraft maintenance routine that couldn’t be properly completed.