Triggers

This trigger is for people who are upset by the death of a canine companion. Dogs are often portrayed as loyal friends in films, and their death can be very triggering.

Animal

This trigger is for viewers who are disturbed by scenes of animal cruelty or violence. This can include physical abuse, neglect, or forced fighting.

This trigger is a broader category encompassing the death of any animal depicted on screen. It's useful for viewers who are sensitive to animal death in general.

This trigger is for people who are upset by the death of a feline companion. Cats can form strong bonds with their owners, and their death on screen can be emotionally difficult to watch.

This trigger is a broader category encompassing the death of any animal companion, including dogs, cats, rabbits, hamsters, etc.

This trigger is for viewers who are concerned about the ethical treatment of animals in filmmaking. Some older films or films with unrealistic stunts may have used methods that harmed animals.

Dog fighting is a cruel and illegal activity that involves forcing dogs to fight each other. Even depictions of dog fighting can be very disturbing.

This trigger is for people who are upset by the death of a horse. Horses are often seen as majestic creatures, and their death can be a difficult scene to watch, especially for animal lovers or horse enthusiasts.

This trigger is for viewers who are affected by scenes depicting animal sadness or distress. This could include animals separated from their young, injured animals, or animals in captivity.

This trigger is for viewers who are specifically upset by the death or mistreatment of rabbits. Rabbits are popular pets and can be seen as vulnerable creatures.

This trigger is for people with arachnophobia, a fear of spiders. Even brief appearances of spiders can cause anxiety and distress for some viewers.

This trigger is for viewers who may be attached to a fictional creature's well-being, even if it's a fantasy element like a dragon. This can be especially true if the dragon is portrayed as a sympathetic character.

This trigger is for people with entomophobia, a fear of insects. Even brief appearances of bugs can cause anxiety and distress.

This trigger is for people with ophidiophobia, a fear of snakes. Even brief appearances of snakes can cause anxiety and distress for some viewers.

This trigger is for people with a fear of sharks. Even scenes that don't show shark attacks can be triggering for some viewers.

This trigger is for people with a fear of large reptiles, such as herpetophobia, a general fear of reptiles or amphibians.

Abandonment

This trigger is for people who have a strong emotional connection to animals and are affected by depictions of animal neglect or abandonment. It can be distressing for those who have experienced the loss of a pet or have concerns about animal welfare.

This trigger is for individuals who have experienced or fear abandonment, particularly in childhood. It can evoke strong emotional responses related to loss, fear, and insecurity.

This trigger is for individuals who have experienced sudden departures or unexpected endings in relationships. It can evoke feelings of rejection, betrayal, and uncertainty.

Abuse

This trigger specifically focuses on the abuse of children, which can be particularly disturbing and upsetting. It can be triggering for survivors of child abuse, those who work with children, and individuals who have a strong protective instinct towards children.

This trigger encompasses a range of abusive behaviors within intimate relationships, including physical, emotional, sexual, and financial abuse. It can be triggering for survivors of domestic violence and those who have witnessed or experienced unhealthy relationships.

Many women are victims of physical violence and abuse. Women in media are often made into narrative props that get used as targets for violence, for shock value. This may overlap with some cases of other categories, but encompasses the broader range of situations where women are made into hapless victims of brutal treatment, for shock. Being able to know, beforehand, whether a piece of media includes this trope would be greatly beneficial to many women.

This trigger encompasses a broad range of parental abuse, including physical, emotional, and psychological harm. It can be deeply traumatic for survivors of child abuse and those who have witnessed or experienced parental dysfunction.

Gaslighting is a form of psychological manipulation where a person is made to question their own sanity or perception of reality. This trigger can be distressing for survivors of emotional abuse and those who are particularly vulnerable to manipulation.

Seeing abusers be forgiven or absolved of their actions can be very painful for abuse victims, particularly when the forgiveness is portrayed as something the victim "owes" to the abuser or the victim is portrayed as being bitter/ungrateful for things the abuser did for them/selfish/otherwise bad or in the wrong until they forgive the abuser.

Stalking is a pattern of unwanted and intrusive behavior that can cause fear and anxiety. This trigger can be distressing for survivors of stalking and those who have experienced harassment or threats.

This trigger depicts a cycle of violence where a victim of abuse becomes the perpetrator. It can be triggering for survivors of abuse who struggle with feelings of guilt or shame, or those who fear repeating the cycle.

This trigger specifically refers to physical abuse involving a belt, which can be a particularly visceral form of violence. It can be triggering for survivors of physical abuse and those who have fears of bodily harm.

Addiction

This trigger refers to the broader concept of addiction, encompassing various behaviors beyond substance abuse. This includes process addictions such as gambling, sex addiction, workaholism, and other compulsive behaviors. It can be triggering for individuals struggling with any form of addiction or those supporting someone with an addiction.

This trigger involves depictions of excessive or harmful alcohol consumption, which can be triggering for individuals struggling with alcohol addiction or those affected by alcoholism.

This trigger encompasses the use of various illicit substances and can be distressing for people recovering from drug addiction, those with family members struggling with addiction, or individuals concerned about the negative impacts of drug use.

Assault

Sexual assault of any kind is mentioned, whether it might be recounting an event or a tasteless joke.

Sexual assault on a male might be played of as funny or less serious than if the victim were a woman.

A character is unknowingly given a substance that alters their mental or physical state without their consent.

A character is physically prevented from moving freely through the intentional use of force or physical barriers.

Bodily Harm

Does some sort of experimentation, mutations, or other event happen that warps the body. Graphic and disturbing depictions of physical bodies.

Children

Creepy Crawly

Death

Audience members may be attached to non-human characters (androids, aliens, etc) and therefore seeing their death would be the same as watching a human death

It's upsetting when a major character that you've grown attached to dies. More so than some random redshirt.

For many people, any depictions of death at all is extremely triggering. There are specific ones, like parent or child, but not just a general any person dies

Scenes where characters sacrifice themselves for another character, i.e. by staying behind to keep the monsters off or jumping in the line of fire to protect another character. These are often times incredibly sad and for people with anxiety, or people who has had a close one die from a similar scenario, this can be extremely hard to watch.

Disability

This is a common and deeply upsetting trigger for developmentally disabled and autistic people, and can cause major panic attacks and meltdowns.

Drugs/Alcohol

Seeing a character overdose whether it is accidental or not can be extremely triggering for people with PTSD and the character taking drugs category is not specific enough to know if they overdose or not

Family

Similar to having Santa (et al) ruined for a child, a child being in distress due to the damage or destruction of a dear toy such as a sentimental stuffed animal, or a gift from a beloved relative.

It's good that there's a category for parents dying, but there currently isn't a category for family members in general dying. This can include siblings, cousins, aunts/uncles, etc; those who have lost a loved one (especially recently) may find it triggering, and it's generally upsetting to most. This especially goes if the death is a particularly emotional scene or if the character was very close to the deceased family member.

A character interacts romantically or sexually with someone while in a relationship with a different character. This could be triggering to someone who has been cheated on, or is uncomfortable with the subject.

Being kidnapped is a very traumatic experience and can be very distressing to read/watch as it almost always against the person's will.

Fear

Trypophobia is a fear of holes/patterns that can very strongly effect people with this fear, to the point of extreme self harm and intense panic attacks. its not often addressed in movies/media and is used a lot for a "creepy" feeling but for many people it can have much more serious effects.

The sight of razors or razorblades can be triggering to those with a history of self-harm, as well as those with generally negative experiences with, or a fear of razors.

Automatonophobia can be loosely defined as the fear of wax figures, mannequins, humanoid robots, audio-animatronics, or other figures designed to represent humans. Only rarely does the fear become a full-blown phobia, but it is relatively common to experience hesitation or nervousness when confronting these figures.

I know the drowning category exists, but just seeing natural bodies of water is enough to set me off and I don't know if it's like that for others. Water doesn't always correlate to drowning, so I think a category like this may be helpful

Gross

Some people are not bothered by visual depictions of gore but may be sensitive to hearing realistic gory sounds like flesh squishing and bones crunching.

Whether it’s someone having explosive diarrhea as a “funny” bit, or really any visual/audible pooping. It makes the whole show or movie hard to watch at all, unless it is one scene that can be skipped without losing details to the show.

Human character is eaten on screen, almost eaten, or ends up inside a creature’s stomach/body. This could include things like people being chomped in Jurassic Park, the kid in the cheerios in Honey I Shrunk The Kids, or typical "explore the body" plots of some cartoons. This category might have overlap with gore, but it’s distinct because it doesn’t always involve blood or injuries.

Large-scale Violence

Anything related to what happened at 9/11. storylines around 9/11 or buildings collapsing in big cities, etc.

Law Enforcement

A form of propaganda used to describe depictions of police in a positive (or excessively positive) light while obscuring negative qualities.

For many, the experience of being incarcerated can be traumatizing, especially in conjunction with other traumatic experiences that can take place within jail/prison. This includes addiction/drug abuse, physical violence, sexual assault/rape, malnutrition, and many other things that prison exposes an individual to. This category would cover depictions of jails/prisons/etc., and depiction or discussion of a character's (or multiple characters) life whilst incarcerated - whether the media takes place in a jail/prison or a character describes their experience of being incarcerated. This is important to warn people who have been incarcerated that media may be set in a place that was traumatic to them, or triggers memories of trauma they experienced while incarcerated.

LGBTQ+

A common transphobic trope is the stereotype of the trans person who wants to "trap" a cisgender heterosexual person into having sex with them. This trope is most often applied to trans women characters, but for the sake of broadness this category can apply to trans men characters as well.

Slurs or insults such as (sorry for mentioning them!) tranny, trap, shemale etc. can make a negative impact on trans and nonbinary people. Such words can upset them to the point of dissociation or a panic attack.

Deadnaming or birthnaming occurs when a trans and/or nonbinary person is named not by their chosen/new legal and correct name, but with or without intent by the name given to them at birth, which often induces gender dysphoria and is generally perceived to be very uncomfortable and especially when done multiple times and with visible intent to be very offensive and upsetting.

So much of LGBTQ+ content that actually has bisexual or pansexual representation almost always includes the bi/pan person cheating on their significant other. It would be nice to know beforehand if the media I choose to consume has this damaging stereotype before I choose to consume/support it.

Being outed means having ones LGBT+ identity revealed without their concent or being made to reveal ones LGBT+ identity under force or duress. This can be deeply upsetting to people who have been outed, especially if it resulted in backlash.

Loss

It doesn't belong in a museum, it belongs with the culture it was stolen from, but also it belongs in one piece, not exploded by space robots or shot up by badmen

Medical

Mental Health

There are many pieces of media that include suicide attempts, even if the character in question does not die. A piece of media with this would not fall under the "Does a character die by suicide?" category, so there would be no warning of there being an attempt shown or implied. Even if a character doesn't die, seeing an attempt can be just as triggering and harmful as if the character had.

There's a category for anxiety attacks, but for me PTSD functions differently. It may seem redundant, but as someone with PTSD, watching someone suffer from PTSD and exhibit symptoms can actually trigger my PTSD. I imagine some other people must feel similarly. Movies would fall into this category if a character talks about having Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder or becomes triggered.

When an autistic person is abused specifically because they are autistic. This can include parents who openly complain about their child being "gone" or "different" than they want, bullying by others, medical-related abuse, and parents/relatives/others killing an autistic person because they're "sick" of their autistic behavior.

Misophonia, or "selective sound sensitivity syndrome", is a neurological disorder often associated with autism and ADHD, in which hearing mouth noises or repetitive sounds like eating, chewing gum, smacking lips, tapping, and other noises when eating, triggers anger, disgust, or even physical pain. Many movies and TV shows have moments like this, with some that are so extreme it becomes unwatchable for viewers who suffer from this, as I do. I have wished for this to be a category on this wonderful site for years.

Showing a mentally ill person committing violent acts is a very specific and very focused trigger for mentally ill people, and people who love someone who is mentally ill. This is separate and distinct from demonizing mental illness. Many mentally ill people are shunned, abused, and murdered because people are frightened of them. Many mentally ill people are extremely poorly treated or even killed because so many people equate mental illness with violence. It is extremely upsetting for a mentally ill person to see a movie that tells them they are frightening and dangerous. Mentally ill people have enough to deal with without having to deal with terror and prejudice. Further, it is extremely upsetting to watch someone you love who has a mental illness watching a movie that shows someone like them being dangerous and violent.

When your life is traumatized after losing a loved one takes their life and a character says "I would kill myself" and other similar phrases or gestures killing self is very painful and all too real and not a joke.

Images of someone having an anxiety attack can trigger an attack in others. It is not possible to function for a long time afterwards.

Although it is usually fairly easy to tell with movies like Split, sometimes dissociative identity disorder (D.I.D., formerly known as Multiple Personality Disorder) is used as a plot twist, joke, or some other offensive tool. It would be good for those of us who live with D.I.D. to have warnings so we don't have be surprised by the shame and stigma cast on us.

Media that blurs the distinction between reality and dream or altered states is incredibly triggering for those of us with dissociative disorders. If we as the viewer do not know when we are seeing a dream state, psychotic state, altered state, or stable reality, it can trigger our own dissociative states (which we will likely not recover from after the film / show is over).

It is important to distinguish between body dysmorphia and dysphoria. Dysmorphia is seeing your body as something other than it is (i.e., someone thinking they are overweight when they are a healthy weight), which dysphoria is disliking your body or feeling that something about it is “wrong.” Both are experiences common to transgender people and people with eating disorders, but they are very much different and should be labeled as such.

Any mentions or depictions of dissociation, depersonalization, or derealization such as: out of body experiences, dissociative amnesia, not remember who they are, numbness depicted as a result of abuse, etc

Sometimes a character suffering from an explicit mental illness can trigger people who have previously experiences or are experiencing, causing them to relapse or worsen their mental health. For example, there are many shows in which characters deal very explicitly with depression, which might cause someone who has suffered from depression in the past to relapse.

It can be hard to watch someone else having a meltdown on screen, especially for autistic people due to their own experiences.

Noxious

Flashing lights or rapidly changing or alternating images (e.g. lightning, flickering lights, ambulance lights, gunfire, fast cuts, club scenes, etc.)

Any jarring loud noises that one wouldn't expect to hear/could catch somebody off guard. Anything from gunshots, explosions, screaming, or even smaller things like a door slamming loudly. If something is loud and/or unexpected enough to make the viewer jump a bit, it's possible that it could trigger people with PTSD related to loud noises, even if the noise doesn't come specifically from a gun or explosive device.

There are several people with autism who enjoy watching movies but find the sound of babies crying incredibly upsetting and disturbing.

Is there any scene where the camera is underwater? This includes the camera shot being halfway under the water. Many people find underwater scenes extremely stressful, and would love to at least be able to prepare themselves for one.

Obscene language and gestures could make some people uncomfortable, and many parents do not want their children to be exposed to such things. While obscene language is often included in the rations for films, gestures are not. Additionally, there is less of a warning for language on other types of media, such as books.

Paranoia

Shows, movies or games that break the fourth wall (For example, a character turning to face the camera and talking to the viewer, or a game tampering with files on the player's computer) may trigger paranoia or anxiety in some people.

Pregnancy

Seeing a baby or unborn child can be triggering to those who have lost an infant or pregnancy, or who have lost a sibling. I lost a late-term pregnancy and seeing a baby unexpectedly can be a very painful reminder of that and trigger flashbacks. Additionally, unborn children (a fetus or embryo) are shown completely unexpectedly at times and can be similarly triggering to those who miscarried, were coerced or forced to have an abortion, or are infertile/unable to conceive. For examples, the horror movie "The Hallow" showed a (possibly dead/deceased) infant crawling across the ground toward a character, which was completely unexpected and irrelevant to the plot, and the TV series Helix had an extended plot depicting a fetus in vitro in the second season.

Some people have discovered that their parents would have preferred to have aborted them for a variety of reasons. Also some people have been forced to have abortions which can be very traumatic.

Prejudice

Slurs or insults such as faggot, dike, fair, carpet muncher, etc can make a negative impact on lgbt+ youth. Such words can upset them to the point of dissociation or ever worse a panic attack.

This category refers to use of slurs, demeaning language, or abuse of neurodiverse and disabled people. This includes using "autistic" as an insult. This category is important because mocking disabled people or comparing their conditions to being bad is an ableist trope found in many forms of media that feed into a stereotypical narrative.

A general category for jokes that involve men dressing/acting in traditionally feminine ways or being gnc (gender non-conforming) being used as a joke or for shock value. Not to be confused with transmisogyny, or calling trans women men in dresses.

The term nigger is now probably the most offensive word in English. Its degree of offensiveness has increased markedly in recent years, although it has been used in a derogatory manner since at least the Revolutionary War [Dictionary.com]

Any minority- be it cultural, LGBT, religious, race, neurodivergent people, disabled people, or any other- represented in a way that is incorrect, stereotyped, or otherwise biased.

Is a movie antisemitic or has the portrayal of antisemitism/antisemitic characters? Are there negative Jewish stereotypes portrayed in the movie, are any explicitly or implied Jewish characters killed or abused? Does the movie feature Nazism/the holocaust? Is the director/write/lead actor a known antisemite? There is a lot of casual antisemitism in media, Jewish individuals (or people who don't want to support antisemitic movies in general) should have access to a warning before going to the theater.

Aphobia, and its subsets acephobia and arophobia, describe discrimination against asexuals (people who don’t experience sexual attraction) and aromantics (people who don’t experience romantic attraction). Some examples of aphobia are: assuming everyone will be in a relationship/have kids, devaluing platonic relationships compared to romantic ones, forcing people into sexual/romantic situations to "fix" them, and telling someone they’re wrong/broken/mentally ill because they don’t experience a type of attraction. Some examples of acephobia are: saying being ace is equivalent to having no libido, saying they’re a prude for not feeling sexual attraction, and saying that their romantic relationships aren’t "real" relationships because they’re not having sex. Some examples of arophobia are: saying being aro is just about using people for sex, calling people derogatory names (sl*t, wh*re, etc.) for having sex without romance, saying they’re cold and loveless because they aren’t dating.

Having the black character die first or be the only black character to die is a racist trope that people want to know about before they go into a movie so they don't get their hopes up.

Race

Depictions of blackface/yellowface/skin darkening can be hugely traumatic and highly revealing of whether the movie would be enjoyable for Black and other racial minority audiences.