Topics that should have trigger warnings (not limited to):
Topics
- Sexual abuse/assault (this includes any unwanted touching, it’s not limited to rape nor sexual violence) - I highly recommend a skip option for this.
- Loss of a child - I also highly recommend a skip option for this.
- Abortion - Recommend a skip option.
- Suicide/suicidal thoughts - Recommend a skip option.
- Self harm - Recommend a skip option.
- Intense bullying
- Strong violence
- Torture - Recommend a skip option.
- Drug and alcohol abuse and/or drug and alcohol fueled violence - Recommend a skip option if scenes with this theme are intense.
- Animal abuse
Note: You should also include little warnings if there are references to such topics too.
E.g The following contains references to sexual abuse.
As someone who’s experienced sexual abuse, I genuinely appreciate trigger warnings for such content and those warnings give me a chance to try and mentally prepare for it simply because as a reader, I prefer to read all scenes irrespective of what they may contain because I want the whole story and I’m afraid that I won’t fully understand references later on if I skip, but there would be other readers who would much prefer to skip. Reading such scenes makes me uncomfortable but when they come out of nowhere without warning, it hits hard.
Of course, everyone is completely different and they’ve had different experiences – but nonetheless having a warning for any triggering topics at the beginning and before the scenes take place, as well as having a skip option is best for your effected readers (with regards to all triggering topics).