This isn't my usual typing style or a typical post for me to make, but I'd like to spread awareness in system spaces about something important today. Many pro endogenic communities, especially syscord, use a specific method to entrap traumagenic systems into their spaces, and I haven't heard anyone mention it before. This post is for awareness on this matter! There's a trigger warning for ableism and manipulation going forward.
I've noticed a lot of pro endogenic servers have extensive, strictly enforced blacklists / trigger lists. They go from more niche topics, like mentions of electronics being short circuited, into common things, like emoticons and symbols. I, a recently traumatized teen with a lot of severe, common triggers of the sort, found refuge in these servers, and I wasn't the only one to.
If someone is triggered by something tiny, like a smiley, common symbol, emoticon, etc, then they are going to be triggered in daily life in many cases. This will, after enough time, lead to desensitization to a trigger. This principle is what exposure therapies are based around. Shielding someone will undeniably make the real world harder to go to due to lack of desensitization, regardless on your view of the sheltering or the communities doing it.
I sympathize heavily with people with small or odd triggers, as I have been one myself. Creating safe spaces is fine— great, even! Creating large safe spaces where everyone's triggers, no matter how tiny, are respected, will eventually get people accustomed to that type of treatment. They'll get used to having their triggers avoided and won't get properly desensitized, which will make spaces outside the safe space, such as real life or other communities, harder to go to. It's a trap. Not everyone will fall into it, of course, but I fell hard. Even if this winds up to not be an issue or worth worry, if this prevents at least one person from getting stuck in so called 'safe spaces', I'll be really, really happy. Thanks for reading!
