Students told to replace clapping with jazz hands

[Anakin McFly]

This is somewhat old news, but wtf. http://www.bbc.co.uk/newsbeat/article/3 ... -nus-event

I'm not denying the ability of applause to trigger anxiety, because I have/had anxiety and on bad days something like the telephone ringing or toast popping up in the toaster can set it off. But banning anxiety triggers is a losing battle because of the very nature of anxiety. Practically anything can be a trigger for it, even soft bunny rabbits frolicking in a field of rainbows. Unlike other triggers, like those for PTSD, the more you strive to remove them the worse the anxiety will get, because it confirms to your brain that this harmless thing is in fact terrifying and to be feared: http://www.anxietycoach.com/anxietytrick.html

It doesn't even serve their goal of inclusivity. There was an event I was at in which the presenters were deaf, and waving instead of clapping made complete sense. But blind people won't be able to see jazz hands, and some physically disabled people might find it harder than to clap. I'm also sure that some people would be more likely to have their anxiety triggered by a crowd of strangers energetically flailing their arms at them. I would. The thought is terrifying. Every option is going to bother somebody.

What's going on with the state of mental health management that these things are becoming so common? Why isn't all this energy instead channelled into helping people learn ways to overcome anxiety, rather than trying to make the world a safe place to have anxiety in, which is never going to happen even if everyone were 100% on board? I've been triggered by thunder, ffs. My anxiety attacks weren't reduced because the triggers went away. They went away because of working on my mental health until I was stable enough to not panic at any remotely disturbing thing. These are usually big colleges putting all these measures in place. They have the resources to provide good, free therapy for their students, or form support groups that tackle the underlying problem head on instead of trying to protect people from otherwise harmless things that are only perceived as harmful because they are ill.

(I have a lot of angry feelings about this topic because anxiety ruined a good portion of my life, and I would have been able to heal a lot faster if I hadn't initially been convinced that sheltering myself in a trigger-free space was the way to go.)

[Gendo]

I have a vague memory of being told to do this when I was a kid at some point... nothing to do with anxiety or triggering; just to keep noise and chaos to a minimum.

[Boomer]

So glad I grew up in the 90's.