"Potential Trigger Warning"

We all know that typical "ptw" acronym that punctuates our black and white images we have filtered of our half faces, straggly hair amidst the tears, and just blurry shots of our surroundings, paired with a 100% enhancement of the fade effect to make our situation even more miserable than it already feels like it is. Somehow, we think that these three alphabets can account for our spew of emotional vomit that is going to flood the eyes of those who bother to stop and read this expected paragraph of negativity. There are times when idk I feel these alphabets are redundant because we still read it anyway when we are upset because we somehow wanna intensify our sadness. It already hurts so much aye? Why not just go all the way. Okay, maybe it's just me HAAHA. With that, though some of us may negate the importance of "ptw's", we end up bashing others who don't put those preceding their posts. On the part of the content creator, I get it. Perhaps a PTW may put people off, and not read your intensely thought out emotional out pour. I mean I totally get it. I did it all the time too. I don't even blur/fade the images anymore, they end up as explicit images that prove our pitiful state/or well pitiful body frame to encourage others to stop and stare amidst the scrolling and affirm you. Sometimes I put up old ED photos or spam my feed with full body pictures angled in specific dimensions to emphasize how "bad" I got. What an oxymoron. The worst I look, the better I thought I was. Recently, one my friends got called out on IG for posting triggering photos of her body and she confided in me about how she felt so I told her that I could relate to her. Additionally, I added on: It's like you wanna remember and have pictorial proof of what you were "capable" of attaining in terms of a body frame, so that when you look at it on hindsight and see comments affirming your skinniness, you feel more motivated to eat?¿ it's hard to break out of that I admit. However, I think that it's just depressing to have those pics actually. I mean from what I gather, you wanna get well. And having these pictures may spur you on to keep staying the same size coz ppl comment oh like you're super hot etc...you mayn't see the need to recover? Plus. When you do recover, you may be triggered by yourself when you look back on the body you used to have. I have experienced that myself...idk in my honest opinion, I do think your pics are triggering? But I totally understand your intention behind it. It's not to gain attention but rather idk somehow embolden you to eat more because others may egg you on to eat after seeing your bones? And she agreed, saying that I had just taken the words outta her mouth. I don't know if any of y'all had felt/feel this way but i just wanted to throw out the rationality behind these photos. Like my friend, though there was a certain level of attention seeking behavior involved, a large part of it I believe was to just fuel me with the reason to eat. If I was "fking skinny" to others, there was no question that I should pick up my fork to eat aye? Without that affirmation, we may remain stuck, thinking that with our feeble progress so far, we are simply sufficiently recovered and we needn't push more for full recovery. I understand that recovery is supposed to be self motivating and validating but I suppose at times of vulnerabilities, we need that extra push and some of us mayn't know the right way to know how/act on impulse for the most immediate gratification and permission from a mass audience to eat. Instead of being ridiculed about being fat like you were in the past, being ridiculed about how you're just bones reminds you of the same motivation to change and "self-improve".

Hang in there darlings

Yes you are entitled to post whatever you want to, but perhaps think about it this way: If you're feeling really unstable, think of all the hate you got for making others' feeds darker and the lack of true validation no matter how many comments may have been left to encourage you. You're in defensive listening mode and you just perceive the malicious intent of any saying offered to you. Perhaps, take a break and realise how much you can do for yourself in recovery; to shock yourself to discover how strong you can be without others pulling you down.