Although Toph, an American, had friends and a relationship in Japan, he found living there for the past eight years to be oftentimes quite lonely.
When he discovered Twitch in 2016, it seemed like the perfect way to meet others with mutual interests while he spent time gaming. So Toph, who was working as a teacher abroad, started to build a community on the platform.
He prided himself on the “soft, comfy vibe” of his streams, during which he played games like Animal Crossing and Kirby and the Forgotten Land in front of a virtual audience. Twitch served as a respite for him when things in the real world were getting tough. So last week, shortly after returning to live in his home state of New York, he was looking forward to streaming. He’d broken up with his partner and uprooted his entire life, and it would be nice to forget about that for a while.
Unfortunately, things didn’t turn out that way. “In that moment, someone came in and trauma dumped about a breakup from an abusive partner who’d cheated on them. And of course, my community is very sweet, so they started responding, and it just kept going and going,” says Toph, who has 33,800 followers on Twitch. (Toph does not disclose his full name or age to his audience.)
The emotional purge, which took place in the text chat of his stream, went on for 11 minutes and put Toph into a sour mood — the very state of mind he’d been hoping to escape. He’d been in a similar relationship to the one described, and although he says the conversation didn’t “trigger” him, he felt defeated and canceled his stream for the day.
“So much is going on in my life,” he says. “Twitch and streaming are some of the only things that take my mind off it. And now it's getting taken away from me. Why can’t these be my safe space, too?”
Toph is one of many Twitch streamers worried about the issue of trauma dumping, the act of offloading emotional problems without invitation. According to content creators on the platform, viewers are increasingly bombarding stream chats and their accompanying Discords with their IRL problems, which streamers are often not equipped to deal with.
The issue has become so prevalent that some streamers have started speaking out on Twitter. One influencer even put out a guide to dissuade people from trauma dumping on her streams.
Trauma dumping is a problem that affects streamers at all levels. Rob Logan is a variety streamer and podcaster from Massachusetts who has been broadcasting on Twitch for the last seven years under the name @theRobLogan. He has under 800 followers, but still deals with the issue.
“I had one viewer who just vented every time they were in chat,” Logan says. “They never really contributed to the conversation that was going on. They just derailed whatever was happening to talk about their problems.”
Logan recently went viral on Twitter after he tweeted a message to viewers — “PLEASE stop dropping your insanely depressing news into chat” it began — motivated by Toph’s trauma-dumping experience. “Even this morning, I was watching someone raise money for Ukraine in a charity stream, and somebody came in and said, ‘I’m pregnant. I just found out, now I’m sad,’” Logan says. “Everyone else had to stop the conversation and deal with it.”
Toph echoes Logan’s sentiments, saying that the issue often impacts the entire community. “There was a member of the community who kept talking about their dead pet. I asked them kindly to stop and take the conversation private instead, and after one of the streams, they posted a graphic picture of their sickly pet in the Discord,” he recounts. While Toph sympathized with his viewer, having previously lost a pet himself, he didn’t want other followers to feel triggered or upset, and he deleted the picture.
“I was trying to be there for them while making sure everyone else was comfortable and safe, but they immediately got angry at me,” Toph says. “They told me that I was in the wrong for deleting it and that I was heartless. They left the community after that.” Power dynamics
Twitch insiders believe the growing problem of trauma dumping stems from the combination of viewers’ access to and power over streamers.
“It’s a problem for bigger Twitch streamers because people will pay to have their messages read out, and they’ll share the minutiae of their problems,” says Terrence Wiggins, a 34-year-old part-time streamer, podcaster, and coin photographer from Virginia who streams as @TheBlackNerd on Twitch, where he has just over 800 followers.
“It’s the whole parasocial relationship thing, where people view the streamer as their friend, when really they’re not. [The streamer is] being paid to listen to whatever you have to say. It’s extremely unhealthy.”
Mental health Twitch streamers are struggling with 'trauma dumping'
Viewers are derailing chats with their personal problems, and streamers feel ill-equipped to deal with their issues.
(rest in comments)
I agree with pretty much everything you're saying. I really don't have any good answers for any of this. I have unfettered disgust for rich and powerful "influencers" but the vast majority mean well and are just trying to get by. And I feel horrible about people so alienated and desperate that they reach out to the smaller scale streamers to connect to someone, somehow, seeing no other choice.
The entire situation is a mess and I don't know how or even if it could be improved, especially not in a late stage capitalist hellworld like the one we are in now.
i understand that small streamers would experience discomfort from this but unless i am simply even more selfish then i thought it still feels deeply privileged to complain about this. it is actually hilarious. the planets dying, humanity is killing itself and people are dying in droves every day for practically nothing. and i dont get the choice to look away. i can distract myself but the thoughts always come back. and then this person complains about having to feel sympathy for another person for 11 minutes? its disgusting. and i saw the top level comment about "emotional labor" too. and i feel uncomfortable about that concept as well. i have to do 'emotional labor' every day just being a friend to people. and i can manage that with crippling mental illness. what excuse do completely neurotypical people have. this doesnt mnean that others who also deal with trauma and mental illness should be forced to do emotional labor but that normies using the term trauma dumping is extremely worrying and funny.
removing morality form the equation. trauma dumping is something we're going to have to deal with in parties and leftist spaces. the 'emotional labor' of supporting one another through emotional suffering is a neccessary element of solidarity. it is sad to see people on even this left forum complain about that when they don't have to deal with schizophrenia or depression or anxiety or bipolar disorder. i dont think people should be forced to listen to others. but i do think that people have more of a right to vent their emotions then for normies to shut them down for taking time out of their Epic Gamer Day
maybe the streamer also struggles with similar things to me in which case im sorry. but in that case teyre one of the only streamers that has a right to say things like this
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i dont want people to try and be cool therapists when they're not. all i care about is people not complaining about said trauama dumperse and villainizing them. im fine with people ignoring them, even. just dont shit on people who are suffering. that should be a general rule.
to be prefectly honest. it's not my job to help neurotypical and non-depressed, non-bipolar, non-anxious people understand this. it's not that hard and just takes a bare minimum level of sympathy. it doesnt even take that much to know what to say if someone does trauma dump on your chat but you don't know what to do to help. here's some examples:
"I really wish I could do more but I'm not a professional. Could some people in the chat who have more experience with this help them?"
"I don't have enough experience to speak on the issues you're going through. I'm sorry sad expression"
"Do you have any friends or family you could talk to this about? If not, I could reccommend some communities" (if you want them to talk to other people, jsut tell them. don't invent a whole phrase of 'trauma dumping' just to villainize)
"I'm not qualified for this and I don't want to make things worse. I wish the best of luck to you but I don't know if we can help you right now" (if you don't want to engage at all)
notice the only requirement is that you treat them like a human being. of course the rules of intersectionality apply. if you alos experience trauma or some form of mental illness then telling someone to fuck off is understandable
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it's not 'trauma dumping' when someone forgets to ask if you're comfortable and unloads on you and triggers your traumas. that's someone being forgetful and a little stupid. just remind them and tell them to stop. there is no villification or 'trauma dumping' as a term that needs to eixst.
finally, if someone gets angry about another person not being able to respond and that gets sidelined as there fault for getting angry its just ignoring the issue. the fact is that people need people to grasp onto and they need help. the notion of 'trauma dumping' is just a deflection into the realm of solipsism.
i never fucking siad you couldnt ignore it. holy shit i literally just gave those examples if you NEEDED to respond. im asking for the bare minimum. just don't fucking villainize people for grasping at straws to stay afloat.
when i say "sympathy" i just mean treat them like a human being. someone with value. that's all i ask. the concept of "trauma dumping" is such a clear and obvious attempt to separate us into factions of neurodivergent people tearing at each others throats. the acceptance of the notion it is disgusting.