• 💖 [Donate To Keep MyPTSD Online] 💖 Every contribution, no matter how small, fuels our mission and helps us continue to provide peer-to-peer services. Your generosity keeps us independent and available freely to the world. MyPTSD closes if we can't reach our annual goal.

Secondary Ptsd

Status
Not open for further replies.
I thought Secondary PTSD was what happened to caregivers who start to become hypervigilant, alert, sensitive, walk-on-eggshells, and have some symptoms that "mimic" PTSD when having to deal with the constant day in and day out of caring for someone who does have PTSD? But because they would not meet the requirements for PTSD (being in a life threatening situation, experiencing actual trauma), nor experience all of the symptoms of PTSD (flashbacks, dissociation, etc) it would be considered "Secondary PTSD" meaning it is a set of symptoms secondary to PTSD - due to proximity over a long period of time to someone with PTSD?

Maybe a more appropriate name would be something like "Caregiver's Anxiety" or something. To me Secondary PTSD seems more related to caregivers (Supporters as they're called here) than it does to generational abuse, which is what I think y'all are talkin about here.

I think KT is confused cause y'all are talkin about something completely different than what she's meanin. Like Anthony said, he agrees with her points, cause they're accurate points, but sayin Secondary "PTSD" is PTSD is ridiculous cause people with Secondary "PTSD" don't actually have most of the symptoms of PTSD. With generational abuse, though, being abused by someone with PTSD would automatically give the abused person PTSD, because those experiences are traumatic.

Like Miss Sunshine said, being a caretaker isn't traumatic (If you aren't experiencing trauma), so it wouldn't be PTSD, because there ain't no trauma involved. But there is anxiety involved, and that anxiety directly stems from bein a caregiver - so "Anxiety" is not an accurate diagnosis either. It'd be, literally, "Caregiver's Anxiety"? Meaning an anxiety that is solely unique to those who care for sufferers of PTSD. It opens up a lot of new anxieties that stay permanent when dealing with sufferers, and maybe even people like their sufferer eventually?

I don't know, I'm talkin' out of my ass here, and I guarantee you I don't know what I'm talkin about, just tryin to figure it out myself. Feel free to ignore me.
 
Maybe I am just all jumbled up about what people are saying. There is a lot here (very long posts) and actually I wasn't even intending to die on this hill. Forgive me.
 
Actually the term Secondary PTSD was orignially coined in reference to therapists who began exhibiting symptoms of PTSD after extensive therapy with patients of PTSD where they had listened to our trauma. Basically the therapists were getting traumatized listening to our trauma.

Of course since then, the term is being applied to everyone for all sorts of things. It is not an actual diagnosis, and I would be suprised if it ever does become one.

bec
 
Probably enough said but I have to ask for clarification.
A carer can develop ptsd from the ongoing fear associated with the behavior of the person with ptsd? If the non ptsd witnesses behavior that they perceive as life threatening to self or other and over a significant period of time-they may be diagnosed with ptsd ? I believe the answer to be yes-it is still ptsd.

Even within the accurate diagnosis, all ptsd is not the same in severity. Symptoms vary, how functional the individual is varies, as does progress/management.

The same is true with depression. I have seen people with depression that are in much worse shape than my ptsd. Same with anxiety disorders, OCD, and other disorders. I am not minimizing the effects of ptsd in any way. There are those with much worse symptoms than I and those with less symptoms. Any of the diagnosis has a range of severity and the diagnosis is only part of it. The DSM provides for the GAF as well as the diagnosis.
 
Actually the term Secondary PTSD was orignially coined in reference to therapists who began exhibiting symptoms of PTSD after extensive therapy with patients of PTSD where they had listened to our trauma. Basically the therapists were getting traumatized listening to our trauma.

Of course since then, the term is being applied to everyone for all sorts of things. It is not an actual diagnosis, and I would be suprised if it ever does become one.

bec
I thought that was compassion fatigue
 
LOL compassion fatigue is what one gets from the constant stress of caring for another person. Secondary PTSD was about be traumatized by listening to ones trauma in a theraputic setting. Of course that is just the origins of Secondary PTSD and not what we see it referred to today.

Can all get very confusing can't it?
bec
 
LOL compassion fatigue is what one gets from the constant stress of caring for another person. Secondary PTSD was about be traumatized by listening to ones trauma in a theraputic setting. Of course that is just the origins of Secondary PTSD and not what we see it referred to today.

Can all get very confusing can't it?
bec

Yes "caregivers" specifically professional caregivers such as mental health therapists but can include other professions. Might want to research that one
 
Hello, I am new here. I started researching secondary PTSD, and I came across this thread. My mother was sexually abused by her father and aunt as a child, and I feel like it affected me strongly in a secondary way, meaning that emotionally I feel I've been sexually violated, but to my knowledge I have not been sexually abused. Is this likely or possible? Would it be appropriate to share my experience here? I am confused and looking for answers or insight.
 
Hi,

You do not have PTSD, as you have not been directly abused, from what you have said. What you explained is not secondary PTSD, it is called secondary traumatization.

Your feelings are valid for whatever you feel under whatever circumstances you have, but have zero relevance for the term secondary PTSD.

If you have family who have been diagnosed with PTSD, then you have the right to be here in a supporter / family capacity, and there is a supporter area/s designated. Having endured abuse does not mean a person has PTSD though.
 
I guess I probably don't have PTSD, but I don't think secondary traumatization fits either, because I did not witness the abuse and I did not even know my mom had been abused until I was a teenager, but I have felt violated ever since I was a small child. I will look elsewhere for answers.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top