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News Article claiming divorce caused ptsd

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Yes, because I clearly had ptsd.
Yeah, and see that is just it. I had all of the symptoms of PTSD but they had kept me awake as well - opening and closing the garage door every 2 hours. Doctors didn't believe what had happened to me. They kept saying 'why would anyone do that to someone?' Really????

So that's the thing. I was flashing, I was going catatonic (which nobody believed), I was terroring (or so I thought - it was actually them terroring me in the middle of the night), so much stuff. But my symptoms absolutely showed I had PTSD. I wouldn't have been able to say that they physically or sexually abused me though. And I think that didn't count at the time, but am not sure if it does now.

How a clinician could consider forced sleep deprivation to be “not traumatic”,
Yeah, it is just so subjective though when relying on a clinicians proper diagnosis. And if I had not been diagnosed with PTSD, I would not have been able to get disability. GAD doesn't cut it when it comes to disability here. So I guess there is some truth to the PTSD worthy thing.

Honest to god, it is a complete disaster here in Canada. Doctors are uninformed and rude as could be, police are make shift mental health assessment officers that don't know shit about DV and most have a bias against women, shelters are a joke. All of that in and of itself is traumatic.
 
One thing that I think is in the background of this conversation that relates to a lot of the posts... is why people claim they have PTSD when they don’t. (And why some of us are reluctant to claim it when we do have it.) And something that gets missed in all of this debates as to what trauma and shit in life can be a factor in the development of PTSD and not.

People (those with and without PTSD) tend to overlook that one does not need a PTSD diagnosis to be legitimately suffering - or for something to have been legitimately traumatic and awful and terribly impactful... and yet PTSD has become more than a diagnosis of a mental illness but like this badge of validation that what happened was actually really bad or that the suffering is actually really profound. It’s not supposed be that. PTSD is a collection of mental health symptoms. That’s it.

Example: my friend had a good childhood on all accounts, had never endured criterion A trauma, had s good job, etc. He found out his wife filed for divorce. His life was never in danger, he was never abused. They just couldn’t make the relationship work. As it went on, he only got half time custody.

It totally wrecked him. And it wasn’t just the event but whatever else (mostly unknown to professionals) plays into why some people go through shit-shows and develop mental illness and others don’t develop lasting mental health symptoms.

I remember being with him as a friend, trying to just be there and his suffering was so profound. In the end, he killed himself. It was not criterion A trauma or really trauma in any sense and yet it all was beyond what he had the ability to endure.

The author of the article that started this discussion sounds like a cheater and a creep, trying to blameshift natural consequences of a relationship breakdown on to his ex-wife by trying to play the victim card... by using PTSD as the validation card that “my pain is real” or “this was actually legitimately bad” or “i was really a victim.”!

A lot of other people who are not jerks do the same and claim my divorce my whatever cause me PTSD so therefore it really was bad.

The same starts to happen a little when talking about clearly bad events, trauma, whatever, that isn’t clear cut Crtierion A trauma. It’s good to discuss what might have contradicted to certain mental health symptoms and not... but to also keep in balance the perspective that one doesn’t need PTSD symptoms or a diagnosis to validate that xyz thing was actually truly terrible.

A PTSD diagnosis really shouldn’t be this validation card like that in the first place. That not really why it was developed as a diagnosis. Criterion A trauma is part of the diagnosis. And the diagnosis itself supposed to be a tool for categorizing and treating a mental health condition and symptom set. Not a way to say xyz event was really actually awful.

(Not saying anyone here is doing that, it’s a general trend is all in the world of PTSD recovery.)
 
If someone is claiming PTSD from emotional abuse and can articulate exactly what happened, then I am going to say that there was no real dismantling of the SELF during the abuse. Just an opinion

A good opinion. It took me an entire year and 52 ish appointments with my therapist (every week for a year) to let out a peep of my trauma. And then another 2 years to tell him all of it. It was a very slow process. I was, before that, competely away from the entire trauma for 10 years. Didn't tell a soul. When I got here I spit it out fast but I had already been in therapy for around something like 5 or 6 years. I was ready for and needed others to hear it. So, if you can come completely out of the trauma, freshly out (or however long removed PTSD requires), and articulate well what happened then its very likely you don't have PTSD. Also just an opinion. I think being unable to talk about it and taking a very long time to talk about it is super common after trauma.

A PTSD diagnosis really shouldn’t be this validation card like that in the first place. That not really why it was developed as a diagnosis. Criterion A trauma is part of the diagnosis. And the diagnosis itself supposed to be a tool for categorizing and treating a mental health condition and symptom set. Not a way to say xyz event was really actually awful.

^^^^^ YES!!!! THIS, THIS, THIS!!!!

It annoys the f*ck out of me when people come on here fighting that this thing that hurts them caused PTSD when it clearly cannot. And then others that come on here trying to convince them and us and that it can. No, it can't! And why is that such a bad thing? Damn! I faught my diagnosis. Forever. For months. I faught with my therapist for months. "No way! It wasn't as bad as war. No way!" Why do people do that? Why want a mental illness just to validate that it was bad and you hurt? Why want a mental illness at all? I don't and will never get it!
 
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So, if you can come completely out of the trauma, freshly out (or however long removed PTSD requires), and articulate well what happened then its very likely you don't have PTSD.
I disagree. I talked about one of my traumatic events right after it happened. I talked and talked and didn’t stop. I still had PTSD. Plently of people can talk about it. It doesn’t invalidate the diagnosis of the mental health disorder of PTSD and/or the severity of the event to be able to talk about it. A breakdown of self isn’t required for PTSD. It sometimes happens and sometimes doesn’t. I had a breakdown of self. I could still articulate what happened.

One can also struggle to articulate what happened and not have PTSD.

Inability to “articulate well what happened” isn’t a required symptom in the DSM for good cause.

Being unable to talk about it can be a sign of how deeply an event affected someone for sure, but it’s not that tightly linked as a diagnostic requirement.
 
Inability to “articulate well what happened” isn’t a required symptom in the DSM for good cause.
No. I don't think I was saying it was. I think I was saying that with enough psychological abuse, it is impossible to articulate. It is the nature of the beast. It is what psychological abuse is designed for.

“Oh my parents yelled at me when I was a kid! I have PTSD from emotional abuse!”
I think that one of the articles I posted was very clear that emotional abuse is not yelling. It spoke of controlling key aspects of a person's being.
 
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I definitely developed the Acute Stress Disorder as a result of the psychological/emotional abuse. It is a short term stress disorder though . Very extreme and feels life threatening, so my wondering is around getting so frightened as a result of that that it could develop into PTSD. But I will probably never know due to having already been through numerous rapes, assaults and death threats as a child and teen.
 
No. I don't think I was saying it was. I think I was saying that with enough psychological abuse, it...


I wasn’t even talking to you or referencing something you said. I was making a general comment.

Yeah, my reply stands as written. If emotional abuse becomes part of the DSM ptsd criteria there WILL be people claiming PTSD for crap like getting yelled at because people already claim emotional abuse for getting yelled at.

Can you connect the dots? It’s not really hard to follow, right?
 
Inability to “articulate well what happened” isn’t a required symptom in the DSM for good cause.

I can see that. I would never doubt you or anyone simply because they were able to articulate their trauma well. I guess my frustration lies within those that come on here, say they tripped over a curb and came back up with PTSD, argue that they must have PTSD and why, all because their leg hurts when all along PTSD doesn't define suffering. But, if someone told me they were raped last night and how and what not, or that they have PTSD because they were raped last year, I wouldn't doubt it. So, I supposed it's misplaced frustration.

ETA: I guess I would also add that it is important to stick to the diagnosic criteria and where new studies are leading us and this would be one reason why. Saying one can't have PTSD because they arriculated it well. It sounds rather silly now that I say that again in my head.
 
@lostforgottensoul - yeah, I get what you are getting at.

A couple of thoughts:
But, if someone told me they were raped last night and how and what not, or that they have PTSD because they were raped last year, I wouldn't doubt it.
I would not be sure they had PTSD or not based on only knowing they had been raped.

Rape doesn’t = PTSD.

Rape plus a required number of the specific mental health symptoms in the DSM can be PTSD. That’s overlooked a lot.

There are plenty of people who come here and do this:
I guess my frustration lies within those that come on here, say they tripped over a curb and came back up with PTSD,
And then also say “I have the symptoms of obsession over the stubbed toe (not a symptom of PTSD but could be of another mental health problem)” — they are trying so damn hard to get their pain validated they are skipping over that PTSD is a specific major mental health disorder that requires not just Crtierion A trauma but specific symptoms.. Or they really do have another mental health disorder but don’t know which one yet, and are self diagnosing the wrong disorder.

There are also times where people will bury the lead. They will say they tripped over the curb, got injured, and have PTSD... and they leave out that while down on the ground they were hit by a car. This so happens.

There are times where people will claim “my breakup caused PTSD” and upon asking a few questions it turns out they were severely sexually abused as a child....

My personal opinion and reframe (so I don’t go bonkers myself) of those who claim I stubbed my toe and now I have PTSD more plainly —- they are likely mentally unwell in some other way if a stubbed toe leads to them crying out for attention, “I have a major mental illness because of this stubbed toe now!”

Mentally healthy people don’t do that. Sometimes reframing it as they are really saying something about themselves, not me, reduces the frustration I could otherwise feel about it.
 
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