People here don´t know ptsd

[Chem Lady]

Ehhhh......I've had many therapists and doctors who failed to see my ptsd. If you're not textbook...

I agree! I took me two and a half years and many mental health professionals to get properly diagnosed. My mom was sneaky about her abuse and my symptoms only showed up after my husband got cancer. So, even though I clearly had PTSD symptoms, they couldn't recognize it. One day on this website and my commonalities with you all was very clear.

 

[Deleted member 33052]

My symptoms from childhood were blindingly obvious, and I've been under care of mental health professionals for at least a decade, but my ptsd wasn't diagnosed until I melted down a couple of years ago.

I even recall my psychiatrist telling me that I should have ptsd, but didn't.

 

[FragileGlass]

Personally I think the PTSD umbrella is too broad. The end result is similar. However, I believe they need to start breaking the PTSD class into causation. Professional traumas have a hard time relating to personal trauma's such as abuse and sexual assaults. For us uniforms we have encountered many situations of trauma that could or would trigger this entire forum in one way or another. Our traumas are specific encounters or volume of encounters.

The analogy I like to use in discussion for this reasoning, Who has it worse? The driver of a vehicle who makes an error causing death of a loved one or the first responder who has just taken on their 100th motor vehicle accident. Both scenarios are damaging yet years later we'll both be conversing together under an umbrella of PTSD at a loss because neither can relate to the causation.

@Rad

The Netherlands and Canadians have always had a special connection in terms of military service from a historic perspective. Many friends and family have been afforded treatment of royalty for being Canadian and so I thank you for your service and protection of your country! You're not invisible and certainly not crazy for patriotism.

 

[anthony]

I am very tired of the medical profession knowing so little about how PTSD affects my physical health.

You need to accept that the medical profession has little knowledge period about mental health. It is a guessing game at best because the science and technology for understanding the brain is lacking.

 

[anthony]

Who has it worse? The driver of a vehicle who makes an error causing death of a loved one or the first responder who has just taken on their 100th motor vehicle accident.

You're personalising PTSD diagnosis. Worse is not subjective to how much trauma you've been around, its subjective to an individual level based on environmental and social factors for the persons entire lifetime. In other words... PTSD will be based on a persons entire life of learning, exposure, behaviour, so forth.

Not who has been exposed to more trauma. You can have three police officers all exposed to the same events, one gets mild PTSD from a specific event they take personally, recovers, and continues policing with no further issues; the second has no issue with all the trauma and regularly talks about what they feel; the third uses alcohol to help curb their feelings for exposure to trauma, yet does not obtain PTSD.

The three exposure outcomes occur because each person had a unique life experience from birth. Parents, influence, experiences during school, friendships, sports, hobbies, social interactions, onwards.

 

[Chem Lady]

I think we should be very careful on this site about talking about who has it worse. We've all experienced a trauma bad enough to give us PTSD. There's no point in talking about who has it worse. We all have it pretty bad. We don't need to find things to divide us. We're all struggling and we're all here for support. Yes, we may have different symptoms in common due to similarities in trauma, but arguing over who's trauma is worse helps no one and possibly adds more to the plate of others.

 

[Sandstone]

Returning to the initial point, I'd hate to think my PTSD could be identified by an outsider. I work hard at making it non-apparent, because I want to maintain my privacy and because I don't to put a burden on someone else. The people who love me know I struggle, and support me in the ways they understand. For the rest I only expect them to understand what I tell them, and I have a formula for that. It has always resulted in support - perhaps I'm lucky in the people I encounter.

 

[Deleted member 33052]

For us uniforms we have encountered many situations of trauma that could or would trigger this entire forum in one way or another. Our traumas are specific encounters or volume of encounters.

I find your assumption naïve and arrogant. You don't know the nature of our traumas. You don't know anything about us, yet you make assumptions about our triggers. I can tell you with confidence that one need not see combat to know how it feels to fight for one's life.

Funny thing is...only those that have it can recognize it in others. If you do not have it you cannot see it, because you have no idea what to look for.

I agree with you. Not in the sense that we can see some sort of ptsd aura around a stranger, but sometimes you'll meet someone who speaks your language, and just like that, you know.

 

[EveHarrington]

It is not well understood. I am very tired of the medical profession knowing so little about how PTSD...

Kind of crazy......well, considering that stress on the body is the number one killer.....or so I was taught in my bio classes. Stress can cause pretty much every malady under the sun. It's a shame how our medical system approaches it from a "fix the bad" standpoint instead of a "keep the good" aka do whatever you can to stay healthy standpoint. If it was about staying healthy, they'd all be advocating staying healthy and reducing stress, and no doctor would ever question how devastating a stress disorder can be on the body.

 

[EveHarrington]

Personally I think the PTSD umbrella is too broad. The end result is similar. However, I believe t...

Let's break cancer down into causation, too.

(Kidding)

Causation doesn't matter if different causes result in the same disorder.

I can't relate to a lot of combat peeps but that doesn't mean we don't have the same disorder.

What it means is that I find people I can relate to who have the same symptoms or same trauma (CSA).

 

[Cyberluddite]

Explaining PTSD to someone who doesn't have PTSD is like trying to describe the color "green" to a person who's been blind since birth. Sometimes we can get pretty close, like laughing off our fogs and brain farts as "the squirrels were at a rave". It's not unheard of for some folks to have PTSD but never show the symptoms, that's one of the possible affects. It is what it is. But what it is, changes from person to person.

People tend to go by what's visibly discernible, and PTSD is like any regular non-PTSD mental illness (bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, dementia, etc.) -- it's invisible to the outside world. You can't see it, smell it, hear it, touch it, taste it, it has no color or sound or shape. You can't wear it, you can't surgically remove it, you can't pop a pill, people can't see you have it because you ARE it.

The bench scene monologue of Men in Black absolutely nails it: "A person is smart. People are dumb."

Let that sink in for a moment. A person with PTSD is smart than 80 percent of the people he or she will ever meet, including those with more education. How does a god relate to mortals?

Correction: "A person with PTSD is smarter than 80 percent of the people he or she will ever meet, including those with more education."

Darn squirrels! :)

 

[FragileGlass]

Unfortunately my post was taken the wrong way for which I apologize. It was not meant to divide, minimize or personalize traumas in who actually has it worse, my question was rhetorical as both experiences would be very damaging it's how the trauma affects in either scenario that is radically different. In terms of support group for PTSD sufferers I find we have an awkward time in discussion because of relatabilty to what caused it. Thats what I meant by the umbrella of PTSD being too broad in terms of longer term support. We all suffer with relatable symptoms but our path there makes all the difference. Which is why PTSD is so confusing and damaging to navigate through.

@Mal Content - it's not arrogant to be cautious of what emergency personnel say in support groups because our issues stem from being present during varied traumatic events of individuals. What I'm trying to convey is that the stories I read in this forum have all come through my ER in one form or another. While they are not my personal trauma, they sure do leave an impression. Therefore I am always careful of discussing work related issues because I'm dealing with volume of patients and an impersonal attachment to their struggles and if I describe those events I could very well trigger someone on a deeper personal level. That always worries me.