How to correct people using ptsd as a punchline?

[jennax]

So I am currently a college student suffering with PTSD due to a past major trauma. This is quite a new diagnosis for me so I am still figuring out how to handle it and control my symptoms.

However, it has recently become a new trend on social media to joke about it, posting that college is giving you PTSD or a certain class is giving you PTSD. While this may be true for a small number of students, it's obvious that it's just a joke to talk about how difficult a semester was. This isn't just a social media issue, however, as there are people in my life that casually joke about it.

I was wondering if I should correct them? It makes me a little upset when I see comments like that just because they don't understand the true horror of living with PTSD. If I should correct them, how do I do it in a way where I don't seem rude? Should I just leave it alone and wait until the trend passes?

Thanks,
Jenna

 

[ladee]

The first thing that came to mind after reading your post, is how about educating them, instead of correcting them... we are going into the year 2018, and the ignorance about PTSD is still here.... and you may also need to grow a little thicker skin, and learn to not take it personal...
There are still people who believe the Holocaust didn't happen.... so we can't change the world view....
You have enough personal work to do on yourself , without taking on the ignorance of a trend or fad....
Not trying to diminish your concerns..... but in the bigger picture of what is ahead for you, this is a non issue...

 

[Mach123]

No, forget it. It is a cultural thing now. I remember thinking, "I finally figured out what was wrong with me and it's become a national joke." I don't tell anyone and I was embarrassed for a while but not now. I wish someone would ask me, I almost fantasize about it a little? Do you really want me to tell you? So what am I saying, what happened to me was so terrible? Like I'm the worst one? No. I'm just saying, it is what it is. Don't expect people to understand, or come over to your way of thinking. There are people and situations you have to avoid and comments and 'slights' you have to overlook. People are in general too sensitive now anyway. I prefer not to be a public cause? I don't want to be the next protected class. (even though I am sort of) Nobody really wants to talk about CSA or whatever "it" was. You can get involved to make a difference. Trying to out yourself in public is just inviting attention maybe you don't want. : )

I care for special needs people in my family. People say 'retard.' I don't mean as an attack or directed at anyone in particular. It's just a part of the common speech (common being the operative word) We all said it growing up where I did. What, should I lecture people? No. Everyone wants to do that now. It's absurd.

 

[Scarlet13]

Well if we don't do anything about it then the mental illness stigma remains.
Just like every other stigma that remains that never gets spoken about.
Maybe it does not work in the moment to out your PTSD, but there has to be away to speak out about it, especially through social media.

People do this joking all the time with mental diagnosis.
OCD is one I hear a lot.
I think even doing a little thing, like sharing an article on facebook about living with PTSD, doing something that gives you a voice is better than just shrugging your shoulders and thinking you cannot do anything.

The thing about these comments, though they are thoughtless, innocent comments, is that they are invalidating of the suffering of PTSD.

 

[Friday]

Can you think of a way to correct people who joke about canibals that the victims of cannibalism don't find their jokes funny without being rude? Or that someone who devotes 8 years and hundreds of thousands of dollars in debt in order help people (lawyers) -or the victims of car accidents and drowning- don't find jokes about a bus full of lawyers going off a cliff into the sea being "a good start" funny, and be taken seriously?

1. If you can? You should really consider a career in diplomacy. Because you've got the gift of telling people to go to hell & having them look forward to the trip.

2. If you can't? Don't stress it. Most people couldn't.

3. Jokes are one way people process the unthinkably terrible, the terrifying, and the grevious. If people aren't joking about something ? In the overall scheme of things, it's really not that important. <<< That doesn't mean it's in good taste. Often, just the opposite. And it doesn't mean the individual making the joke gives a shit about the content. But that it's a joking matter at all, mean that a great many people care deeply about it. Drunkenness, incest, murder, cannibalism, a thousand flavors of death, imprisonment, lost wishes, love, loss, fear, change, getting older, bereavement, brain damage, betrayal... these and so many others. People care about them. So they make the best jokes.

 

[Rani G2]

Jokes are one way people process the unthinkably terrible,

An Aha Effekt while reading this...

 

[scout86]

Can you think of a way to correct people who joke about canibals that the victims of cannibalism don't find their jokes funny without being rude?

I like this! I'm considering something like, "Ok, so, if your sister was eaten by cannibals, would you find jokes about cannibalism funny?" And then going with an educational effort from there. If you start with a line like that your listener will be so befuddled that you may be able to make your point before they get a chance to put their defenses up. (It WOULD be a problem in a case where their sister actually WAS eaten by cannibals.)

 

[jennax]

Okay! So these responses are all very different from one another. While I do remind myself not to take these jokes personally, I still feel a sense of uncomfortableness at the stigma surrounding PTSD.

I figure that I’m just going to take it on a case-by-case basis. If it’s someone I’m close with, and feel comfortable sharing my thoughts with, then I’ll try to have an open discussion about it

 

[EveHarrington]

Given that you’re still in the throes of PTSD, I’d just try to laugh it off. I mean I’m sure you’ve got enough to battle given that you’re in college and you’re dealing with a disorder that sucks away every last ounce of energy. I say wait until you’re on the other side before you try to change the world.....or even a few minds. ;-) Yanno, when you have a few ounces of energy to spare?

 

[Lost Marbles]

I would try and educate them about PTSD. I would start by asking them what they know about PTSD and what causes it. Here I've included a link to a post where I did a similar thing with some co-workers and the topic of suicide.
The stigma of mental illness

 

[Anarchy]

All jokes aside, almost everyone is know who's ever done a college degree, has experienced waking up from nightmares about not being ready for exams, or late with the submissionof their dissertation, or even worse, that damned Microsoft office paperclip effing the whole thing up... sometimes years afterwards.

It may be that they all already had ptsd from other things before that, but it still makes me wonder.

I think Friday's spot on about the jokes that we laugh hardest at, even when we don't want to be laughing, are about the most grizzly, the most non pc, and the most cringe worthy embarrassing things.

Laughing helps us deal with that crap.

If someone is being particularly pathetic with claiming that they've been traumatised by a difficult essay, you can always offer to put up some stripey tape around them that says "safe space - do not enter" (I stole that from southpark series 19).

________________________
Side note on genocide
The Turkish state outlaws mention of the 1914-1918 genocide of Armenians, along with mention of the improntu slave markets held along the forced marches, selling off Armenian women girls and boys as sext slaves.

The present day Russian and Chinese regimes are still very touchy about any mention of the genocides and democides carried out by the Soviet and mao-ist regimes. Totalling about 48 million and about 76 million murders respectively.
Our approved media are also virtually silent on these and most of the other events of the twentieth century, totalling at least over 220 million people murdered by governments outside of war.

Not trying to diminish the national socialist German workers party and its genocide. Just saying that there are more big ones out there, that in many places it is illegal to mention.

 

[Freida]

making people stop joking about inappropriate things....yea. Give it up. It's a coping mechanism people have. If they can laugh about it, they can pretend it's not a big deal, because "normal" humans can't accept the idea that something so horrible to cause PTSD can happen in the world. Plus, if they make fun of it they can believe it can't happen to them. I did a lot of years in emergency services and we had so many jokes and laughs about what happened to people it was astounding. But it was the only way to cope and go on to the next call. The hardest thing for rookies was learning not to make jokes outside the building - because we knew it wouldn't be accepted there. if someone made some kind of comment about "you need to educate yourself on the issue' it wouldn't not have been met as anything other than an obnoxious PSA.

That doesn't mean that you can't help people understand that there is a human cost to PTSD. NAMI does an excellent presentation for the public on life with different mental illnesses, and while there is still a stigma it's not as bad as it once was. Your heart is in the right place, but I think working on yourself first, and then going out and working with the public, would be the safest way to change the world.