News Article claiming divorce caused ptsd

[joeylittle]

It's very often caught up in complex PTSD and in reality is exceptionally rare for a child to only experience emotional abuse - I don't think I've ever come across someone who didn't experience it as part of a landscape of other abuses, so it's an academic argument really.

Exactly this - if one were to find a situation where the only form of abuse were emotional abuse...I think there's not nearly enough clarity around use of term to call it an event of it's own. But it makes sense, as a concept, as part of a spectrum of other abuses. I'd still probably say, especially for a child, that relational neglect and verbal cruelty would be forms of emotional abuse, and it'd be better to be more specific than not.

That's why, in a generalization and in layperson application, I believe it's better to not talk about emotional abuse as if it has traits that are known, understood, agreed upon.

 

[Sideways]

Is harassment a better term for emotional abuse?

I think the answer to this is probably (unhelpfully) yes and no.

Harrassment has the benefit of tending to be better defined, insofaras one can always look up the law in their local area and find a specific definition. So, yes.

But still no, because harrassment as an offence changes from jurisdiction to jurisdiction (which is a mild problem) and things that can be called ‘emotional abuse’ could sometimes be very different from what the law may have in mind (bigger problem).

Talking purely from personal opinion here. But I think the core of “harassment” is the “unwantedness” of the behaviour. Like “I didn’t want his sexual advances”. We tend not to ask whether ‘abuse’ was ‘wanted’ in the moment, for a host of different reasons.

 

[Suzetig]

I guess I think of emotional abuse in terms of child abuse and thought it would be easier to define it and then started to try... I know it when I see it/hear about it but defining it isn't straightforward at all.

 

[lostforgottensoul]

What people even consider ‘bullying’ seems to be in a constant state of flux.

In my experience of talking about my experiences in school, it would seem that most define anything done from, at least, one child to another in a school setting, as bullying. What was done was most certianly physical and sexual assult and "emotional abuse" (or however you want to term emotional parts of it) but it seems that everyone that I have spoken to both in person and online want to call that bullying. I don't like that blanketed term personaly as it also seems to minimize. "Kids will be kids." "Bullying happens to most kids." "I was bullied too" [insert teasing] When no, I was literally assualted.

I guess a lot of how I feel about it and my emotions around it is my own minimizing as well. Or maybe my want to no longer minimize it. But I have always struggled with how to talk to people about it. If I say I was assulted sexually and physically by other kids I get corrected and advised that it's bullying. If I say I was bullied I get dismissed. So, it is a catch 22. In my experience.

 

[EveHarrington]

David Pelzner.
Robin Williams.
Christina Crawford.

They come to mind, for emotional abuse and neg...

I’m pretty sure Christina Crawford was actually beaten with wire hangers, so no dice on it being just emotional abuse that caused her ptsd.

 

[lostforgottensoul]

Robin Williams.

They come to mind, for emotional abuse and neglect survivors with PTSD.

Since when was Robin William diagnosed with PTSD? I see a lot of trying to diagnose after his death but nothing before. Trauma doesn't always equate to PTSD. He had childhood trauma. I do agree there. But not the PTSD part of it. Can't find any evidence before his death. Maybe I didn't dig enough and yes, I could be completely wrong.

 

[shimmerz]

Verbal cruelty, verbal harassment, manipulation, neglect

Gaslighting....

Having been in a domestic situation(s) where emotional abuse was a standard, I am going to say that emotional abuse (can also be called psychological abuse) does exist. It is incidious, measured, and is not something that one can always see, especially the victim. Women's counselors have a very difficult time counseling their clients when they aren't being smashed up against a wall but rather are dealing with this kind of 'slow boil' abusive behaviour.
From Psychology Today (link to full article below)
Emotional abuse is an attempt to control, in just the same way that physical abuse is an attempt to control another person. The only difference is that the emotional abuser does not use physical hitting, kicking, pinching, grabbing, pushing or other physical forms of harm. Rather the perpetrator of emotional abuse uses emotion as his/her weapon of choice.

When is it Emotional Abuse?

I recognize that many believe that physical abuse only can lead to PTSD. I disagree, certainly after having lived through what I have. Physical wounds can heal (mostly), but psychological abuse - in my opinion - is a soul crusher. Through my experience, it is much more difficult to put the soul back together again than to have bones mend.

I believe one day that the PTSD criterion will include emotional abuse. I think that we as a society really don't value people's psychological constitutions and feel as if we actually should. It is rare, if you read one's diaries on this site that people dwell on the pain of when they were beaten. No. Not so much. What I see is that most fall to the humiliation, shame, self loathing that is installed into the victim's psyche. That that is what becomes the lasting damage after the physical abuse. But that's just me.

 

[Sideways]

Through my experience, it is much more difficult to put the soul back together again than to have bones mend.

I agree that the psychological component of my abuse (and this is pure personal experience) definitely caused more damage.

But I don’t see things quite the same way as to what may or may not be included as ptsd one day. The science seems to be growing, rather than shrinking, as to the role of amygdala-triggered traumatic experience in the development of ptsd specifically.

Criteria A isn’t about subjective assessment of “how awful has your experience been”, but “what type” of experience it was, in order to understand the way the brain responded.

I agree that psychological trauma isn’t taken as seriously. But I think that’s more to do with stigma and lack of education about the number and nature of other mental health conditions that trauma can cause. There’s a lot of them, and they can pretty awful, and similar to ptsd in a lot of respects.

If there had not been a sexual or physical component to any of the traumas I had suffered, would I have developed much the same current distress and dysfunction that I currently suffer? I don’t doubt it.

Would I have developed ptsd specifically without those physical and sexual components? The science seems to say no. The science would seem to indicate that my psychological abuse, standing alone, could easily give rise to serious mental illness, but it would be something other than ptsd. It seems to me that people often interpret that “something other than ptsd” as something less serious, or less debilitating, or involving less suffering. Not so.

Ptsd isn’t a question of: did what the person went through do enough damage? Or, was it awful enough?

Psychological trauma resulting in something “other than” ptsd, is not a statement about how traumatic their experience has been, or how serious their mental illness is. Deciding that “it’s awful enough to warrant a ptsd diagnosis” is a judgement which seems to me to minimise other forms of mental illness, rather than reflect any objective assessment of the nature of what is happening to their mental health.

 

[shimmerz]

as to the role of amygdala-triggered traumatic experience in the development of ptsd specifically.

Pretty certain my amygdala was hijacked all through my DV issues. Nobody laid a hand on me - but I absolutely knew my life was in danger. I also had a crazy infant/toddler past that I didn't know about at the time, where perhaps I had been physically (no, sorry, I was) abused. So maybe the two events were inter weaved to include what my brain thought would be physical.

At the end of the day though, I have to tell you, it isn't physical damage that took me down. It was psychological. Psychological warfare. So not really arguing about this. I really don't know. I just have an inkling that psychological stuff will one day be proven to be PTSD worthy. Just an opinion.

 

[lostforgottensoul]

I just have an inkling that psychological stuff will one day be proven to be PTSD worthy.

Just a question. Why does it need to be "PTSD worthy"? PTSD doesn't define suffering and many without PTSD can and do suffer worse then those with PTSD. They are only suffering with different symptoms but suffering nonetheless. PTSD is only a name given for a set of symptoms.

 

[shimmerz]

Why does it need to be "PTSD worthy"?

Because for myself, the symptoms matched PTSD. Flashbacks, severe dissociation, etc. etc. etc. If my T-doc had not picked up on the fact that I was part of the foster care system and dug a little more deeply, I am not certain he would have been able to assign the diagnosis he did. It would have sucked had I not fit DSM and therefore had no real 'label' to work with. Once I found out it was treatable then it gave me a direction as to how to heal. There's lots more to it but I don't want to write a novel worthy post.

 

[lostforgottensoul]

Because for myself, the symptoms matched PTSD. Flashbacks, severe dissociation, etc. etc. etc.

But you have more then emotional abuse only in your past and it is impossible to know if the symptoms would be the same with emotional only as your trauma. Maybe look at it this way. PTSD doesn't mean more severe and not PTSD doesn't mean less severe. You could of had another label to work with. There are a ton of mental disorders you could of had with emotional only trauma. Or, you could have gone through therapy and been able to work it out without a dignosis. But my point is PTSD and other disorders are only different. Not more severe or less severe but different. Yes, there is more and less suffering but suffering is suffering no matter the dignosis or disorder. Or lack there of. I am wondering if it will help to see PTSD not more severe and other disorders less severe but rather just different. Different symptoms. Different therapies. But the same amount of pain and suffering potionally.