Is It Possible That Ptsd Can Make A Person More Gullible?

[Anna]

I think so too. Especially as Gloria said above. It is like either not trusting to the point of paranoia or being too trusting.... would be nice to find an inbetween.

 

[Airplane789]

Apologies if this has already been stated above ^, but I think that if we experienced out of the ordinary, truly insane trauma, because we experienced the unbelievable, it can be easy for us to become convinced of others' stories. Just as a result of empathy and relating to others. That has been my experience, anyway. I am sure that I am gullible. I don't even fight it anymore. I just embrace it.

Hah.

 

[DontGiveUpOnMe]

I wish I had advice. I am very gullible and apart from being gullible I am very obedient. I tend to act like a child, and if people ask me to do something I do it because im scared of getting in trouble..
Its really annoying, and puts me in positions of revictimization very very often.


you're not alone :(

 

[Whitneys story]

I would not see anything that was right in front of my face!

As I was programed to believe anything I was told and do everything I was told, I can relate. "Protect me fom my friends, I can protect myself from my enemies" This forum is the best! Sad to say no matter how much we are protected here, the forum has no way to check the creeps at the door.
I hope you have reported this to someone. On the outside people might not listen. In here they do. Do not let this creep validate their abusive tendancies with your vulnerability. Be thankful that somehow you saw through it in time. Forgive yourself for being human! No matter where we are there will be wolves in sheeps clothing.

 

[Anna]

People always talk to me like I am an idiot. sometimes playing dumb can play to an advantage..... It is not nice though.

 

[IamMe]

Is it possible that ptsd can cause our ability to discern information and things people tell us, to be kind of dwarfed or affected in some way?

You might be onto something....I often find myself feeling stupid because when someone says something to me my first instinct is to believe it. My friends often tell me I'm gullible or ditsy and it's really frustrating.

I don't know if it is being actually being gullible though. Sometimes I think maybe we are slower to process things? Maybe the PTSD has affected our previously existing filters?

I know for me when someone says something it's really hard for me to process whether or not they are serious because I always feel like if they are serious and I think they are not they will get mad at me or something. I worry that I will upset them if I don't take them seriously, maybe because I always felt so hurt when people didn't take me seriously?

I know we had similar experiences of our moms not taking our emotions and/or needs seriously so maybe on some unconscious level we just take everything seriously so we don't accidentally hurt someone? Don't know if that makes any sense or not but it just came to me while I was typing this.....

So know, I don't think 'gullible' would be the word I'd use but 'vulnerable' sometimes might be.

I agree, I think vulnerable is a much better word! PTSD definitely makes me feel vulnerable all the time.

I wish I had advice. I am very gullible and apart from being gullible I am very obedient. I tend to act like a child, and if people ask me to do something I do it because im scared of getting in trouble..

This post really helped me! There are so many times where I feel like a little girl, like I can't say no when someone asks me to do something, especially when they are a person in authority. I am in student clinic in my coursework right now and I always feel so timid asking a doctor to oversee anything for me. I feel so vulnerable and small. I have this vision of myself as a young girl hiding under a table. I always do what I am told by anyone above me because I am so afraid of, as you said getting into trouble.

This forum is so wonderful. I honestly did not realize there are so many others out there who are capable of understanding!

 

[Gloria]

Apologies if this has already been stated above ^, but I think that if we experienced out of the ordinary, truly insane trauma, because we experienced the unbelievable, it can be easy for us to become convinced of others' stories.

Even now so many years later that I have stuck to my story and will not "forget it" or believe I imagined it so I feel such empathy when others tell me horrible stories. But think about this.. How easy would it be for someone to figure out that they could sympathy for being (for example) raped or sexually abused. That is why it is so hard for people to have credibility in court and in their families, etc. This is a true story, I met a man that said he was terribly abused but couldn't talk about it. I was so nurturing and sympathetic. Well, months later I find out that the "abuse" he couldn't talk about was that his father wouldn't let him listen to his radio and turned up the T.V. when he tried to play his radio. Now if someone can calmly relate to me a little of their history, I can believe them. But at this point I have been burned too many times by people who say "I just talk about it because it's so horrible". Did you know that they did an experiment where they put sane people in a mental ward and the only ones that knew immediately that the people weren't crazy were the mental patients themselves. The doctors and nurses believed them insane. I think only a person who has been traumatized can tell if someone is telling the truth but you can't tell on the forum. You have to watch the person and talk to them in person. Sorry for the long reply but this comes from years in ACOA and 12 step groups.

I'm very glad that you brought up this point.
Hugs,
Gloria

 

[Gloria]

People always talk to me like I am an idiot. sometimes playing dumb can play to an advantage..... It is not nice though.

I used to play the dumb blonde act for most of my early life because I had an extremely high IQ (used to :eek:) and it really intimidates people. I still don't use my extensive vocabulary and keep my mouth shut because my therapist says that I am exactly like Dr. Reid on criminal minds. He's so smart that he's weird. My sons talk and treat me like an idiot and it's causing major fights. People don't like to change their behavior and if you have let them treat you like that, they will continue. But if you are in a capricious playful mood, just quietly refuse to let them treat you like that just for fun and see how p**sed off they get. Just sit and laugh!
Hugs,
Gloria

 

[freakofnurture]

I cannot recognise irony and it infuriates me when people say things they don't really mean, just to get a reaction or to play with me; I feel so taken advantage of and actually unsafe.

I am not gullible in any other way except for this. I have trained myself to use skepticism as my basic way of thinking and by now I'm so used to it that it doesn't need much energy. But in a mostly social context (as opposed to the context of a debate about facts) it's so easy to pull my leg that I'm embarrassed by it.

Is it possible that ptsd can cause our ability to discern information and things people tell us, to be kind of dwarfed or affected in some way?

This could be an explanation. Also, Gloria's suggestion makes a lot of sense; that - maybe unconsciously - you want things to be true so badly that you engage all kinds of self-deluding mechanisms.

With me I think it's a lack of social skills plus the fact that me not getting it is the point of the whole endeavor.

I think I'm just confused basically, on how much to let myself trust and how much to let my cynic take charge?

That you have to be either gullible or a cynic is a false dichotomy. To be skeptical of a story and ask questions about it doesn't mean you are cynically assuming that the person telling it is consciously, maliciously lying to you. They could just be ill informed or retelling a lie that they gullibly accepted as truth or they could be misremembering a detail, mixing up facts or just trying to pull your leg.

I wish I had advice. I am very gullible and apart from being gullible I am very obedient.

Ask questions. 'Why?' is a good start. If a person's request is legitimate, they'll have no problem giving you a satisfactory answer.

 

[Philippa]

You might be onto something....I often find myself feeling stupid because when someone says something to me my first instinct is to believe it. My friends often tell me I'm gullible or ditsy and it's really frustrating.

Yeah, I get the ditsy one too. It just seems to be something my mind immediately does before I get a chance to evaluate what is actually being said to me. I've always been too trusting, and it's something my entire family have ridiculed me for at various times.

They all don't trust anyone, but I always found that really strange, and sad. It's like the idea that I cannot trust anyone is too much for me to take...and even though I know deep down that it's true that most people aren't trustworthy, I still will trust them.

I think it's like someone said, that I delude myself as a coping mechanism. It's really painful for me to not be able to trust people. I need to, and I need to be trusted. It hurts me so much when people don't trust me.

I don't know if it is being actually being gullible though. Sometimes I think maybe we are slower to process things? Maybe the PTSD has affected our previously existing filters?

That sounds possible to me.

I just feel like I'm slow much of the time these days. Stupid stuff just seems to fall out of my mouth at times, even though I know I'm really bright, and, as Gloria said, I used to always play dumb, just because it was simpler.

When I would be my regular self, and say smart stuff, it alienated me from people...and I know that most people don't like smart people, because we make them feel dumb, which they don't like...but I'm tired of playing dumb just so I can fit in with dumb people!

I know for me when someone says something it's really hard for me to process whether or not they are serious because I always feel like if they are serious and I think they are not they will get mad at me or something. I worry that I will upset them if I don't take them seriously, maybe because I always felt so hurt when people didn't take me seriously?

Sometimes I feel like I take them the way they are meaning it, and other times I can't relate to their humor or whether to take them seriously...but I don't so much worry about whether I will make them mad, or upset these days. Probably when I was younger I was like this though.

I know we had similar experiences of our moms not taking our emotions and/or needs seriously so maybe on some unconscious level we just take everything seriously so we don't accidentally hurt someone? Don't know if that makes any sense or not but it just came to me while I was typing this.....

That's really possible. I never considered that...thanks, you've given me stuff to ponder on.

I agree, I think vulnerable is a much better word! PTSD definitely makes me feel vulnerable all the time.

Maybe you're right about that. I definitely do feel like I am vulnerable when it happens and I have people who don't trust anyone tell me that it upsets them to see me so vulnerable...but that's just how I am. I don't necessarily think it's a 'bad' thing to be vulnerable either...but it does open you up to people who like to have fun at your expense, which isn't fun.

This post really helped me! There are so many times where I feel like a little girl, like I can't say no when someone asks me to do something, especially when they are a person in authority.

Yes, I'm like this. Just recently, I was having this issue with the woman I am contracted to work for as a massage therapist. It sometimes feels pathetic that I am 37 and still having trouble saying no to people in authority.

She's 7 years younger than me as well...which I try not to take as humiliating, as I know that age is no factor with people these days, but it does sometimes get to me a bit that I have trouble saying no to someone who is younger than me.

I am in student clinic in my coursework right now and I always feel so timid asking a doctor to oversee anything for me. I feel so vulnerable and small. I have this vision of myself as a young girl hiding under a table. I always do what I am told by anyone above me because I am so afraid of, as you said getting into trouble.

Yeah, the getting in trouble phobia I find a particularly annoying aspect of my programming. Getting in trouble...being naughty...all these things we associate with punishment, and being hurt in some way, or yelled at. Those things are hard-wired into our brains. It still annoys the crap out of me that I am still so affected by it though.

This forum is so wonderful. I honestly did not realize there are so many others out there who are capable of understanding!

It is great, isn't it.:)

 

[Philippa]

I used to play the dumb blonde act for most of my early life because I had an extremely high IQ (used to :eek:) and it really intimidates people. I still don't use my extensive vocabulary and keep my mouth shut because my therapist says that I am exactly like Dr. Reid on criminal minds. He's so smart that he's weird.

Oh yes, this rings a bell. I haven't met another woman who has admitted to doing the same thing before though, so it's kinda re-assuring that I'm not the only one.

 

[Philippa]

I cannot recognise irony and it infuriates me when people say things they don't really mean, just to get a reaction or to play with me; I feel so taken advantage of and actually unsafe.

I hate that too. It's a subtle mocking. I will usually say now "Are you serious?" or "Are you for real?"

I have trained myself to use skepticism as my basic way of thinking and by now I'm so used to it that it doesn't need much energy.

Maybe this is what I need, and I know I am capable of it, but it's usually a knee-jerk reaction of my mind to automatically go "really?" when someone says something, or to believe them straight away, but then later on...like about 10 minutes later I am able to reconsider it and see that it probably isn't feasible or true or likely.

I just hate it when people see this in me and take advantage of it for their own amusement. My father did this to me alot. He was always playing tricks on me to play on my gullibility, and have a good laugh.

But in a mostly social context (as opposed to the context of a debate about facts) it's so easy to pull my leg that I'm embarrassed by it.

Yes, this is how I'm meaning it. I don't usually get so easily tricked during discussions or debates, but in real life interactions socially with people.

This could be an explanation. Also, Gloria's suggestion makes a lot of sense; that - maybe unconsciously - you want things to be true so badly that you engage all kinds of self-deluding mechanisms.

I think so. I think on some level I'd rather put up with the uncomfortable, embarrassment of being called a ditz, just to avoid the pain of not being able to trust that person.

That you have to be either gullible or a cynic is a false dichotomy. To be skeptical of a story and ask questions about it doesn't mean you are cynically assuming that the person telling it is consciously, maliciously lying to you. They could just be ill informed or retelling a lie that they gullibly accepted as truth or they could be misremembering a detail, mixing up facts or just trying to pull your leg.Ask questions. 'Why?' is a good start. If a person's request is legitimate, they'll have no problem giving you a satisfactory answer.

Yes, true. All good things to remember, and grounded in reality. Usually, when I am of sound mind I can consider these factors...but sometimes I don't seem to be able to?