Ptsd From Social Media

[Sandi79]

If she's faking it, she's got some serious issues. That's just plain wrong and sickens me

 

[BloomInWinter]

I think judging and namecalling of strangers, especially by their real name, is victim-blaming, bullying, and wholly unsupportive.

What if this individual came to this forum for support? What if this topic was about us and our traumas, and the comments above were about us, only using our real names.

Gossip is character assassination. Verbally beating strangers up is not a game, nor a sport. Just offensive and cruel.

I choose to believe victims unless there is ample evidence otherwise. The alternative is to join the ranks of bullies. Some of the posts in this thread turn my stomach.

Who wants to offer themselves up for a turn while the rest of us pick apart your trauma, your storytelling, your posts, and rant about what we've made up in our heads about you?

So much for "support." :mad:

 

[Sandi79]

Honestly, I just had never heard of social media causing this, I posted it only to find more information on it, not to bully anyone. If I knew how to delete it, I would.

 

[anthony]

The person has issues for self-diagnosing to begin with, then claiming they have PTSD for something that doesn't even fit criterion A... which basically means the person is just using a term they don't understand. I wouldn't pay any attention to such nonsense to be perfectly honest.

Saying that... there could be past trauma that does meet criterion A, and they do have symptoms of, or have PTSD, but they're simply focused on believing it is within their present, and not their past.

You have to know the details to make any informed decision. PTSD from social media though? No... PTSD from feeling your life is in danger due to real threats and even life engaging threats of the personal nature due to social media? Yes.

It wouldn't be the first time a person is confused about what PTSD is, or what caused it.

 

[Sandi79]

Thank you Anthony. I understand much better now :-)

 

[Echo]

To be fair to this person, she says on her Twitter feed that she was diagnosed by a very good psychiatrist. It is really not for us to judge why he/she came to that conclusion as a psychiatrist.

My late onset PTSD was triggered by my involvement in campaigning (not on social media) and the associated feelings it brought up. Were I in her position, I don't think I would particularly want to broadcast my original traumas to the world, thus making myself more vulnerable. I have read very little of her Twitter feed - I've never heard of her either, so don't know her story. Perhaps she doesn't understand the origin of her PTSD yet - maybe her original abuse is not apparent to her yet in detail. Perhaps she is not very good at explaining on Twitter. Who knows? One thing is for sure though; she knows more about her own condition than we do.

 

[anthony]

If she has been diagnosed by a shrink, then I would highly suspect she has PTSD. It just isn't for what she is claiming, but more abuse through social media, from the sounds of things. I'm sure the shrink would have told the person this... but people can claim all sorts of things for attention.

 

[Deleted member 1860]

Well can you blame vets for being mad? She has posted multiple times that she has suffered as much as vets. At the very least she's insensitive and can't see why this would bother people. I think she does play the victim based on her own tweets. She plays the woe is me card, and accuses others of harassing her when it's just negative banter. I'm not sure why we all have to support someone just because they've been diagnosed with PTSD. It's like saying "I'm blonde so I have to support all blondes no matter how ridiculous their behavior". Uhm, no, not going to happen. If you do stupid stuff on social media, expect to be called out for it. That's just the nature of things.

 

[Echo]

It is confusing with late onset PTSD. You think you've managed your assault and the associated feelings for many years and then something triggers you into full-blown, out-there PTSD. I knew why I'd got it immediately (and what it very likely was), though I had no idea of the abuse I'd suffered as a child at that stage. I did though remember I'd been raped as an adult. It is such a sudden shift.

Maybe - I don't know - she is referring to the thing that was the current catalyst as the cause, rather than the original abuse. Or maybe she just wants to get across to the online abusers what their vile, unacceptable behaviour does to people. Two well-known, UK-based campaigners, also not known to me personally, ended up with "life-changing psychological conditions" according to court reports written when some of their abusers were taken to court and found guilty of threatening to cause their deaths in a variety of ways (mutilation of genitals and rape, bomb threats, etc.). The police and courts took it very seriously.

 

[anthony]

I would agree with everything you said, except...

If you do stupid stuff on social media, expect to be called out for it. That's just the nature of things.

If you receive death threats, actual stalking or such behaviour in person, due to what you post online... sorry, that goes beyond being called out or such. That is threat to life.

Yes, such things aren't close to combat, and I agree the person wants attention, especially if citing they're suffering from such threats is equal to combat. Trauma is subjective and can be graded clearly IMHO. As a combat veteran, from my perspective, I would grade only two things higher than combat trauma, being longevity childhood abuse and longevity torture. I would not grade either of those in one off / a few events, higher than combat trauma. Threats through social media, even in person, I would put way down the list of traumatic events in the scale of shit that could happen to a person.

 

[anthony]

Maybe - I don't know - she is referring to the thing that was the current catalyst as the cause, rather than the original abuse.

Exactly... a lot of people confuse their diagnosis in this context. It is easy to do, to be perfectly honest. I did it with my own traumatic history... the current issues when I fell to shit versus what was really bothering me and what "actually" gave me PTSD.

 

[Sandi79]

She did say that her trauma was the same as combat.

From the articles I found, she was not threatened. They only reposted her tweets and called her names (thus causing her ptsd according to her)