Believing You Have Ptsd

[sun seeker]

It's John Briere. "If we could somehow end child abuse and neglect, the eight hundred pages of DSM (and the need for the easier explanations such as DSM ) would be shrunk to a pamphlet in two generations.”

That's not the one I was thinking of, which just reinforces my point: now we know of two psychiatrists who said the same thing!

 

[Spiderallis]

What about calling it something else? For a while I had "Previously Things Sucked, Dude" because I had trouble with the "T" word. It was just life when I was living it, I could say that it wasn't good but it was hard to call it trauma.

It could be because of my very low self esteem, that I'm assuming I must be attention seeking because I'm not worth being taken seriously or something like that.

That sentence alone tells me that your pain is very real, and probably pretty deep. It's also fairly common to feel guilt, like wondering if it was somehow our fault that those horrible things happened. Spoiler alert- it wasn't! As you work on building up your self esteem, it'll get easier to see that you're totally worth being taken seriously. Would a bad person care if they were good or not? Some of them don't seem to comprehend that bad isn't their only option, so I don't think they think about it at all. Maybe asking that is how good people find ways to be better.

 

[Deleted member 19804]

@sun seeker the weird thing is, that almost my whole early childhood (up until I was 11 or so) was perfectly healthy. I had friends, safe attachment to my parents, no major problems. Now, I have serious trouble trusting anyone or anything, including my own judgment. If anyone were to classify my attachment style now, it would be in the 'anxious-avoidant' category. Maybe it's because I'm a perfectionist, maybe it's because of my traumas or eating disorder, I don't know. I have serious trouble trusting my environment and even my own judgement.

@Spiderallis thank you very much, I really needed to hear that. You have a good point that bad people wouldn't be concerned about being bad. All they care about is themselves.
Maybe you're right; maybe the roots of my pain go deeper than I thought. It could be that it's grown into being a part of me, messing up my view of the world and myself. I like that explanation, so I'll hold onto that. Thank you!!

 

[Sarah542]

Snowwhite , I don't believe there's a thing as an attention seeker. Some people use attention to get what they need. Perhaos this is what you have done? Attention isn't a bad thing unless its excessive but that's like most things in general too much of as good thing can be a bad thing. Attention isn't bad.
Hun, you are so worth being taken seriously! Try not to put yourself down so much.

 

[katiekat]

I kind of feel like this too-i just started seeing a trauma therapist. On one hand I am internally minimizing events from my past and telling myself that I am overreacting and these traumas were 'normal', but on the other hand I desperately want to ask for help but I am afraid to. I'm not sure why I am afraid to tell her- it's her job to help me. I feel like the only way to ask her is by doing it writing. I feel stupid for feeling scared.