Casual Use Of Term Ptsd

[stormy]

@Joan, Hi I hear ya, for people that may not suffer PTSD and just say it, well.... I'm not sure it's malicious? Its probably just ignorance. I have ptsd, however, I do not share this with anyone but my best friend and husband...and neither of them are educated on what this really means, nor do I expect them to be. I pretty much try to manage on my own, and when really bad, I pull extra support from my therapist..So, maybe what Im trying to say is, I suffer, and bad at times, but my family does not know...So, maybe, your brother may be diagnosed and just hasnt told you? Even though my family members have been through so much...we maintain "perfect",and this grows on me..letting go, etc, but that is another story... I personally, love my family more than anything,however, I pretend all is well.nobody knows how i suffer..I was in a partial hospital/intensive outpatient and was on disability even though i live next door to my mom who i am very close to,but she and no-one else in my family knows w what i have gone. Throughthrough,well,atleast in my adult years....
I'm sorry for the babble,but, on a side note,maybe he does have a problem,and is just starting to share some experiences,maybe he too has ptsd????

 

[sun seeker]

I haven't noticed that, but in a similar vein, it really disturbs me when people talk about depression in the same light way. It's so invalidating to those of us who are crippled by it when a passing low mood that can be relieved by a brisk walk and a chocolate bar is called by the same name.

 

[Friday]

I was mostly asymptotic for a decade / was one of the really annoying people out there who "had" PTSD. Past tense. Back when. Smile. Wave. Laugh. Change the topic.

I was very very rarely challenged on my assertion. It usually only came up as a topic of conversation at parties, and it was usually some "the horrors of" (dun dun duhhhhh). I'm actually fairly restrained online. IRL I have a bit of a tendency towards mouthing off / sticking my oar in. (Terrifying thought, what? :sneaky: ) Some group of professors & frat students want to talk about the psycho people wih PTSD? :D Oh! I had that! Wave. Bat eyelashes. Raise glass. (What??? But... You're so normal... Don't have 2 heads... Whatever)... Or some mommy-play-group, or Boyscout function, or sporting event, or, or, or. And here's Friday challenging the drooling Thorazine shuffle / knife between your teeth Hollywood stereotype as I'm racing around with the kids, or buttering bread, or doing a little butt-dance in the bleachers, or whatever (okay, that one makes me look nuts). But it was the collective jaw drop of people who knew me, tolerably well... Versus their idea of the life-is-ruined PTSD diagnosis from the media. Ahhhh..... I <3 cognitive dissonance.

I kept things very light & fluffy 99% of the time. Like I said, I was rarely challenged. And, honestly, I really knew squat about PTSD. No treatment, I just kinda winged it (along with everyone else). So I treated it like ADHD. People have all kinda notions about both. And I loathe skeered-snobbery. Yah wanna talk about the freaks? Welcome to my parade. Oh. Wait. You're here too. And. We're. Both. People. In theory, normal people. I know. Your brain is melting. Am I doing carpool this week or you? Yeah. People can have PTSD and go on to live a life and be your friend. Shocker.

I was generally challenged by cops and vets (in attendance at the parties, play dates, etc.). At which point I dialed it down and talked nuts and bolts as I knew them. No science for miles, just practical stuff as I knew it. Which was how to chip away at the things that bug you (exposure therapy & dares, come to find), and put to use the things that are useful (hypervig is freaking irreplaceable for keeping track of kids, for example). I also borrowed really freely from other disorders: Emotional monitoring & regulation & impulse control via ADHD protocols, Sensory Processing Disorder stuff for stressors, etc.

I feel guilty, now, for that stuff. Although, logically, if I hadn't said anything it woulda just been the stereotypes flying around... So I maybe helped more than I hurt. Shrug. Dunno. But looking back, I'm sure there were a lot of people who thought I was just talking out my ass after breaking a nail or something. Smile! Wave!

 

[Wounded Scribe]

Great Thread, thanks, I feel it minimizes, and clouds the discussion. The way the term is used, everyone experiences PTSD. When no, they don't. The definition, experiencing an event outside of the realm of normal human experience. But, I encounter so many people in my travels who say they have "touch" of PTSD. There are times I wish had a touch of PTSD. You know, kind of like if PTSD were a swimming pool, I would have my toe dipped in the water, and not in over my head with it kind of PTSD. I'd like to warn others, "Don't come in, the water is terrible!!!!"

 

[Kefira]

I get really irritated with this as well. And I have the problem of being really fairly open about my diagnosis and my trauma in order to screen my friendships and to educate others. Which probably means I get a lot of the 'people who wish they had ptsd so their trauma was validated' sharing their story about how their boyfriend dumped them and it's ruined their life or whatever. Makes me want to scream.

I also work really hard to be functioning, but it's taken a lot of loss (home, 3 partners, innumerable friends, school, jobs) and a lot of active reorganization of my life, social circles, etc to find something that's not overreaching or incompatible with my condition. It's an on going process. But it means I also get the flipside of this, where people (probably because of the trendiness of the diagnosis and its overuse) challenge whether I have ptsd. Since I keep all of my tics and insanity covered and private as much as I can, without running them down the list of "the 10 totally crazy things I can easily think of that I'm completely ashamed I did last week" it's hard to answer that and is very invalidating.

 

[Lucycat]

Yes, and I also get irritated by the 'I'm feeling suicidal' complaints by people who have no idea just how distressing that feels.

 

[TonyG]

For me loosing my brother in 2000, my Father In 2010 and my Mother in 2012 are bad memories, 2013 a tree fell on my wife and almost killed her and all of these were very difficult times in my life but not what wakes me up at night in shear terror, A traumatic horrific event that happened 30 years ago that still haunts me today is what caused my PTSD, You don't just have it once and get over it, I would love it if there was a pill that made people feel like I do for one day and then they could say they had PTSD once and they would never want it again.