Other Cptsd from the internet; am i a cyberstalker

[Deleted member 46752]

I'm not saying cyberterrorism isn't bad.
It's part of my experience, too, and I really don't think seei...

What was your experience? There could be the enmeshment factor along with the doxxing component coupled with hard threats

 

[Swift]

Cyber stalking and actual stalking by the sadistic paedophile and her friends that abused me as a kid. Culminating in a home invasion.

Also, I ran a gay bar's website as a female graphic designer, so you can imagine the sorts of charming threats I got. I have a folder labelled "Intelligent Criticism" with the worst. Largely rape and death threats, quite specific and detailed about the ways in which they were going to rape and kill me, with pictures of my house....
And it didn't give me CPTSD, but the abuse did.

 

[Swift]

It's not that I don't think you can get CPTSD from the internet.

It's that I don't think what happened in this instance was "complex trauma", regardless of whether it happened IRL or online, which is prolonged, inescapable abuse by someone in a position of power over you, therefore, it doesn't fit the diagnosis of CPTSD.

If my back hurts, I may have twisted or sprained it rather than fractured my spine. And people in wheelchairs because they've fractured their spines would have every right to be pissed at me for saying I have a fractured spine, when I don't, when they're out in the world fighting to be taken seriously. If I get treatment for a fractured spine, it isn't going to fix my problems.

 

[Muttly]

I am struggling to understand what you are saying. You are assuming knowledge, that I at least, don't have. I have know idea what NAMBLA or "4chan "pol"" means. I didn't know what doxxed meant but did google that term. You mention these terms as if they prove how terrifying your experience was. Perhaps I am especially ignorant but those words mean nothing to me. You talk about him being a manifestation of your biggest fears without saying what those fears were.

What if we set aside the conversation of whether your experience caused you CPTSD? what if you described more, what your experience was? Why weren't you able to disengage from him? What threats did you feel? I mean, you talk about being doxxed, but that still is wide open for interpretation. Did you feel you were being blackmailed? Did you feel information would be released that could lead you to be in physical danger? If we understood your experience better, and why it was troubling to you, we might be better able to respond in ways that would be helpful to you.

 

[EveHarrington]

I am struggling to understand what you are saying. You are assuming knowledge, that I at least, don't ha...

NAMBLA

North American man boy love association

4 chan

:hilarious:

This website is so fcking notorious that you know what you’re walking into when you go there.

If anything you have shit for parents because they weren’t monitoring your underage internet activity, and as such, as a child, you actually believed that these people could hurt you.

 

[Skywatcher]

I am sorry for your pain. My T has taught me to change some of my behaviors that were causing me more harm than good. For example, I need to stay away from #Metoo’s and the news. I had to back out of an internet “support” group because the people were too reactive. Sometimes the pull is strong and hard to fight, but after you practice for awhile, you realize your life is better. Pulling away from your internet horror experience was very brave of you and hopefully you will have the strength to stay away. What starts as curiosity can be like falling into a rabbit hole. I wish you the best in your healing. If you want to research brain changes in people who obsess online, more power to you! Even add your thesis that it can cause ptsd... who knows! I certainly don’t. More power to your curiosity and healing.

 

[Abstract]

I think certain things are happening for you on the site which arent working for you right now and I can see many people wanting to help you through this, Wanting this to work for you and you to get the right help.

Certain things don't cause PTSD and definitely not Complex PTSd and aren't clinical trauma so if you start off with statements that imply these then your threads or posts are always going to get derailed and you are going to offend some people. Same goes for calling things something they are not. For example if you say a cult then only do so if it really was a proper cult as there are some people on here who have had extreme related experiences.

I don't know what the nature of your experiences were with the subject of this thread for you so wont comment. What I will say is that a/ diagnoses are only important in that they can get us more appropriate help. If we treat things the wrong way then it can make things worse for us not better. b/ trauma can be confusing and sometimes how it first comes up can be extremely confusing. It certainly was for me. Not at all straight forward. I think it is fairly straight forward for some though. Again I am not saying this is the case for you but sometimes stressful situations (stressors) (which is what you seem to be describing here) can bring out previous trauma and it can be that stressor that we fixate on rather than the real cause. Trouble is, if it is PTSD and there has been proper clinical traumatisation that has occurred, we will never get better by focusing on the stressor. The stressor is not the trauma.

There are a few possibilities when it comes to what is happening for you and that's something to think about. Either you have been traumatised in a clinical sense by past traumatic situations like the sexual assaults (or unknown other stuff) and you have become fixated on this stressor; or you are rather suffering with something like an adjustment disorder or OCD or something else, or there is a whole huge lot about this situation that we somehow cannot imagine and which involves direct real threat to your safety.

My advice is to let some of the people here help you to try to get a little more clarity (Joey was asking you some good questions on your other thread) and rather start talking about specifics that you need help for and leave the statements about causes or possible PTSD etc out. The questions about your biggest fears that you mention on here are also a good one to look at. I'm not exactly sure what the situation was with diagnoses from a psychiatrist for you but that's an important point too.

Did you end up on NAMBLA and if so how old were you? No pressure to answer unless you want to.

 

[hithere]

though only a mental health provider that you have hired to do a consult with can give you a diagnosis of PTSD (complex PTSD is not a diagnosis. I was told this by my mental health providers )--However, I personally believe that cyber bullying can and does cause PTSD. It is very serious and disturbs core beliefs about ones safety, power, and control, and messes with self-esteem, sleep, and very sadly has led some individuals to take their own life. Psychological harrassment can and does cause PTSD. I hope you will get help with your thinking and stay off of social media and be careful in forums where anyone can hide behind screen names.

 

[hithere]

According to Dr. Bruce Kehr, Cyberbullying, PTSD and Depression (Part 1)* "Of teens presenting to emergency rooms with PTSD, almost half have been victimized by cyberbullies[v]"

 

[Deleted member 46752]

NAMBLA

North American man boy love association

4 chan

:hilarious:

This website is so fcking...

Eve it wasn't that clear cut as the person made threats against me

 

[somerandomguy]

I mean, there's just no way cyberbullying meets Crit A. It just doesn't. That rules out a PTSD diagnosis, no matter what doctors have written.

Traumatic? Hell yes. Really bad trauma? Plausible. PTSD? By definition, no.

 

[Sideways]

Of teens presenting to emergency rooms with PTSD, almost half have been victimized by cyberbullies[v]"

That does not mean cyberbullying was the cause.

PTSD isn’t the result of something being “traumatic enough”. It is the result of specific types of trauma that the impact the way the amygdala functions.

Other types of trauma impact other parts of the brain. So they can be caused by events that are genuinely traumatic, although not a Criteria A trauma. They can present with very similar symptoms. But the underlying condition, what is happening with the brain, is different. Not more or less distressing, just different.

You may well personally want to believe everyone who is suffering distress following trauma has PTSD. But it is not validating to insist a person has this mental illness when in fact they have a completely different mental illness. It’s not helpful. It’s not empathetic. It’s actually quite dangerous.