Do People Fake PTSD?

[NativeRose]

Anyone who is faking PTSD can have my years of abuse along with all the PTSD symptoms. They can have the fluctuations in intensity of symptoms things where I'm caught off guard and dissociate, etc. I'm sorry, but giving birth to a healthy child and without complications or standing in line doesn't have anything whatsoever to do with PTSD. I'm sure all of us would gladly give those people a glimpse into our lives! This sort of thing makes me so angry!

NativeRose

 

[anni]

It IS hard to tell people, and not only because we've become terribly introverted over time. I personally have not had many postive reactions when I've 'told', so mention it only rarely. A typical reaction is the look of patent disbelief and then a polite duck to another subject. It helps not at all with the whole fear/shame/guilt trigger, and is too exhausting to have to 'defend' and explain endlessly so I just stopped trying. Perhaps that is an incorrect thing to do, and possibly interferes with the healing I wish to achieve, I don't know.

I do feel as if the pretenders out there have certainly tainted the mention of PTSD with sceptiscism. I do not know what it's like elsewhere but in the states PTSD is one of the 'flavours of the month' used by fakers trying to get disability. Perhaps it would be helpful if these people were charged with fraud and held accountable. The numbers would decline, I think and at least there would be a chance that we'd be able to bring up the diagnosis without this hurtful stigma attached.

On the postitive side, I did meet someone who digested my diagnosis completely and still only wishes to know how to help. I do read of others in this forum who have similarly lovely partners who also were obviously safe people to trust. Once in awhile it does transpire that we can stick our PTSD necks out and not have them chopped off. That is certainly off the thread so pleaes excuse! :)

Anni

 

[onebravegirl]

I am a veteran with PTSD, and would never use my disorder to get free things/handouts, etc. It is absolutely horrendous to imagine ANY veteran doing that.

As far as meeting someone with "pseudo-PTSD", I have met a few. There were two guys in my therapy group who claimed to have PTSD. Neither had ever been deployed, and one had only been out of Basic training a couple of months. The basic training guy tried to make it sound like a big kid pushed him down on the playground and made him cry. He belittled guys who had seen combat from Viet Nam, Desert Storm, and the current military engagements in Iraq and Afghanistan. But if anyone tried to ask him a question while he was talking, it was the worst thing in the world. It took a group of us going to the therapist and telling him that if he couldn't put the guy in another group to please place us in our own group, before he was removed from the group. His behavior was unacceptable, to say the least.

Ah yes, the joys of group therapy! Never boring!
O

 

[onebravegirl]

There is a plus to PTSD becoming well known. Hopefully, ignorance will leason, and public acceptance and general knowledge of this illness will be lessen the stigmatisms we face. Gotta look for that silver lining!
O

 

[NativeRose]

I don't come right out with it to just anyone. Sometimes I'll give a very watered-down description of an event to make a point in a psych class or something. Then, during times of high stress when I know I'm not acting "normal" or what my friends normally see, I do explain that there are lots of triggers or other things going on. There are a few friends who genuinely want to understand me and know how to help. It's amazing to me when they listen to me talk about a nightmare at 3:00 in the morning (just because they happen to be awake--I would never disturb anyone for something like that). I'm so grateful when they listen to me talk about flashbacks, and I'm sure many of you know that one rarely gets just one flashback; they come in strings of flashbacks, sometimes lasting for hours. When I dissociate and get lost somewhere, I have to ask for help since I don't have vision, so I can't use visual cues. When I do have to ask for help, I just tell people that I was "thinking about something else." that's something that they can understand, and it doesn't get personal. Anyway, I'm done rambling....again. :) It's just awesome to find a group of people who understand.

NativeRose

 

[onebravegirl]

Ramble on dear girl. we hear you!
O

 

[Gloria]

Chiming in..... Over the years I was diagnosed with Borderline (by an ex-husband who was not a doctor), Bi-polar (by a my neurologist who said research has shown that seizures are caused by Bi-Polar disorder) and depression. I looked up the diagnosis criteria in the mental health books. I didn't fit in the categories.

Does anyone display this symptom? -- I can be a total basket case when something happens to trigger me and then when I manage to compose myself, within minutes (or hours as the case may be) I am sitting there looking absolutely normal - smiling and calm. I don't think people who suffer from severe depression can pull themselves up and be smiling and optimistic in a very short period of time. I developed this ability at a very young age. It doesn't prevent me from being triggered but I have learned to remain calm when everyone panics and to be able to transform my appearance very quickly. Many people on this site write about how they appear normal. I appear so normal that when I tell people how I suffer from PTSD, they don't believe me. Only people who have seen me have nightmares will believe it. I appear so fearless that many people have a very hard time believing that I would be terrified of memories and dreams.

 

[pandora]

If they new the real truth..and how debilitating it can be...they should be lucky to not have it...people that fake it..literally make me feel sick and angry! Why?

 

[Marlene]

people that fake it..literally make me feel sick and angry! Why?

Because it belittles everything we've been through and are going through. It becomes a punch line in someone's sick joke.

Lisa

 

[BioHazard]

Because it belittles everything we've been through and are going through. It becomes a punch line in someone's sick joke.

Lisa

LOL, there have been a few times when the belittling part wasn't the only "punch" line. Sometimes, I respond in the exact manner the military wanted me to react when I feel threatened or angry.

 

[anthony]

Have any of you ever encountered someone who "faked" having PTSD? It seems to me that in the 90's PTSD sorta become the "cool" illness to have.

Yes and I will tell you now... that there are no doubt members upon this forum who are faking PTSD. They have told themselves they have it... even though they don't or the trauma itself is being embellished to help the belief along. You are absolutely correct, in that it is the "in thing" to have, hence why doctors, therapists and such just hand it out willy nilly now or throw the term round like its cool to have. There is so much misunderstanding on this that its no longer even funny.

 

[goingonhope]

He would tell her stories that happened to him during combat BUT they were the same stories as my bf who really did serve,

Only a gut feeling, but sounds like your boyfriend's once work pal was a drinker, perhaps even an alcoholic in some damn tough shape too boot, because some hear all the time, and from experience may've even witnessed a drinking alcoholic tell huge make-believe BS and stories that are pathological to the point of frustration.

I once had a neighborhood friend that while out drinking told such amazing stories, that I was reoccurringly time and again in a state of disbelief, but as I drinker then myself, I just kept my mouth shut and observed. As twisted in my thinking as I was progressively becoming then, after awhile, her once appalling lies, started to look appealing, almost as if a quality to strive toward.

Anyhow, in the present I feel disgusted regarding the telling of such BS, (any kind) as I had felt a good many times while out drinking with her.