Poll Do You Wish That Ptsd Was Called Post Traumatic Injury (injuries) ?

[frozen]

Just wondering if people would feel better if it was called an injury rather than a mental illness

 

[Lucycat]

In my opinion I would feel just the same. My T says it is NOT a mental illness, but an emotional one. I must say this rings true with me.

As for the 'stigma' I am sorry to say I think it would not make any difference to that either. I still perceive others' reactions as me 'not being able to cope', rather than any true understanding - or more importantly- any desire to understand- what PTSD is. Quite simply I think if you are not affected ( as either a sufferer or supporter) then most people just don't care.

 

[Ice_Fire]

In my opinion,I think it would cause more confusion. People would be 'looking for' an injury, trying to find something physical and tangible that they could understand. Having said that, I personally don't like the PTSD label because for me anyway, the people who hurt me are the one with the 'disorder'...it just compounds my feelings of inadequacy to think of myself as having a 'disorder'.

But I don't think the label matters all that much. some people will judge us, others won't. I'm just going to focus on the ones who don't.

 

[SusanaBanana]

Well its not a mental illness, and its not a disorder, it is a result of trauma.

 

[Taven Carlsen]

As for the 'stigma' I am sorry to say I think it would not make any difference to that either.

I think any mental health problem is going to be stigmatized, it is never (IMO) going to be useful to talk openly in those terms. Humans (all animals) have a natural instinct to get away from diseases - we think of everything as contagious. So go around talking about what you've gotten over, or what you're getting over right now, or how you're getting over stuff right now. Anything still lingering is best left as a medical issue.

 

[Deleted member 12723]

I think it is a result of injuries to the body and the psyche. I would prefer it being labeled as a injury. Because this is how it feels to me. Many, many injuries, countless injuries. It tells of being wounded by someone. the source and the cause. Abuse from abusers. I do not like to think of it like a mental illness. I voted for the injury label. It made me feel more comfortable. I wish they had done that in the first place.

Lack of education causes ignorance of what ptsd is. If you think about it the word itsel is confusing. People do not know what it means, they have not heard of it. It involves horror and terror. These things come from people. I think it would make things alot easier. Oh well, It ain't going to happen. just my 2 cents.

 

[frozen]

Gizmo, I feel the same way....

IMO anxiety/stress/depression are all normal responses to trauma, it feels to me as an emotional injury that someone, or something caused, not me, and not because there is a disorder of my brain functioning, if that makes sense.

The label "disorder", or mental illness even, feels much like I am to blame for what is happening to me, adding insult to injury by putting the label "disorder" on my PTS...that means I have to own the symptoms as a cause rather than being able to accept that what I'm feeling is very much normal and the wounds I have will heal just like an open wound that is bleeding, eventually the bleeding stops, the wound begins to heal and what is left is just scar tissue.

The cause, as you said, is from the abuser, or event, not from ourselves, and that is what is not normal, and by eliminatng the labels the true cause then can take ownership of/for my symptoms making it easier for me to heal instead of getting stuck with the thought and focus on that there is something wrong with my brain and the way it deals with things.

Hoping that makes sense....I know what I'm trying to say, not sure it's coming out right!

 

[TLight]

I say injury because it feels like an injury to my brain. It doesn't work correctly and the stress response is triggered by dysfunctional routing in the brain caused by early traumas. The stress response is all screwed up.

Mental illness...well, I likely wouldn't have had a mental illness develop if I hadn't had trauma. So I don't feel like it is really a mental illness. In my understanding, that's something you are born with or born with the predisposition to develop.

I liken it and describe it to people who want to know that it is really an injury.

 

[Lucycat]

Mental illness...well, I likely wouldn't have had a mental illness develop if I hadn't had trauma. So I don't feel like it is really a mental illness. In my understanding, that's something you are born with or born with the predisposition to develop.

I'm not sure I can agree with you here. You can argue that physical illness means one must have a predisposition - such as diabetes, cancer, multiple sclerosis. Some with the predisposition get it and some are lucky and don't. For some they have a trigger to the illness developing which could be something minor such as a viral illness, but it only happens if they are predisposed.

With mental illness, I believe the same applies whether it is schizophrenia or Bi-polar or whatever. These things can run in families, but still not everyone is affected.

But isn't that the same with PTSD? Many people suffer trauma in very many different ways. They don't all get PTSD, so there are thoughts that some people have a predisposition to that too. The trauma is the trigger to the illness or disorder actually developing.

I guess what I am saying is that physical illness ( with no stigma) is not so very different in its development, to mental/emotional illness ( except with stigma).

 

[Loveneverfails]

I haven't run into too much prejudice regarding telling people I have PTSD. I don't tell very many people, but the ones I have told(aside from my family, of course), have taken it just as it should be taken. That I survived a traumatic experience and am trying to cope. Maybe I'm lucky, though I can't really imagine anyone being worth my time in the slightest if they heard about PTSD and thought I was 'crazy' because I had it. I do however think of it not as a mental illness, but more like a brain injury in that as the damage is done(whether all at once or over a lifetime), the brain changes. It is environmental rather than genetic- though there is research to suggest some people are more prone to PTSD while others only experience PTS.

My biggest problem is how people view veterans with PTSD. Often they're stereo-typed on tv as violent alcoholics or drug addicts and no one really stops to explore what these people have seen and experienced to get there, so society automatically views veterans coming home from war as a possibly volatile threat rather than people who deeply need support, community and help.

 

[Hashi]

I'd rather it was seen as a normal reaction, like grief after someone dies.

I wouldn't like it to be called an injury because personally I think there are multiple injuries - psychological, emotional, spiritual and physical - and they're more complex than, say, breaking a leg.

I don't think of it as a mental illness either, though. To me, it's a condition.

 

[Froggie]

Hashi, I think you brought an interesting thought here, a condition ... I opted for injury because the term disorder leads one to think that there is a possibility of order, while a large majority of sufferers have to adapt to their trauma which has life long aftereffects on the person. But I do like your term ... CONDITION ... Post Traumatic Stress Condition ...