Poll How Many Traumatic Incidents Have You Experienced?

[The Albatross]

Directly to me... many incidents. Too many to count. When I started to do a list, even with out the childhood abuse and domestic abuse incidents from my bio family and first marriage it got way too overwhelming and I couldn't finish it for my new shrink.

 

[Ti Vu]

Just one major one. 20 years old. Completely shattered me. From my naïveté. Guess it was a long time coming.

 

[Deleted member 19804]

I selected many incidents.

Minor event: being implicitly abused sexually/emotionally over the internet for about 7 months (I was 14). Luckily, no pictures or video footage were taken.
Major event: forced to perform oral sex by (now ex-)boyfriend (I had recently turned 18)
Major event: being date-raped twice in a row a few months later, after having broken up with the boyfriend mentioned above (still 18).

And of course there's the "garden variety" sexual and physical harassment almost every woman goes through a few times in her life.

However, I feel like the many incidents option doesn't completely apply to me. After the first two incidents, I had low self esteem but I already had that along with an eating disorder before the abuse. The rapes triggered the PTSD.

 

[TonyG]

There's been much discussion about complex PTSD on the forum lately, and quite frankly I don't relate as I have PTSD from a single incident only. My life was happy beforehand. I had a loving family and an ordinary life. So, I'm curious about how many traumas everyone has experienced.

I have also only had one incident my life was quite normal before that.

 

[Ronin]

My life was basically filled with traumatic incidents. Some stand out more than others, some I've blissfully managed to repress or mostly dissociate, some I've worked through (or am in the process of working through). So I would say, 'I have lost count'. I tend to try to move forward however possible. I'm honestly not able to speak in numbers on this.

I'd never judge 'high numbers', because after all with experiences as slavery, war, and the like? It really gets to be a high number. I wouldn't discount that people think of their experiences, and daily realities, as traumatic incidents on their own, when they are that. They're entitled to think of their traumata however they do.

 

[Anrish]

I didn't count the traumatic experiences. They began with entering school. There were just so many that I don't know about all of them. I locked them away. My complete school time was a traumatic experience (pupil, teacher, the system itself...).

The worst experience however was my former boyfriend who kept me small to satisfy his own ego. I can't say that he raped me but he blamed me and talked me into things I would never have done voluntarily. He smashed the rest of my self confidence - even after I broke up and we had a relationship for more than three years. But I thought having a relationship was still better than being all alone...

 

[Deleted member 1860]

Didn't answer....

A few events over a lifetime, so none of the above.

 

[Marie E.]

I have had 3 abusive relationships, 2 physical and one verbal.