Indirect Trauma Exposure, Criterion A Item 3?

[Kintsugi]

This will be my shortest thread post ever, probably.

Can someone explain what's going on with this criterion?

3. Indirectly, by learning that a close relative or close friend was exposed to trauma. If the event involved actual or threatened death, it must have been violent or accidental.

http://www.ptsd.va.gov/professional/PTSD-overview/dsm5_criteria_ptsd.asp

http://www.dsm5.org/Documents/PTSD Fact Sheet.pdf

I have trouble thinking of an example from the forum. I "know" members here who witnessed atrocious acts of child sexual violence or POW/multiple hostage situations, but in those instances, the members themselves suffered the same abuse as they also witnessed.

 

[Deleted member 28403]

Really can't help on this one, people are really good at looking away from bad stuff happening, one of reasons I was abandoned duing bullying :(

 

[Deleted member 1860]

Hopefully @anthony can clarify this one for us.

Because.....we don't understand the diagnosing process. Now, EVERYONE who is close to someone who has been traumatized also qualifies for PTSD as well? This doesn't seem right. My over active brain is sitting here saying ok, suck it up. I'm the one who actually went through this shit and because you simply found out about it, you now qualify for the disorder, too? IT DOES NOT COMPARE. Sorry if I'm being a bit too blunt here, but my mind is spinning off and thinking these people are overly attached and need to get a grip. Because in all honestly, EVERYONE knows someone who has experienced a criterion A stressor.....I mean the prevalence of sexual abuse and rape and assault against women is high, so now we've just qualified everyone for PTSD? Great.....

Someone please correct me. I hope I'm wrong. Is the DSM going too far with this one? Somehow I think it needed to have more said under that particular criterion.

 

[Kintsugi]

I absolutely agree with you, @Solara, and that is why I posted for clarification: I *must* be missing something here. I am highly confused and, yes, insulted by this criterion as it stands, but I keep thinking, surely there is something else that is needed to qualify?!

Hoping @anthony will weigh in here.

Edit to retrospectively add to my first post that I do know and believe witnessed murder, rape, natural and other disasters, etc. qualifies. It's the heresay of "learning" about I'm bothered by.

 

[Deleted member 28403]

@Simply Simon

I found this on forums, it might be helpful on that part.

https://www.myptsd.com/threads/understanding-post-traumatic-stress-disorder-ptsd.86476/

Check second and third paragraph of page 3, there is some helpful info.

 

[Deleted member 1860]

I agree @Simply Simon, it is the learning about it secondhand that has me confused and bothered. I understand why witnessing something can cause PTSD. I don't get why secondhand knowledge now qualifies someone for PTSD. I am afraid that NORMAL grief is going to get lumped into PTSD now and people are going to claim to be cured after a few years perhaps, thereby skewing the true data on recovery for PTSD. Maybe I'm going off on a bunny trail here, but it is a bit bothersome.

 

[Deleted member 1860]

@otakujome
I don't see how either of those paragraphs hits on this issue specifically.

 

[TonyG]

Ok this is a topic I have questions about myself, I have suffered personal grief with the death of family members, both parents and my brother, and that is grief. I was never bullied as a child up to my teenage years as I loved a fight, I suffered workplace bullying and it was very stressful and caused anxiety, Question is if I had gone to the doctors would I of been diagnosed with PTSD, My trauma I suffered in my early twenties was much more overwhelming than all of those issues put together yet I locked it away for 30 years as it was to hard to deal with,
So since joining the site I have seen many people who think they have PTSD because they were spoken to harshly by a teacher or bitten by a dog while delivering news papers,
I my own case I have been shot and stabbed, drilled a hole in my arm, run over by a car while riding a bike, medically I have had a TIA(mini stroke) and lost feeling in my right side, my father had dementia and didn't know me when he died.
My point is we all could have PTSD diagnosis for every day events in our lives.

 

[Deleted member 28403]

@TonyG

No, we couldn't, refeer to the thing again. It has a set time window, of 6 months, which is edge peripd in which most people deal with the trauma, so yea, at the instant after trauma someone can by the symptoms be diagnosed with PTSD, if it's looked at like just a checklist of symptoms, but actually it's more sophisticated, suggest reading:

https://www.myptsd.com/threads/understanding-post-traumatic-stress-disorder-ptsd.86476/

The diagnosis part is interesting, and you will find better explaining there.

 

[TonyG]

I was diagnosed and am aware of the process,

 

[Deleted member 28403]

@TonyG
Sorry if I'm annoying you..

I didn't mean to and I apologize if I upset you. :(

 

[Friday]

Knowing my son is being abused causes violent panic attacks, anxiety attacks, homicidal rage, homicidal cold/loss of emotions, suicidal despair, obsessive thinking, nightmares, the whole list. If I didn't already have PTSD, I'm pretty sure the constant fear of his imminent death & rage at past harm, would make me diagnosable.

I've worked a lot in 3rd world countries, some of which was around kidnap & ransom, child soldiers, etc. For some (maybe even most) of the parents & loved ones of the people who were actually kidnapped? Or whose children were taken, killed, tortured, or trained? Yeah. That's PTSD. No two ways about it. Their primary trauma being what is happening or happened to someone they love.

ETA... As per another thread... That's a big part of what informed my decision about not telling my family about my trauma stuff. There's a pretty big difference between coming home and finding your child has been kidnapped, or receiving a notice for ransom for your wife, brother, etc... And being told after the fact. But I've seen the devastation that happens to some people as their mind breaks... Knowing someone they love is being hurt, or was, and they are powerless to stop it. Time is quirky with PTSD. It doesn't always require a real time event. Not willing to risk seeing that happen to my loved ones, where I cease to exist standing in front of them, as they're launched backwards in time in their own minds. Nope. Huh-uh. Not gonna do it. The best outcome I could hope for is their minimizing or disbelief. And I'm too selfish to want that. So, for both our sakes, I keep my stuff away from people who could be hurt by it. The only people I tell, really, are those who already grok it.