Greetings,
In synch and in sympathy with all the other advice afforded thus far, try if you can to severely limit disclosures to admin. and staff if you are at all able. Given a near absence of family interest, few to no friends outside of my place of work, etc., I made the grave error of enlisting my coworkers as my primary support system. Wild disclosure can so easily tip into wild exposure if you might guess my meaning.
My core isolation was (and in truth, remains) the killer. My coworkers were pressed into service not as an occasional third-line of support, not as a second-line of support, but rather as my primary support system. A total horror show ensued given my complete exposure when matters evolved not strictly in my favor. I was inexperienced and more than a bit vain to expect that others would find my experience of trauma and the aftermath as fascinating as myself, whereas for discrete feedback registered here, perhaps you may be able to contain personal matters a bit better than I. Yes - you absolutely need an outlet, but work is for exchanging your labor for a paycheck first and foremost.
Very few educated laypeople exist who can be bothered to read about the dynamics of P.T.S.D. unless a family member is directly impacted, whereas public ignorance translates readily to social stigma, teasing and general cruelty in short order. Sometimes I tell myself this is emblematic of what could be termed the 'Tyranny of the Majority' to the extent that if the mass of people are disengaged but of similar mind on some topic or issue, no amount of private study is likely to move them even if we should so wish it. In short, even as our awareness grows, those around us are typically planning their next holiday, mulling dinner, and generally not part of our plans however enlightened we might believe them to be!
Closing then, media representations of people always coming through and remaining humane and decent through thick and thin plays well enough on television and on screen, whereas the truth of the matter is that people can absorb and tolerate only so much. Terribly cruel this - I know, but in sum our challenge is to accurately discern whom can be trusted and in what doses - always difficult this. Good luck...
