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News Is ptsd being overused in media reports of workplace bullying? discussion

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Ice_Fire

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I came across this article in British media today and frankly, having read it, I feel as if PTSD is becoming a "fashionable" label.

Unless I've grossly misread something (please correct me if I have), this parliament worker has "only" suffered being shouted at and undermined. It states that there are other reports from females of being pressed up against walls, sexually harassed etc, but this woman has not suffered a criterion A trauma directly. She's been mistreated at work no doubt, but PTSD? It doesn't actually go as far as saying that she's been diagnosed with PTSD, just that commons authorities were told that she is a sufferer. There's no evidence to back that up and no direct commentary from the lady herself.

Workplace bullying is vile but I honestly think that PTSD has become a buzz-word, used for effect and it is being over used and inserted into articles far too readily. To the point that the seriousness of the condition and how it affects sufferers is being seriously undermined.

Thoughts?

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I came across this article in British media today and frankly, having read it, I feel as if PTSD is be...
I thought the same thing when I read this article . I think the main problem is that a lot of people don't go for diagnosis, and just started self diagnosing. I think once cPTSD is classified properly, then maybe it will help. I do wish people would be more discerning when spouting a supposed illness. It doesn't help the actual chronic sufferers. On the other hand, PTSD is a wide ranging thing, from mild trauma caught quickly , to oppressive trauma untreated. Maybe more varied versions would help , even though that seems counterintuitive.

Also , I think our English news networks thrive on half truths and unsubstantiated claims. It seems to me the have just got an interview to go on. As always. They make me sick .
 
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On the other hand, PTSD is a wide ranging thing, from mild trauma caught quickly , to oppressive trauma untreated.
Not it’s not actually, the diagnostic criteria is that the trauma needs to include actual threat to life, death or sexual violence to you or someone close enough for you to be impacted (ie physically close enough to witness or relationally close) none of which scream mild trauma to me. Bullying in the Work place doesn’t cause PTSD - if it gets to where PTSD is a possibility you’re more accurately talking about sexual assault, physical assault etc.
 
Sorry I miss-spoke. I was talking about trauma itself, not the current medical definition of PTSD. Thanks for clearing that up . And I suppose that why psychologists are pushing for a cPTSD classification too? As the PTSD requirements are very strict. Infact it's a shame. I would thought symptoms are much more important in judging an ailment than the circumstances that caused them. Seems backwards to me.

Ie being trapped in a cage for 20 years wouldn't fit in with those req's , yet would most likely cause (c)ptsd
 
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@J Taverner, if you don't mind, why do you think cPTSD would clear things up? I'm confused as my understanding is that cPTSD is PTSD with repeated trauma, so it is PTSD first.

@Ice_Fire, the article said she had PTSD, but I didn't see where it said that the bullying caused it. I got the impression that because she had PTSD, it was worse for her. Then again, I've only had one cup of coffee, lol.
 
Sorry that was vague. My brain is rattled this week. It doesn't even make sense now you say it. What I was trying to get out is that if PTSD/cPTSD was properly diagnosed , it wouldn't be in the realm of self diagnosis as much. Like 'anxiety' or depression . I think I wrote cPTSD because my therapist has diagnosed me with this, and find it strange how it doesn't yet have a dsm-5 categorization . Forgive me, chemical changes in the last week has turned me into an imbecile. Well, more of one.

Infact I'm not as ready for this as I though. Especially in the evenings. Sorry.
 
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I think PTSD and (dare I say it) complex PTSD and DID are all pretty fashionable at the moment, possibly because people want validation of their pain and a trauma diagnosis recognises that something terrible happened to them.

I think being locked in a cage for 20 years would fall under the heading of threat to life in most cases so would constitute a Crit A trauma. The reason their needs to be a qualifying trauma is because sone of the symptom array can mirror other medical issues but the way a Crit A trauma impacts an individual causes very specific changes.

To give an example, anxiety is a symptom of PTSD - but the anxiety arises because the individual has survived something so threatening to their life or someone else’s that their fundamental trust is shattered. That’s very different in root cause to someone who is anxious about something that they fear might happen, but hasn’t happened thus far.

The way to work with both anxieties will be different because they stem from different places. In each of the symptoms the Crit A trauma adds an aspect which is important in treatment hence not just treating all folk presenting with PTSD type symptoms as having PTSD in the absence of a qualifying trauma.
 
I think it's interesting to wonder whether classifying cPTSD as a form of PTSD in it's own right would help matters. I think that could go one of two ways; people either respect that critA trauma has to have been gone through for someone to develop PTSD and it has to have stemmed in childhood or be from long-term entrampment etc in adulthood for cPTSD to be the correct diagnosis. But then part of me wonders how many people who were mildly bullied at school for a number of years (I'm talking name-calling and the like, similar to what this article suggests has happened at this lady's workplace) will suddenly "decide" they have CPTSD?

I keep reading the article and from the way it's worded I don't think that she's already pre-diagnosed with PTSD, it reads very much as if she was signed off with anxiety following this workplace bullying and that place of work has since been informed she has PTSD? The implication is that the bullying caused the PTSD, which is what I'm mainly taking issue with in this article I suppose.

I think it's interesting and a little disturbing (but correct) to say that these diagnoses have become somewhat "fashionable", as a quick explanation and kind of...I'm not sure...over-validation for people of, frankly, slightly upsetting and stressful events. It seems like this is only getting worse due to the media input and articles such as this which seem to be popping up in increasing frequency over the past few years.
 
I haven't read the article and think I have some trauma issues coming up. Having said that, I am curious. From what you mentioned there is one part that strikes me as it could be PTSD inducing. Could not females being pressed up against walls be a cause of PTSD? I mean, it would depend a lot on the details of what that actually means.. But, depending on what happened, could that not be a threat of sexual violence?
 
@Ice_Fire I missed your last reply or we were replying at the same time. I would agree that those diagnosis are somewhat fashionable right now. A while ago, it was austims/aspergers that were. I think there was a time when bipoolar. These things seem to come and go
 
Yes @Muttly I do think that that might be qualifying trauma, however in the article is says that "other" colleagues have had that happen to them, but according to what's written, the woman in question herself hasn't. It's written to make the point that men in parliament are abusing women and threatening sexual violence, but this lady who has supposedly got PTSD, all it says directly concerning her is that she's been shouted out and belittled. I'm not saying that isn't horrible, but is it criterion A in itself? I wouldn't say so. And if not, then is the use of saying she has PTSD there purely to function to make the article more, for want of a better way of putting it, sensationalist. Which to me reduces the, I don't know, validity maybe of people who have a "true" PTSD diagnosis. And I wonder if that's harmful to people who have been through a crit A trauma and have PTSD because it's overuse in the media will have a backlash of the general public not taking the condition seriously because "everyone has that nowadays".
 
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