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

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What I don’t understand, every time some flavor of this topic pops up, why do people stigma even the heck out of mental illness, including PTSD, and then become so quick and defensive to claim everything under the sun is a causes of the major mental illness of PTSD?

When the public talks about what trauma qualifies for a diagnosis, PTSD is seen too easily as a ticket to validate that what someone went through was really real and legit and terrible.

When talking about everything else, PTSD is seen as a major mental illness that makes people crazy, violent, unstable, etc...

It’s also not just about the-trauma-I-went-through-was-bad-enough. The vast majority of people who survive criterion A events do not develop PTSD. It’s about the mental health symptoms too as to if someone has PTSD or not.

PTSD also isn’t a label to verify my suffering is worse than anyone else in the world. Criterion A trauma and PTSD is horrible to endure. So is schizophrenia, grief, etc, etc.

I know that for many who have survived trauma, they have had the trauma and suffering invalidated, myself much included. So I get why people cling to the PTSD as verification that whatever trauma really was awful.


When it comes to bullying, can’t the larger public just say bullying is awful without adding oh-it’s-awful-because-it-causes-a-major-mental-illness to that? Bullying sucks. It is not worse than children dying. It doesn’t have to be worse than child death to be awful. It doesn’t have to cause a major mental illness to be something that shouldn’t be happening.

If people learned to recognize pain is pain more often, maybe people wouldn’t race as much to misuse PTSD as a way to verify the pain is legit.
 
@lostforgottensoul That clarification helps. I understand your intent was different but I read it as comparing too. It actually made me back out of this thread for a bit which is my issues. I have had this experience in other posts from you, where to me it felt like you were comparing. It is good to know I was wrong because I have also found your posts contain a lot of wisdom. Part of the good of this site is we all get to interact in a safe way. Part of human interaction is misunderstanding and learning to understand each other's unique communication style. I am glad to get to know you better

This discussion brought up an interesting thing for me. Yes, the media, doctors, the public over using PTSD is irritating to me, but only in a very small way. I feel like it's one of those things that happens and will pass and it does both harm and good. I roll my eyes and move on. People within the PTSD community (for lack of a better term) seeming to debate whether something is really a criterion A trauma and comparing is very triggering. Again, all of that is just m experience.

There are too many posts, I can't find who said it, but another interesting point to me was the value of having an objective trained outsider, the psychologist or whomever, determine what is criterion A. In my last session I was telling my T about an experience I had. I said I didn't know why I was bringing it up, because it seemed like a small thing. Before I could say more, she pointed out that it met the conditions for the criterion A. It really surprised me. It also relieved me because it is a vivid memory that has stayed with me throughout the years.

I asked if, depending on circumstances, being pressed up against a wall could cause PTSD and @Friday responded.
It would really depend on what’s happening.

There’s a big difference between some creep cornering you and oozing his so called charm on you, and the threat of real sexual assault. Context matters. A lot.

It’s like, being lined up against the wall. What’s the context? Are you about to be shot against it, or are you being safely secured to be placed under arrest?

Yes, I completely agree. That's why I said it would depend. Back the original question of the post, it just stuck me that this one off mention could be PTSD inducing. And it was barely given a mention by the writers or in the discussion. I do agree that PTSD is generally overused right now. Having said that, trying to decide in any one particular situation is tricky. There's always so much we don't know. If the pressing against the wall was a true threat of sexual violence and known by all the women mentioned, it changes the impact of the verbal abuse. No, I'm not saying it means the PTSD diagnosis is justified. Probably not, but I don't know. What else was going on.

I also think that what sometimes happens is that the press, or others, mistakenly say it caused PTSD when what really happened is it triggered PTSD. As @Friday mentioned, there's that middle ground. Perhaps someone had a past history of sexual abuse and the verbal sexual abuse is what tipped them over into PTSD. There is so much subtext we will never know unless we are the ones involved in the situation.
 
@lostforgottensoul That clarification helps. I understand your intent was different but I read it as comparing too. It actually made me back out of this thread for a bit which is my issues. I have had this experience in other posts from you, where to me it felt like you were comparing. It is good to know I was wrong because I have also found your posts contain a lot of wisdom

Sorry about that. I don't post a lot, mostly afraid of taking the thread off topic. Also my own issue but I think that maybe why you're finding that a lot with my posts. Or at least partly why. Another reason is words fail me a lot and things come out way wrong then how I meant then too. I'm learning how to communicate and part of that is miscommunication. It's good to know its ok and needed to post a bit more to clarify the first time I post.
 
The strange thing is we are all pretty much in agreement. PTSD pain isn't the only pain or even the 'worst' pain (whatever that is, can be subjective as lostforgotten said) . It is a medical condition. We all suffer as human beings. It's a shame if PTSD is being used to validate a type of pain that cannot medically cause it. I think most of us are trying to say the same thing but disagreeing slighlty over the expression of it.
 
Also I think lostforgotten was simply pointing out the flaw in MY comparison and suggestion that child loss is the worst pain. It seemed clear she was making the point that it was all subjective. I was the one doing the original comparison. Lostforgotten was pointing out the flaw in that, but worded it poorly IMO.
 
The term PTSD is grossly being over-used in all the wrong manners and situations. I have been diagnosed with it from the war in Iraq and I can tell you that you can't get it from being yelled at. It's simply just becoming fashionable to throw terms out of context and proper diagnosis to any problem some one may have. Doctors just started really understanding the underlying causes of this epidemic and the veteran's hospitals only began "treating" it in the past 10 years. No one really understands what it's like to have it unless you DO have it. I'd like to think I'm getting better, but it doesn't leave you forever, it just becomes manageable. No one has anything until diagnosed by a licensed professional doctor, point blank.
 
I think I am more careful, since my ptsd diagnosis, about how I look at other peoples' trauma. The medical field does not know everything, I venture to say. I MOST definitely had ptsd from bullying- my doctors agree on this. Oh, most definitely. I have also seen all 3 of my kids die. But my ptsd symptoms started before that. They started with bullying. Everyone is different in how they handle trauma and how they are affected by it. I'm not sold on the whole idea of "well you have to experience such and such to be classed as ptsd"...So I remind myself to be careful with how i view other peoples' trauma. While it is true that until they are diagnosed, they don't have it according to the medical field, but the opposite is also true. They have not been proven to not have it:)
 
I dont like people using medical terms to get attention and reaction. It waters down the truth and makes access to care more difficult for real sufferers.

For me it is hard to disclose and i am selective as to who i share my diagnosis with... it makes me mad when other that do not have it or self diagnosed use the term casually like its kool.

It is not kool scanning hyper vig and cannot even go have dinner with another person without having a mental debate if i am safe or not.
 
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