As long as we’re tossing the “Warning! Trigger ahead!” label about, would anyone mind if I slapped it on =this- article? After all, it did trigger me – on several levels – into a very rare outburst of ire. But realize that I don’t get out much (read, ever) and am always behind on the news.
I had no idea that now ‘racism’ is a primary cause of PTSD. In my usual uber-PC attitude, I feel that (loathsome and hateful though racism is,) unless you did a stint in Aushwitz, I don’t want to hear those two terms in the same sentence.
Many years ago, I first became aware of PTSD when I learned about the ultimate alarm clock: being awakened with a .38 in your ear, your spouse yelling “incoming!” at people who aren’t there. “Good Morning, Viet Nam!”
If one happened to exist during that time, one would have undoubtedly gotten very familiar with those who not only experienced some of the roughest war imaginable but, expecting to come home to cheers as did WWII soldiers, were met with ‘you baby-killing bastards”… as they’re hobbling along and incubating some horrid shit caused by Agent Orange.
I thought I understood PTSD really well after living through so many flashbacks, preventing several suicides and the like. Imagine my delight when 30 years later not only am I dumb enough to spend 6 years letting some fool hurt me lots and/try to kill me on occasion, only to finally get rid of her – and instead of the expected “Happy ever after,” my brain packs its bags and moves to warmer climes.
“PTSD? No way,” I told Doc. “That’s for Nam vets.”
“Come on, Cat. ‘Post-traumatic STRESS syndrome’ happens when someone lives through a catastrophe: earth quake, a war as dreadful as Nam, or being constantly afraid for your own life for an extended period of time. That ‘fight or flight’ gets triggered and can’t shut off.”
Several years of non-stop panic attacks accompanied by constant fear and a couple of failed suicide attempts later, I was already having issues with today’s definition of “PTSD”: I can’t help comparing Iraq to Nam and I don’t get it.
I didn’t get a lot of things, admittedly, including the ‘idiocy’ of any female who would ‘allow’ herself to be abused for years. Nor do I get the ever-increasing references to PTSD in the media for the last few years, almost always with regard to the military who have, I quote, “Seen things none of us ever will and therefore are scarred for life.”
I and a few of my sisters would happily oblige in displaying our own scars – and ours aren’t invisible.
Moreover, can’t turn on the TV these days without warnings about “graphic, disturbing scenes” depicting people doing what humans always have: hunting their food, grilling and eating it. Shocker! Not sure whose sensibilities such scenes will disturb – are they afraid, perhaps, of triggering our boys? Give ‘em more credit.
More I think about PTSD, more I come to what’s likely an unpopular way of thinking. War ain’t personal, is it? Now, being pinned under a couple hundred pounds of insanity whilst – you get the idea – THAT, by God, is personal.
I’m aware that PTSD isn’t defined anywhere as being ‘personal’, but ask anyone who narrowly escaped a tsunami, for instance. Felt pretty damn personal as your life passed before you, didn’t it? Any sort of near death experience will do that for you. And, IMHO, you gonna get that lovely disease – a sort of warped cherry on a spoiled chocolate Sunday.
The hell of it is that if you take our entire military, add folks who’ve lived through national (and other kinds of) disasters, throw cops and firefighters (also ignored PTSD-wise)- that number wouldn’t be a fraction of a certain other group, who number around 54 million right now.
54 million possible sufferers of PTSD yet they’re overlooked there as they so often are in their lives. That group is, of course, women. 1 out of 3 has been or will be abused: and that figure is low.
Having said all that, if you’re going to worry about triggering me, unplug everyone’s TV and throw it out the window: I can’t deal with “Happy family” commercials. Get triggered also by anything Christmas. On a really bad day, I reckon a really good fart would trigger me too – so unscrew your arse and throw THAT out the window too.
This book business – Shakespeare et al – is the SOS dressed in different clothing. Ludicrous when discussed as not ‘proper’ reading for kids: moreso for triggering PTSD.
Whoever is writing that tripe knows dick about PTSD: because it is highly personal. Smelling ginger can trigger us: hearing a step on the stairs. I’ve been raped, beaten, locked into an apartment to starve for 6 months, and forced to visit the Grand Ole Opry 3 times. Hard to imagine that watching a good cop show which portrays an attack of any kind is going to trigger anything more than, “don’t open that door! Don’t go in there!”
PTSD is personal, and it’s about opening doors, not closing them in any way. Please don’t use a disease that is a nightmare for so many as a platform for any more political or personal agendas.
As an aside – bravo to the site owner for not giving in to such nonsense. “Trigger warnings” my arse.
