People Faking Ptsd

[Savegud]

I am the harshest critic of my PTSD diagnosis.

It took me several weeks to admit to myself I had an anxiety disorder. Me? PTSD? That's something only soldiers and rape victims get. How could I have PTSD? I must have "Insert rare disease that does not show up on a standard blood test here".

I dealt with some of the most stressful situations at work for 15 years. I dealt with lots of screaming and threatening in my ear. People threatened to kill me before. Lots of insults. No problems. Like water off a duck's back.

The incident that caused it for me was witnessing a break in to my apartment late at night. I feel it's small potatoes.

 

[Ira]

I am the harshest critic of my PTSD diagnosis.

It took me several weeks to admit to myself I had an anxiety disorder. Me? PTSD? That's something only soldiers and rape victims get. How could I have PTSD? I

I had the same issue. My past couldn't of been as bad as war. No way. It took me a month or so of back and forths therapist and reading the DSM with my therapist and matching Criteria A and symptoms did I accept it. But it was the reading the DSM together did I see my trauma was Criteria A (it was that bad) and seeing that I did have these symptoms that helped me to accept it.

That is why, personally, I see no issue with nicely advising people of Criteria A and that their trauma doesn't fit there.

 

[Sibur]

One thing that's annoyed me lately is people saying that the election "gave them PTSD" or joking that they have "Post-Trumpatic Stress Disorder". I've even seen shirts that say it! To me, it feels like people are trivializing PTSD and making a joke out of it, and while that is not the same as faking it, it does bring me to my next point.

With medical marijuana recently being legalized in Florida, I've noticed a lot of people I know suddenly claiming PTSD, either from the Pulse shooting (people who weren't even there) or from something that happened in the past that they never seemed to struggle with before. That upsets me, because I fear that if I talk to people about my symptoms, they will assume I'm doing the same thing. And I don't even plan on taking advantage of medical marijuana!

 

[Teraze]

Personally, I am too busy with my own issues to worry about whether or not a person is claiming PTSD genuinely. There seems to be so many facets of this condition and no two people seem to share all the same problems so it's sure not for me to judge. I agree with the post suggesting putting those you doubt on ignore.

 

[Unaruc]

One thing that's annoyed me lately is people saying that the election "gave them PTSD" or joking that they have "Post-Tr...

I'm already isolating from all news/media. This sounds pretty wretched. People don't understand that my level of triggering is at its worst when talking about this stuff. I dissociate so easily when the topic comes up, which is not like me AT ALL. (Three times in the last 8 years vs a constant threat now.) I'm starting to think that I actually have a dissociative disorder as I keep dissociating and losing touch with reality when people talk politics. Yet it's a joke everywhere, I can't talk about it to anyone. I had to go into fly off the handle mode and tell someone that they'd be dead to me if they wouldn't shut up about politics. It seemed to work. Can't take that approach with another person so I'm more or less in complete shut down mode around them. I'm forced to live moment to moment, each identical to the next in order to stay attached to reality. And yet I'm alone, can't ask anyone for help because nobody can f*cking help/support without shoving politics down my throat. This is what feeling alone is like. I really am alone.

Sorry for venting here but I can't talk to anyone else, not in real life or online.

 

[Kivila]

A few years ago, I was diagnosed as having PTSD. In working with my trauma therapist, we discovered I had been traumatized since around age 4. That's when I started to dissociate. I had been living undiagnosed for many decades. Thankfully I'm finally getting the help I've needed for many years. Having said that, I wouldn't wish PTSD on anyone. Like what others have said, it took me awhile to admit and accept that I have PTSD and I don't talk about it much with anyone except extremely close friends and my therapist and this forum.

Soon after my diagnosis, I realized that my now ex was emotionally abusive to me and had been for over 20 years. I didn't realize until my therapy that I had endured abuse (physical and emotional) my entire life and thought it was "normal". We went to marriage counseling and the counselor had tried to tell him what he was doing was emotional abuse but it didn't help. He wouldn't listen or even try to listen. He then said he had PTSD as well but several therapists told him he did not (I went with him). It seemed so odd to me that after I was diagnosed and he learned what my symptoms were, that he started to "act" like he had been traumatized. Maybe he had been. I have known him for over 20 years and it surprised me. I do believe that what is traumatic to one person may not be traumatic for someone else and that's okay. It doesn't take away from the trauma. However, there is a difference with PTSD, in my opinion. It should be left for a professional to diagnose as well.

He then tried to convince my family and friends that I had abused him over the years. It's like his personality then did a switch. Instead of being the aggressive bully I had known for 20+ years, he switched to "beat puppy dog". He then started to claim he was scared of me and has anxiety anytime I was around. He claimed repeatedly that I wouldn't leave him alone when it was me who begged him to leave me alone after I filed for divorce. It felt like he wanted to be a victim which seemed so odd to me. Who the hell wants to be a victim? I never wanted to be a victim. I wouldn't wish it on anyone! It's still hard for me to admit that for years I was a victim. Now I'm taking control of my life. I survived and I'm working on thriving.

We found another marriage counselor who ended up being our divorce counselor. The counselor advised me to not talk to my ex anymore unless it was necessary. Nearly every time my ex emailed me, it felt like he was trying to provoke me into anger or rage. He knew how to push my buttons. I would then explode and he would tell everyone "see? she is unstable and abusive!"

From talking to the different counselors, I've come to the conclusion (theory) in this case that he lives in a very black and white world. That he couldn't handle knowing he had emotionally abused me over the years. So in his mind I had to become the "bad" guy so he could be the "good" guy he believes he is. He "needed" to become the victim so I had to be the abuser. He "needed" to have PTSD to justify his actions against me the "abuser". He went out of his way to deliberately provoke me into exploding to "prove" it. That's how I learned the hard way to control my response to everything he says and does. To not let him provoke me anymore.

At the time when he believed he had PTSD, I admit I felt offended. It felt like he was trying to invalidate my experiences by saying he had PTSD and I did not. Now several years later, it doesn't matter to me. If he has any kind of trauma, I hope he gets the help he needs whether it has a specific label or not. I'm over it. It doesn't take away from me or my experiences.

 

[Anep]

I completely understand the "I don't have PTSD, I mean, it wasn't that bad..." I was diagnosed and waited seven years to get help because I didn't understand that what I went through wasn't normal. I thought that all the times that you were told growing up about things that weren't acceptable and should be reported, I thought it was just a thing they said, and that it happened to everyone. That everyone had the same experiences I did.

I ended up finally caving when I had about a month of isolation and suicidal thoughts. I actually attempted once, and scared the crap out of my friends and the loved ones who knew about it. I was breaking down into pieces any day I had to talk to anyone, and I just couldn't operate. I had maybe an hour or two a day where I could talk without sobbing, and the rest of it I had to either sleep or hide in a room alone with a book to keep me from thinking about my life. It was awful.

I have, only the last handful of years realized just how anomalous my life was. How many things I thought were normal were actually unique among those I knew. About what happened and how I developed and how very frighteningly unusual it was.

I don't know if I'll ever truly "get over it" and be "normal" and I'm both pissed off and saddened by that. I will however, learn to live within my life now. To accept, to be able to function again and to be able to live my life better than I ever thought possible. I will minimize the damage as each year passes by and while it will never be gone, I can learn how to cope and manage and compensate.

So, yes, I understand not wanting to accept a diagnosis.

I also, sadly, also get the "PTSD faker" mentality. The sense (incorrect) that some people are "faking"-I expect it's simply part of the issues I have. I do my best to refuse to think that way and I call it out for the bullsh*t thought that it is. No, I don't understand how someone can be traumatized by seeing something on TV, no I don't get how someone can be traumatized by hearing about something. That doesn't mean it isn't real, or that it's "fake" -it means that I lack the capacity to understand because of my own blinders. It's not a valid thought, it's part of the part of me that pretty much hates everything and one (especially myself). It's not a part of who I am, but a part of what holds me back and hurts me.

So yes, I get it. I feel it. But that doesn't mean I have to believe it, and as long as I recognize it's part of that darker part of me, I can refuse it.

It's okay to be angry, but know where it's coming from and why. You're not a bad person for thinking it, you're just still grappling with that darker, angrier part.

 

[Rerom]

I don't know that people are so much faking it as much as they are just plain wrong. How do you fake this? You can fake hearing voices, you can fake paranoia, but how do you fake this?? ( my aunt has faked some mental illnesses for social security payments)

 

[Ufi]

I don't know that people are so much faking it as much as they are just plain wrong. How do you fake this? You can fake...

I don't think you can actually fake the experiences themselves. I think some may try to say they have these experiences when they really don't and never have. Sometimes I think my ex tries to convince himself that he's experienced these things when I have a lot of doubts he really has. My gut feeling is he really hasn't. It's hard to explain other than my gut feeling based on knowing and watching him deal with various things for over 20 years.

 

[Lezu]

There are two kinds of people who fake a mental illness, disability, general illness...There are the con artists, who are doing it for money: disability money, GoFundMe money, whatever they can get.

And then, there are the ones who do have a form of mental illness - just not the one they are pretending to have. These people are compelled to create a life in which they have an illness. Sometimes it's the pathological need for attention, sometimes it's part of a larger pattern of inventing new realities for themselves.. there are a handful of names for these disorders, some are personality disorders, others are rare things like Munchausen's Syndrome. I can't ever remember if Factitious Disorder is it's own thing still. And Malingering is also a diagnosis - that's pretending to still be ill when you no longer are.

They are ill. It doesn't excuse some of the havoc they cause, but still - they are actually ill. I try to remember that, to try and find some empathy. But I've never been personally affected by a situation like that.

 

[Apuke]

If someone thinks they have ptsd and self diagnose so they can help themselves to Internet and library resources, I can respect that. But then there's idiots like this one chick I saw with a piece of paper saying

"I need feminism because 4 chan gave me ptsd".

Like what?

Or a grown ass woman self diagnosing ptsd from hate tweets or something like that.

 

[Iceti]

There are two kinds of people who fake a mental illness, disability, general illness...There are the con artists, who are...

What you wrote resonates with me. I believe my ex has some kind of illness or just wants/craves/needs the attention. It seems to me like he lives in a black and white world where there is no possibility he can do any wrong. He claims he has never lied in his life yet he's been caught by his own family in lies. If someone manages to catch him in a lie or something he did wrong, he makes sure you know it's your fault and only because you did something to "make him" do what he did. He's pretty narcissistic (not a fan of the word but it fits) but not full blown NPD. It really shows through when he tries to rewrite history and tells me I made everything up. That nothing I experienced was true. I know it's true. I know I'm not crazy. I made sure to document everything as quickly as I could and write it down. I have texts and emails and screenshots of things from him to prove it. I have several therapists that have witnessed his gaslighting attempts and they recognized it. His own therapist told me to go "no contact" with him because he saw himself that my ex tries to push my buttons to "prove" that I'm crazy. Having several therapists validate my experiences really helped. I won't let him gaslight me anymore.

I keep wondering why he does this and have come to the conclusion that he's probably "just" wired this way; his ego/self worth/image is so fragile that he will protect it at all costs. It's the way he is. Sometimes it seems like he really does live in his own world and it's most definitely not the world I live in.